<Begin Segment 25>

MN: But around this time you also got reacquainted with Jo Ann Itsuko Ikeda. Who was she and what happened between you too?

RW: Well had a sister and originally her family was from Orange County, way before the war, and her sister lived in Riverside, was married to this trucking company guy, Tek, one of the Nishimoto Brothers. And I was playing sports with the guys in Riverside and I was always in Riverside. We always went to Dr. Harada's house, the famous house, that was our hangout.

MN: Harold Harada.

RW: Huh?

MN: Harold Harada?

RW: Yeah, that was our hangout, his house, and we would always go there or the Japanese church there, so I had met her at the softball games, and then I had also met her through some friends here in L.A. 'cause she was going to L.A. High School with a friend, Roberta Shiroma. They were both going to L.A. High School and were working as housegirls in that area. So I got to know her, and then I didn't see her for a while, maybe a year, and then just happened to run into her on First Street right here in Little Tokyo, at the P Car line, and she was in the waiting zone there, and funny thing is I rode with her all the way back to her stop and then we started seeing each other after that. And I remember after that we did eventually get married, and then I mentioned to her, wow, that was really a coincidence we got together there at that, the P Car line stop, and she just seriously said, "Do you really think that was an accident?" So she had, she had found out from Roberta, 'cause I was working with Roberta's boyfriend, so they knew exactly where and when I would catch that P Car to go back to where I was staying in a boarding house at the time. So we got together. I don't know if you want to hear all of her story or, is that all you wanted to know?

MN: Well, she plays a real significant role in your life. You got married.

RW: Well, what happened was when the Korean War started I didn't get called up in the reserves because I was discharged a month before. That's ironic. I mean, I'm discharged one month before the war starts. Now if I were still in the reserves I wouldn't be here talking to you. I would've been called up, and the guys that went to Korea in the first four or five months, it was just pure suicide because they were over there ill trained, ill equipped and not ready for what, they had no idea what they were supposed to be doing. So anyway, when the war started I told her I'm gonna reenlist, and she didn't want me to right away, so I said, well, I don't want to get drafted in the army so I want to go in the Marines. And she said, "Well, why don't you wait and let's get married first and then wait for your draft notice?" I said, well, okay. I didn't want to, but I said okay, and so it took a little while to set plans to get married. We got married and within a month after we're married I got my draft notice. I called Bob Madrid right away in Redlands and asked him if he wanted to join with me, and so he said yeah, so he came to L.A., we joined and I moved Jo Ann to Redlands to live with my mother and to stay with her.

And then Bob and I went down to San Diego to boot camp, and we went through boot camp together, came home, and while I was home we were visiting her sister living in Thermal with her husband's family, brothers were all produce truck drivers. Jo Ann and I went to Thermal to visit her sister Yoko. While we were down there, the second day she got sick. She wasn't feeling good. So we took her back to the house, and then that night she wasn't too comfortable, but anyway, we went to sleep, and then her sister woke me up about three o'clock and says there is something wrong with Jo Ann, we have to take to her to the hospital. "What's the matter?" She's got all these red spots all over her and she's not feeling good. She's hemorrhaging. So we took her to the hospital and they looked at her, checked her over, then they said, "Well, we'll check her out in the morning and have a doctor check her." So I thought okay, they know what to do, so I helped put her in the bed, and then I noticed she wasn't crying, but had little teardrops that were pink. I said, "I'll just stay here with you." She said, "No, why don't you go home and wash up and get some rest and come back when the doctor's here." "Okay." Well, we went home, but she died a couple hours after that. Then the Red Cross gave me another couple of weeks to stay home and I, if I'd known I never would have stayed home. I didn't know I was gonna get separated from Bat. I thought we'd still get together when I went back to Camp Pendleton, but we got assigned to different units.

