<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So when you finish your training, where was the war, I mean, was the war winding down about then?

AO: Of course we weren't aware that it was winding down but we had been alerted to go overseas, a bunch of us, and not quite received our orders yet but we were told that we were going to go overseas. That's why flight arrangements were made for us to go to the Far East.

TI: Now because of your combat training, were you going to be given a special assignment?

AO: No, I didn't have any combat training but the infantry training.

TI: Oh, infantry, infantry training I mean. Because of your infantry training were you going to be... did they kind of have a special assignment for you and the others?

AO: No, no such classification or anything like that. It just didn't make any sense, that's all. So we were told we were going overseas but then they dropped the atomic bomb, Russia gave in, the war was ended. But they said the orders had been cut so we're supposed to go to Japan. So we flew, but we were supposed to fly from Presidio in California to Japan. Well, in the meantime the interesting thing is although I was supposed to fly out of Presidio California to go to Japan there was a time space in between so what I arranged for was... by then my dad had been in an internment camp initially at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he had been released from the internment camp... well, initially he was at the concentration camp at Lordsburg, New Mexico, then transferred to internment camp. And from internment camp he'd been released to go to the relocation camp in --

TI: I think Amache.

AO: Amache, Colorado, yes. So when I wrote to him that I'm going to California and I'd like to go and visit him on the way then he told me that he had received his order to go to Seattle as a port of embarkation to be sent back. So I say okay fine then I'll go to Amache and then I'll take him out and get him to Seattle, which I did. So I went up to Amache, I think spent overnight with a family that had taken such good care of my dad, got on a train and --

TI: And when you at first... when you're at Amache, the first time you saw your father, how had he changed physically when you look at him?

AO: Oh, he was physically... he had lost a lot of weight, he had shrunk in size. But nevertheless he seemed to be well, weak, you know, seemed to be weak because he had shrunk so much he seemed like a small man. Because in his younger days he was more robust and well-built but after all those years in the custody and in the concentration camp, internment camp but he had stayed with a very nice California family and at Colorado they took such good care of him you know. So he had recovered part of his physical appearance, he had gained some weight, but nevertheless he was still very... he had shrunk, he was very skinny and everything. But I was able to get him out and by train we went to Seattle and then I put him in a hotel. We checked in at the hotel but my big problem was now what do I do, I had my orders to go to Presidio. So I had to follow up and see what I could do with him, you know, I couldn't just leave him the hotel by himself, he was a sick man. And the first answer that came was WRA, you know, so I went to that office and there I met the person, he was one of the boys that had been in the classes at Shelby and, you know, after greetings and so forth he asked me what I was doing there and I told him the reason I was there and see what I can do about my dad. And so this person happened to be a good friend of May's family so he's says, "Oh, why don't you talk to her?" I think you knew his brother, you know. And I say, "Yeah, well, I'll give you her phone number and make contact anyway and maybe she might be able to help," you know. And so I got... he made it possible for me to talk to her and get to see her and then she was the one that helped me find this minister, what was she, Ms. McCullough? But what her position, she was a missionary, she was a Christian missionary person. And she was running the Fujin home, I don't know if you're familiar with it.

TI: Yes, I've heard about that.

AO: Well, she was running the Fujin home and so she took me with my dad, we went to see her and she says, "Oh, we'd be very happy to look after him," until he gets his orders to go home to Honolulu.

TI: So people in Seattle were very helpful and friendly?

AO: Yes, so that's what they said so you know, she helped me.

TI: And many of them had just returned to Seattle too, they had not been there probably that long because this was right after the war.

AO: Yeah, right after the war.

TI: You know, I was curious when you went from Amache to Seattle on the train with your father, did have very many discussions and did he tell you what it was like in camp?

AO: I don't think so, I don't remember. I can't recall.

TI: Can you remember that you guys talked about?

AO: No, it's just I think the fact that I saw him at least relatively well and we were able to take him out of the relocation camp over to Seattle, you know, I think that was a big deal enough that I don't think we did very much talking, just happy to see each other I guess, you know.

TI: So now you're in Seattle, I just want to kind of summarize this a little bit. So it's there you met your future wife, May Funai who's in the room off camera. But at that time when you first met her, was there an interest? Was that someone that you thought, "Oh, this is someone that I'm interested in"?

AO: No, it was not so at that particular time but I thought she was very nice. She was very helpful because I needed help at that time and then she was a sister of a soldier that I had befriended too. Not a special friend at that time but I did know him, you know, among all these other Seattle people as well as other California boys. But somehow I did remember him and, no, it wasn't so at that time. I didn't think of her as a future bride at that time, no.

TI: Okay, so your father is now taken care of and so then you, what, take a train down to San Francisco?

AO: Yeah, by train or... I don't know whether I flew or went by train to... yeah, I went down to Presidio to report in.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.