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TI: Before we talk about what you did, how did feel about going to Japan? Were you excited about that, or did you have any feelings?

MT: Yeah, because I had a grandmother and I have a sister. My older sister remained in Japan, and so she got married there, and so to me I had a chance to see them. My, this is my mother's mother was still there, and she was always kind to me. I fought with my other grandmother, when I was five years old. She was always kind to me. So, and they lived in Tokyo, which was not the country, and so I was kind of excited about going there. And I thought, well, I guess we're not going to Korea, and so that is a relief in some respects. All my friends that got drafted after us, so many of them went directly to Korea after their basic training. And so anyway, we go there, Camp Zama, for a month, and before the month is over they forced me to take a driver's license, get a driver's license, military. And I said I don't want to, 'cause they want to make me be a jeep driver. I said, why do you want to make a job that calls for PFC instead of become a sergeant where I'm at now? 'Cause the company commander deemed it so. So I was so far against it the executive officer came with me to make sure I took the test. And then I tried to flunk it, speed, rolling stops, all those kind of things, but the examiner knew he had to pass me and he knew I could drive, so he said, "Just watch the speed limit and the signs," and he passed me. I couldn't flunk. [Laughs] And then the company commander came and says, "You don't have to be a driver. You can be my orderly. How's that?" I thought, how stupid does he think I am, you know? He's company commander, so I can't say anything.

TI: So why would they do that given your value in terms of the medical side?

MT: No, they looked at my Japanese ability.

TI: Oh, at that point, I see. Okay.

MT: See, in the 40th Division they, even though you passed the test to go to Presidio to go to, to take Japanese, go into MIS, they would not let anybody on because they didn't want anybody to leave the 40th Division. Only people that left were people that went into the 40th Rangers from our company. I didn't want to be a Ranger, so... but that's why we were in, that's why we never went to take a test. We had Kibei guys that were quite good in English as well as being very good in Japanese. A lot of these guys came out, came back from Japan just before the war started, I mean, the Korean War started, and so they got drafted right away. There was guys that couldn't speak English, and this one guy tried to hang around me all the time because he couldn't understand what they were doing. We were in Fort Ord, we're in the same group, and they would say, "About face." He wouldn't know what they're saying and he'd be faced the wrong way. He'd see everybody turn around, so he would turn around. The biggest problem was about, to the rear march 'cause he'd be, everybody's marching, he's marching, said, to rear march, and he'd be marching, run into the guy in front of him. And so he, things were really rough for guys like that.

TI: So I get this, so the, the company --

MT: So he wanted me to be his interpreter in Japan.

TI: Right.

MT: He says it'll just be a while. He says, "Give me a month and I'll learn Japanese." I think, what is, how naive is this guy? Who does he think he is? I don't care if he's a doctor, he's not gonna learn Japanese in a month. But I don't say anything to him, but he's just, he's just to placate me. So anyway, I end up going in the advanced party for that camp, but this time they did, I was not the driver. He had his regular driver with him, and I sat with him and then we went to advanced party to Camp McNair, which is near the town of Fujiyoshida in Yamanashi ken, right on the northern slope, kind of northeastern slope of Mt. Fuji. We got there and they still had snow on Mt. Fuji. We only had summer sleeping bag, I had an overcoat, we didn't have proper shoes, the driver and I. The doctor, of course, went into the POQ, the cots, and slept there. We were, had to sleep outside, no tents. The tents weren't up yet. There's a tent city they were building. So we didn't know what to do; it's getting cold. So we got the rice mats that they put, grass mats that they put to, instead of using chemical like they use in United States, keep from drying too fast, they use grass mat to put over it and to keep it moist, so we got the grass mats and a couple of 'em wrapped around ourselves. We put a shelter half underneath, on top of that. We did, put everything we can on top and try to sleep, and both of us chatted, chattered all night long 'cause it was so cold. Wind was blowing and it was so cold. So next morning, course, captain comes out, says, "How was it? I had a very pleasant evening." We're saying, this guy is so full of himself. I already know that. So anyway, that was, and then we had to also sleep for the second night, same thing, but the third night the troops came. I don't know he went as advanced party, by the way, 'cause he did nothing. By the time, the third night the tents were by then going up, so it was, we had tents. But so we stayed there for one month and there was, it's now an artillery practice range for the self defense force for the Japanese, the military, and it, we're there for a month. And strange thing that happened is that they still had orders that we could not wear ties. But what happened is that in the camp our commander said you have to dress militarily, so we had to put ties on and a cap, the soft cap, not the overseas cap, but it's a soft one. But when we went outside we had to wear the other caps, overseas cap and take our ties off, and when, we took the tie off soon as we left camp. We couldn't take it off until then because the rule was that you could not wear that when you were...

TI: Why would they have a rule like that, no ties?

MT: MacArthur was the one, he didn't like to wear ties. He set up the rule. Later on, when Ridgeway came back, then it changed back to wearing ties, but until then, so we had to have... so every chance I got on a pass, weekend pass, 'cause we were far enough away that I couldn't make it there and back, I would go see my grandmother and my sister. I'd take them out to the PX.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.