<Begin Segment 11>

MN: So after your marriage in L.A., you went back to Camp Snelling, and, but you didn't go with your platoon. What happened?

JI: Well, I came back for a funeral service, for father's funeral. Then we got married, I guess.

MN: So you got married, and then you returned to Camp Snelling.

JI: She went with me.

MN: You had to come back because Toshi's father passed away. And then you, that's why you couldn't go overseas with your platoon.

JI: Yeah.

MN: And this is when you were discharged?

JI: Yeah, I guess I got discharged and then I joined again. And after the, taking care of her family, I joined again and I was sent to South Korea where I became a tech sergeant and assistant to a colonel, and we ran the country of South Korea. So actually I ran the country.

MN: 'Cause you spoke Japanese, you had to --

JI: Yeah. I was able to communicate with the cabinet and the legislature, and the colonel and I decided how to, what to do with the country. And since I spoke, I could communicate with the people, I went to the legislature with the cabinet members and worked on... and we asserted the U.S. Army policies, and so we were able to run the country. My colonel didn't do anything. [Laughs] I did everything. So when I left, everybody was kind of disappointed that they didn't know who was gonna run the country. And my one year was up in Korea.

MN: And the reason the Korean people were able to understand you, because they were under Japanese rule.

JI: See, all the Koreans had studied Japanese. They had to study Japanese at school, and so they all spoke Japanese. And so I was able to communicate with the legislature and the cabinet. And so the colonel and I ran the country since it was under the United States Army. So actually it was the army that ran South Korea for one year. I don't know what they did after that. Because they didn't have anyone to take over my position. I even advised the high school kids, yeah. And the girls wanted to know how to dance, so I had to teach them how to dance. [Laughs]

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.