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MN: Now I want to ask you about your military connections. You come from a family with close ties to the military. Did this come from your father's side or your mother's side?

RW: Well, I guess I'd have to think, and let's just say in my case I would think it came from my mother's side. I would assume because my mother had all these records, pictures, books, about the Japanese army, Japanese navy, march music. My favorite was the "Gunkan March." I can hum that even today. And the oddity is just this year at my brother's ninetieth birthday party, I was talking to my brother Frank, and he said he remembered the "Gunkan March" himself and that was one of his favorites. So I think we just learned the military things from what my mother had, and her brother was killed in the Russian-Japan War, so she used to talk to me about it and I'd always ask her questions about it because it intrigued me. And from then I think I just always wanted to be in the military.

MN: Can you hum us a few bars of the "Gunkan" music?

RW: I beg your pardon?

MN: Can you hum us a few bars?

RW: Well, I know it goes [hums]. That's enough. [Laughs]

MN: [Laughs] And so, let's see, your oldest brother, Jack, served in the Military Intelligence during, is it during the Korean and Vietnam War?

RW: Yes, he was my oldest brother, but he had an earlier heart problem when he was young so he was in camp as a fire captain in the fire department. After we came back to Redlands he was able to get into the army pretty much at the end of World War II, so he served during the Korean War and the Vietnam War and retired with over twenty years.

MN: And then your second brother, Ted, he was in the 442nd during World War II and also served during the Korean War?

RW: Yeah, Ted was in K Company, 442nd, wounded twice, and when he came home, I guess he wanted to go to Japan, so he joined the paratroopers and was in the 11th Airborne and was stationed in Sapporo with the 11th Airborne. When the Korean War started he was transferred to the 7th Army Division in the Military Intelligence with the 7th Division. And I know that's where he met Roy Shiraga, who most Korean War veterans are very acquainted with. I had a party, we were celebrating something about the Marine Corps at my house, and Roy was invited and he walks in the house and sees my brother Ted, and he couldn't believe his eyes because they knew each other in Korea during the war. So when my brother Ted was in Korea, my brother Hank was there and I was there, so there were three of us in Korea at the same time.

MN: And then your brother Frank also was in the 442nd during World War II.

RW: Yeah, Frank was in E Company and wounded once. He was in E Company with Senator Inouye and the Medal of Honor recipient George Sakato from Redlands, and there was another from Redlands George Kanatani was. The three of 'em were in E Company along with Senator Inouye.

MN: I think I asked you this last time, but I'm gonna ask you this question again, if you could share with us about your brother Henry, or Hank, as you call him, and how he got into the Marines in -- well, I guess he tried to get into the Marines in 1946.

RW: Yeah, after we got back from camp. He graduated in camp high school, class of '45, so when we got home I really didn't know he did that at that time, but in 1946 he tried to join the Marines. But he was turned down solely because he was Japanese. It was not a health or physical thing. Then in 1947, a year later, he tried to join again and they let him in this time. That's when things were starting to ease up, even for the blacks, because even until then in the Marine Corps the blacks were housed in a separate barrack and trained in a separate platoon, so they were easing up on that by the time Hank joined in '47. In 1949 he was discharged, the same as I was when I joined in the reserves in '48, and then I was discharged in '50, but when the Korean War began Hank reenlisted with the question when he went down to the recruiters, he asked 'em, "If I reenlist will I have to go through boot camp again?" And they said no, then he joined, but he wasn't gonna join if he had to go through boot camp again.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.