<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Now, up to this point the U.S. had just had a war with Japan and now they're going to another Asian country, to Korea. Did the drill sergeant or the other folks pull you out and say, this is what looks, this is, you look like the enemy and make an example of you?

RW: You know, I never had any kind of, that type of treatment. I never had any reference to my being Asian in any manner. Now, I know that some people have said that some some guys that were in the Marines have claimed that, I know Dave Miyoshi became a Captain in the Marine Corps and during his officer training they did that with him, made him dress like a Viet Cong and used him as an example. But he took it and graduated and did well, came out as a captain. And I understand that there's others -- Reverend Cliff Ishii's a Marine Officer -- and I saw Marine Officers right after I came back from Korea, a few years later. A couple of young Marine Officers came to the bowling alley to see some friends. So there's been a lot of guys that went through officer training where I feel that they did that type of things which today I guess they consider harassment, but they never did that to me. In fact, when I first saw the head drill instructor, I noticed he had a chest full of ribbons and they were from the South Pacific. He served in the South Pacific, and had the Purple Heart so I knew he'd been wounded, I was deathly afraid of him when I first saw him. I thought, oh God, this guy's gonna just tear me apart. But I didn't get any different treatment than any of the other boots. The most satisfying thing was when we graduated and after the graduation parade and we were getting our gear together to leave, he went around shaking everybody's hands. Until then, I mean, he was an untouchable person, untouchable God we had to just say, "Yes, Sir," bow to him for everything, salute this and that, but he came up to me and said, "Wada, you're gonna be a good Marine. I'd be glad to serve with you anywhere, anytime." And when he said that to me that made all the harassment and all the physical training I went through all worthwhile, just for him to say that to me.

MN: So it sounds like he was very familiar with the 442nd and the 100th.

RW: Well, he could be. He could have been. I know, it's ironic, one of the first things when I got to Korea, I was assigned, when I first got there, I was assigned to Headquarters Company, and in this little gully by Headquarters, they would put up a screen and show a movie with this screen and the very first movie, I'll never forget it, they showed Go For Broke. I kind of think that probably had a lot to do with the guys I served with in Korea around Headquarters. They showed that movie to different units, so for them to show Go For Broke at that time was very timely for me, and for any Nisei person.

MN: Now your platoon was chosen as the honor platoon. How did this come about?

RW: Well, when they have reviews, they have inspections and things like that. They have what they call a Company, which is three platoons, and they graduate Companies at a time. When you're going through training they evaluate your platoon, how they march, and how clean are their rifles, how they snap their rifle up for inspection, and just how they conduct themselves during their training. We had this real young Marine, one of the drill instructors. The head drill instructor was, of course, the man I talked about, but this guy was a young Marine just out of high school. He was a colonel of the high school ROTC at Los Angeles High School, and so he was really into drilling, marching, and inspections and stuff like that. He would take us out on the parade ground in the middle of the night, have us marching, and so our platoon was, because of that, was much, much sharper than some of the other two platoons that were in competition. So when the officers selected an honor platoon, they picked the one graduation for the parade. The honor platoon leads the parade, with the colors, the American flag and the Marine Colors then the other two platoons followed behind that. In other words, the flags are protected by a platoon in front and two platoons behind, and so we were the honor platoon for that graduation parade at the end of our training.

MN: Did you say you've, you folks were marching in the middle of the night also?

RW: Yeah, we were training. He did take us out there and marched us out there, trying to train us to be, the ability to march, to be good... and it paid off 'cause we did a lot more marching than some of the others.

MN: Now you had a chance to avoid going overseas to Korea, but you didn't. And can you share with us what this opportunity was and why you turned this down?

RW: Well, before graduating boot camp they interviewed each individual as to what your interests were, what you had done in the past, and I had put on there that I had played the drum and the bugle, and I did that in Poston in the Boy Scouts. I played in the orchestra of the high school too while I was in junior high school. And so when they saw that they, the Marine that was interviewing me asked me would I like to be in the band? Of course, my first thought was, wow, that's pretty, I'll get the nice, spiffy blue uniform that I wanted to wear. And then I thought about it, so then I said, what's band guy do? Would he go overseas? He says, "No, you'd probably be just stationed right here, maybe San Diego, and be in the band." Then it dawned on me, well, I sure couldn't have asked Bat, Bob Madrid to join the Marines with me to go to Korea and then stay here in the band and have him over there. That would tear me apart. That would break my heart. So I just told the guy, I don't know how to read music. He says, "Oh, you don't? Well then, I'll have to disqualify you. Okay." So then I just let it go at that. I didn't want to stay Stateside and have my brother Hank over there and have Bat over there and here I am playing in a band. That's not why I joined the Marines.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.