<Begin Segment 18>

TI: But you're now commissioned as a lieutenant?

AO: Yes, a second lieutenant.

TI: So then after Fort McClellan, then what happened?

AO: After Fort McClellan and then we got orders to go to Fort Snelling.

TI: Now as part of that did they give you any test, like Japanese test or anything?

AO: No test, no nothing. This is why I sometimes wonder just how much background research the people in charge do before taking a lot of these actions because they, even when we were at Shelby, some of the boys told me that different groups of people came to scout them and give them tests and this and that. But I was never approached and I wonder to myself, why was I not approached or considered to go to the language school? Because compared to a lot of these other kids, you know, my background in the Japanese school was that I think that I went to the eleventh grade which is supposed to be pretty good those days. But not so from at McClellan no test no nothing just received orders to go to Fort Snelling, that's all. That's about it to go to the Japanese language school.

TI: It's almost like they couldn't figure out what to do with you after they sent you to Officer Candidate School then, you know, to Fort McClellan, it was like they changed their minds or their plans. Rather than sending you to Europe, they --

AO: I think, well, looking back, you know, when you face back it could be that... and after hearing some of the stories from some of the other friends, the war in Europe was winding up and some of the boys were sent over but came right back so they must have felt that it would have been a useless... when you were to send us over there and then come right back. And you know as much as we had some knowledge of the Japanese language that they would send us to Snelling, you know.

TI: So at Fort Snelling I'm curious because, you know, all the other, you know, Japanese Americans who went to Fort Snelling were not officers. Even though they would get that training, you know, they would complain, especially the earlier classes how they would get the same training as the whites and the whites would be officers, you know, they would be commissioned as officers but they would remain enlisted men and not get officer ranking. Here you come in as an officer, as a Japanese American, so that's a little bit different wasn't it? Because all the other Japanese Americans were, what, corporals or --

AO: That's why I say it doesn't make much sense because even I myself noticed that... I just couldn't understand it, I know... so I go into a class and I spend one week there and then they promoted me to another class. And another week they promoted me to another class because they find out that apparently my knowledge of Japanese is a little better than what they thought. So I keep on, every week I'm going up up up up you know. But they never gave me a test or anything to find out, you know, just how far or how knowledgeable I was or how poor I was or whatever. But it just didn't make any sense so your question is a good one, you know, why some of these white officers were placed together with Nisei corporal, sergeants when many times the Nisei were so much better as far as the language was concerned. But that's the army.

TI: But how about your status as an officer, did that cause any interesting situations with the other Niseis?

AO: No, no problem.

TI: So did you live with the other Niseis even though you were an officer or did they have a special --

AO: No, we were in a bachelor's officers' quarters with other Nisei officers.

TI: And how many otherNisei officers were there?

AO: There were quite a few, thirty, forty, I don't know and some of them had come back from the Far East, you know, had gotten field commissions and they were in for retraining and so forth, you know. So which made us more or less inferior because we were green, we had no actual training, you know, no actual experience being in the... combat experience in the Far East.

TI: But on the other hand you probably had a lot more like infantry background.

AO: Well, exactly, yes.

TI: Because of the cadre you knew how to train men and so you had that kind of more I guess leadership sort of experience.

AO: Correct, so maybe that's the reason why, you see because our background is infantry. You know, as an infantry soldier you know, more or less but it's hard to say, you can't figure these guys out.

TI: It is interesting because I've interviewed so many different situations and it doesn't make sense, I mean, there's always different ways that people went to, say, Fort Snelling and, yeah, it's not really clear why certain things happened. A lot of people who got in, you know, for instance I'm not sure if you know my Uncle Joe Hashizaki.

AO: I knew him too.

TI: And you know he knew no Japanese going in he said.

AO: And yet you see again why didn't they study his background a little more and put him in the right place with all, you know, with all his knowledge and he's a smart man and why put him in the infantry as such.

TI: Yeah, because he grew up in Montana with no Japanese experience.

AO: It's really ridiculous, it didn't make any sense.

TI: Yeah, so that's why it's just, it's interesting.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.