<Begin Segment 15>

MN: But you got drafted December 1944, is that correct?

MS: Yes.

MN: But you were drafted in December 1944, but you didn't go into the army until '43. Why did you have this extension?

MS: I was drafted in '44, yeah. What, '45?

MN: You didn't go into the army until '43 because you had an extension.

MS: No, that's not right. I was, I got an extension in '44.

MN: Yes.

MS: A one-month extension to come back to California to, because we had sold the house and my sister was able to get me an extension so I could help pack up the, send the furniture to the, the Washington D.C. where my father bought another house.

MN: Now, why did you have to sell your Los Angeles house?

MS: Huh?

MN: Why did you have to sell your Los Angeles house?

MS: They were gonna build the Santa Ana Freeway right through the property, the state was. So that's how she, I got the extension, thirty days, from the draft.

MN: And then, from the money that you got from selling your Boyle Heights home, what did you do with that money?

MS: My father looked around the different things and decided to move to Washington, D.C. because he met a Hawaiian Nisei who was, had permanent residence of Washington, D.C., and he was encouraged by the Nisei that, that Washington, D.C. was a good place to live because he could buy this grocery store that -- they didn't have supermarkets and stuff like that in those days. My father divided the money into buying a house plus buying three grocery stores to get my three older sisters' family business running. My father, my sisters that worked for the Japanese consul were told they weren't eligible to get a civil service job, so my father bought these grocery stores that the family could run.

MN: So your father did not, did not want to return to California?

MS: It wasn't a question not wanting to. Had nothing to go back to California for since the house was sold, business was gone, so all he did was play golf in Washington, D.C. And later on he started to study democracy at the Library of Congress, so I guess at that idea, the idea of going into Japanese politics started to intrigue him. Anyway, but I was surprised when he said he wanted to go to Japan. He said, "I can't afford to take you," but he said, well, go as a dependent. I was staff sergeant at that time.

MN: Okay, before we go there I'm gonna, let's go back to your, your, you just got your draft notice, and you're in Los Angeles. After you finish helping your sister get rid of all the furniture in the home, where were you inducted?

MS: Camp Croft, South Carolina. Spartanburg in South Carolina, but the induction center was Fort Douglas, Utah, and I went there by myself and got assigned to this Camp Croft in South Carolina, and I was traveling by myself.

MN: Now, when you were going from Utah, Fort Douglas, to South Carolina, you had a one-day delay because the train went through Chicago.

MS: Yeah.

MN: What did you do in Chicago?

MS: Well, since I was going to Chicago I called my future wife then, so I took the day off and visited her. I got late by a day, into Camp Croft, but the, because of the, so many train stations in Chicago that I usually got lost. But anyway, but I was able to meet my wife.

MN: So that's the excuse you told at South Carolina, that you got lost and that's why you were late?

MS: I didn't use it as an excuse. It was a fact. There are, do you know Chicago?

MN: Only the airport.

MS: Huh?

MN: Only the airport.

MS: Well, there must've been about four or five different railroad stations, so for me to get confused, not an excuse, it's a normal... [laughs]

MN: Were you the only Japanese American in your unit when you were training at South Carolina?

MS: Yeah. Well, one of the funny thing is the, the commanding officer was a Southern officer, and he says, one day he says, "I wanted to see you." And I said, "Why?" He says, "Of all the men I have you're the only one qualified to go to OCS."

MN: Officer training.

MS: Two and a half years of college. He says, "We want you to apply for OCS." I said I didn't want to. I said -- some of the guys in the unit I was training with couldn't even read and write, so the, I told him I appreciated the opportunity, but I was -- at UCLA I had taken two years of ROTC and so forth, but they wouldn't, not very many Nisei were offered a chance to go to... so as a compliment that you would wish to send me, but I couldn't accept. But he submitted my name anyway, and I told the board that I really didn't want to become an officer, that was not militarily, to make military a career. But anyway, so they didn't pass me, which I was glad, because I didn't want some stupid guy say, "I don't want a Jap officer," and shoot, get shot. Anyway, but at the time, taking basic training, they're also recruiting the Niseis to go to the language, Military Language School, so I applied to go to the Military Language School and they took me that time. So again, I traveled by myself from Spartanburg to Minneapolis, Minnesota, went through Chicago and, and called my wife, future wife. But when I got there the classes weren't gonna start for three days, so I asked for a three day pass and went into Chicago, and then without getting permission from our family, I said, well, we might as well get married. [Laughs] She was all for getting married. She was only nineteen or, I was only twenty-three. We had no business getting married on our own, but we did, but so been married sixty-five years, so it wasn't a bad choice.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.