<Begin Segment 19>

MN: Now, at this point in your life, what did you want to do, remain in the United, I mean, in Japan, or go back to United States?

JD: Well, I wanted to get back to United States. That was my goal, and I asked my father to, to help me in that effect and start communicating with the United States. I know my mother, my mother's here, my grandfather on my mother's side was here, so I started to write to them, try to get a paper document straightened out, all the documents I've lost in Japan because of the bombing and the building being burned, so only way was proof from the United States saying indeed I'm the, I am the son of my mother, who lives in the Sacramento area now, but she lived in L.A. then. So from all this communication I was able to get, get back to United States. Took me about three years to get back. So when I came back I stayed, beginning of 1948 I was seventeen then, so when I came back then I went, my English was poor, so I went to grammar school. They said, "No, you're too old for grammar school. Go to high school here and take exam. See what you can do." So I did go to high school and, and then for, somehow passed the exam, so three years high school, Sacramento Senior High School I went to. I graduated in two and a half years, and even applied for valedictorian, kind of a, my grade was good enough for that. So I mentioned my sister's a year and a half younger, so I graduated with my sister. Everybody thought we were twins. [Laughs] But my mother knew. "No, we're not twins." But then went to City College together and my sister and I graduated City College together, in architecture field. I went to Sacramento City College one year and L.A. City College for second year 'cause they had a better architecture department there. And then when I graduated from L.A. City College I worked for Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo.

And then worked for about four months when I got a letter from the government greeting, "You're drafted into the service." [Laughs] Korean conflict, so I reported to Fort Ord, so I went to Fort Ord. So then in Fort Ord I take another exam and it's a test pass as bilinguist, and they need a Japanese American, Chinese American, Russian American, and American who wants to study Japanese, so we're sent to Arlington, Virginia, for language school. Then when I got to Arlington the quota got filled for my particular school, so I went to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, (Corps of Engineers), and finished my basic training in the remainder as Corps of Engineers. And then my background said I was a swimmer from Los Angeles City College, so they pulled me out of the rank and sent me to school as a water safety instructor, so I went to a place, forget the name. Quantico? Not Quantico, (Anacostia Naval Station) Washington, D.C. naval school, they had a pool there, training for water safety instructor, and the purpose is that when you jump ship you could have your clothes on so you could survive by inflating your clothes, and that's how I, and also lifeguard training at the school. So out of the hundred and twenty people applied from, the WACs and WAVES, Marine, Air Force, and so forth, a hundred twenty of us, only about two dozen passed it, so I was able to pass the course. So I was assigned to Fort Belvoir and assigned to officer's pool at Fort Belvoir, so I had a pretty plush job as a lifeguard at the pool at Fort Belvoir.

MN: Let me ask you about Hiroshima. When you returned to the United States, when did you first go back to Hiroshima and how did that feel like?

JD: Went back maybe twenty years after came back to United States. I don't think it's, I'd just got my license then, I think, and I went back to Hiroshima. And one thing they noticed that I never grew tall compared to all the cousins, taller than I was, and maybe, my grandma said, "Because you suffered so much in Japan, the hardship you endured, you never grew taller." But I think it's just a gene. My brother's about the same age I am, only he went to camp. He had a rough life there probably. So that's, that was my experience in Japan.

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