Anyway, the thing about Jo Ann was she kept wanting to have a baby and I kept saying no, I don't want you to have a baby. She said, why not? I said, "If I don't come home, then you'll be stuck with a baby and you won't be able to get remarried or something." She said, "No, but that's why I want the baby, if you don't come back, I will have a part of you." I guess only, a woman thinks that way, not the man. So anyway, I guess she fooled me because I was going through some of her things recently in the last few years, 'cause I hadn't looked in that box for a long time, and I found one of these little Hallmark calendars that you carry, and she had it marked on one day she had "missed" and then she had the days numbered up to a certain number. I thought about the lady she used to work for, when I went to see her after she died and she said asked, "Was Jo Ann pregnant?" And I said, "No, I didn't want her to be pregnant." She says, "Well, there's that tubular pregnancy. Sounds like that could've been, sounds like that's what it was." I said, "I don't know." So that's always in the back of my mind, so just a few years ago I checked the computer and looked it up, and it had the description and it was pretty close so I figured that's what happened, that she was pregnant and didn't tell me about it. And then, of course, I think if I'd have known she was pregnant maybe the hospital would've known something, but at three in the morning I think they don't know what they are doing.

But the ultimate thing about all that is I just figure that that was God's plan. I wasn't supposed to be with Bat. He took her life to separate us. That's the hardest part. But then there was a purpose, I guess. There was a reason for it. And it was a hard, hard way to learn, but then after that, other things happened that are just mind boggling. We go to Korea, my brother's there, Madrid comes over, we get to visit while we're in reserve and take pictures and just enjoy it. We're here for a war just for the experience. We're gonna go home. We'll see you when you get home. One day this battle is going on and I was there on that hill and coming back with a captain, and as we're coming down the road in his jeep, then I see this unit of guys walking along the side of the road, they're gonna go attack that hill next. And out of hundreds of Marines along the side of the road I see Madrid, and I just yelled at him, "Hey, Bat." And captain said, "Who's that, your compadre?" "Yes, sir, my buddy from back home." He slams on the brakes, then says, "Go talk to him. I'll wait for you. They're gonna hit the hill next." So I got off to go talk to him and ask him how he felt, and he said, "Well, I wasn't scared 'til we found out we're gonna be the point platoon," which is the guys that go first 'til the enemy shoots at you, then you know where they're at. So then I asked him where my brother was. He said, "Oh, he's back there, coming up." I said, "Okay, well I got to go, so keep your head down." I said, "Don't forget, we got a big beer bust." He says, "Yeah, okay. I'll be there." Then he was killed a few hours after that, so my feeling is, well, did God take Jo Ann's life to save mine? Is that a coincidence? Why did I get that chance to see him? So, yeah, it's a lot of...

MN: So if Jo Ann had not passed away and that you had not been given an extra time to be with your friend, your family, you would've been in that same unit as Bat.

RW: With Bat, yeah. We're gonna go back to Pendleton. We were gonna train in the same unit. My brother was in another company, but he was in the same unit, and my brother got wounded right after that for the second time too. And then, again, if it wasn't for Jo Ann I would've joined the Marines back in June when the war started, but she convinced me not to, and so she was here to keep me from going. I mean, God kept her here then and put us together for that reason. He put us together and then she actually saved my life in a couple of ways, by holding me back, not letting me go right away, and then, I guess she held me back, but that wasn't enough, so God had to take her life to separate me from Bat. And that did separate us...

MN: After you came home from Korea, you found out later that your friend, Louis Moreno, became a motorcycle police officer, and while you were out fighting in Korea what did you find out that he was doing back at your house?

RW: Well, when I came back he was one of the first guys I ran across because he was the guy that showed me that picture about Captain Wada, he said, "You know, while you were gone I used to go visit your mom all the time." I said, "Oh yeah? Well that was nice of you." And he said, "Yeah, I figure if I go there and people around see a police motorcycle out there in front of the house all the time then they won't mess with your mom," 'cause she was alone. I said, "Thanks, Louie. That was great of you." He did that just to kind of protect my mother.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.