<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Okay, so then you're, so what happened next? So you're, you're home.

JM: Well, after that, we're home, then the city policemen and city hall people and all those people there, they come to our place and with big fishes, expensive fish, and then, "Could your whole family come to the city hall and the police station and start doing interpreters because another week or so the American marines are gonna come into this town here?" So we were, all our family went out there and working for the city hall, the police station, and until the 3rd Marines came in.

TI: So when you say the whole family, so your older sisters?

JM: Yeah, older sister, my three sisters and my brother and myself. My other brother was kind of young yet.

TI: So five of you were, were used as interpreters.

JM: Yeah.

TI: You were all Niseis with, with American, or English as your first language. And what kind of interpretation, before, what kind of interpretation did you need to do?

JM: Well, first of all, introduce. I guess, "This is the city police, this blah blah blah," like that, and then after that then they would kind of gradually think that, "Hey, we have to do some checking on certain schools and check the houses, if they have any weapon," and thing like that. And then if we did, we had to go to a certain police station and they should know if they had, this place had Japanese sword or something, and they would bring the Japanese sword to the police station and we would have to pick those up and bring it back to the camp.

TI: So you would go out with, with the Americans?

JM: Yeah, with the Americans.

TI: And during that time when you're with the Americans, did they ever say, look at you, Jimmie and say, "So where did you learn to speak English?" Did that ever, you guys ever have a conversation?

JM: GIs would always say that. Says, "Hey, where'd you learn your English at?" But the Japanese people, I guess they knew I was an interpreter already.

TI: So what was the reaction from the Americans, the GIs?

JM: They welcomed me. And one day I was talkin' about something, and we had this GI three quarter ton truck and he said, "Hey, Jimmie," says, "Have you ever driven a truck before?" And I says no. What he did was, just the two of us was on there, what he did was he put it in gear and he jumped off the truck, says, "If you know how to drive, go, turn round there and bring the truck back." And I did, and he says, "Oh boy, you know how to drive, huh?" Yeah. [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] And so was it, how was it for you all of a sudden to be around Americans and talking English?

JM: Oh, I was very proud and thing like that, too, yeah.

TI: Okay. And then you mentioned that you did that for a couple weeks and then the third division...

JM: No, the 3rd Marines came in first.

TI: Third Marines.

JM: Yeah. And then after that the 24th Infantry Division, they came in, too.

TI: And so how did that change? So you, instead of working for the city government you start working for --

JM: No, I gradually went to the camp 'cause they all wanted us in the camp.

TI: The, the Americans did?

JM: Americans did, the captains, the generals, they wanted us in the office.

TI: So this included your sisters and your, your brother?

JM: Yeah, everybody. And my sister and them, they knew how to type and everything, too, so it was good for them.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.