<Begin Segment 25>

MN: I'm going to take you back to Chicago, okay?

MY: Yeah.

MN: You met your father there, but what kind of work did you do in Chicago?

MY: Different kind of work. Worked in a place that made license plates for the state of California, but I didn't work there that long. So me and this other fellow went to work for Illinois Meat Packing, we used to carry all these cows, cattle after they cut 'em in half. And we'd take it, and the only thing was we were only there for about a few months. I guess somebody from this Great Lakes Naval Station came down and saw us working there and here they're having a war against Japan and Japanese working for our... you know, they can poison our meat. So we got kicked out of there. We couldn't work there, we didn't have no, I guess, clearance. So then I went to work for... it was a warehouse for like a Safeway market except they had a warehouse in Chicago. I worked there for about a year I guess and then I got drafted into the service.

MN: And so this was in '45 that you got drafted?

MY: Yeah.

MN: Was the war still going on?

MY: Yeah, after I got through my basic training I think that was August, early August, and I was going to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, because I was supposed to be an interpreter or translator. I can't even speak Japanese. But we were on the train going to... when VJ day was announced, and that's why I knew that the war was over. So I went to Fort Snelling, you know, that's a translator and interpreter school, and here I can't even speak Japanese. How am I going to interpret? So I stayed there for a while, they didn't let me go to school 'cause I couldn't speak Japanese, then they sent me to... transferred me to Camp Holabird, Maryland, that's a CIC school, Counterintelligence School.

MN: Going back to your basic training, where did you do basic training?

MY: Camp Maxey, Texas, it's about fifty miles from Dallas.

MN: Now was there segregation in Texas?

MY: What was that?

MN: Segregation?

MY: No, not at that time. There must have been about six of us in one group, but I don't feel like we were discriminated against. In training you have a platoon leader, and then sergeant appointed him platoon leader and then he appointed me platoon guide, you know you walk on the side you carry a flag. I was lucky because I didn't have to carry a backpack like they go on a fifteen mile hike or whatever, I just carried the flag. I was fortunate. I guess I could walk straight. [Laughs]

MN: How did you get picked to go to MIS school?

MY: 'Cause I have a Japanese name. You have a Japanese surname, automatically you go to Fort Snelling. So when I got there, one of the teachers or something or whatever, they talked to you. I don't understand nothing. I couldn't speak hardly anything. Well, after fifteen years you don't speak any Japanese, you forget everything. The only thing is I remembered a lot of the kanji and stuff. I could read and write it still, but I just couldn't speak it, I still can't speak it... very little.

MN: So that's why they sent you to the Counterintelligence Corps?

MY: Yeah.

MN: And what was the CIC training like?

MY: It's like, I guess pretty much like... well, counterintelligence. You pick locks, you're supposed to feel the pulse of the nation. I guess that's what it is, but they teach you... you got different classes that we used to go to pretty much like secret service class that you would go. They were all Japanese there, but that was good. I really liked it there because Friday after class we could take off. And first week we'd go to New York because we just had our paycheck, and the next week we'd go New York. I mean, the train is free, hotel is free, all we have to do is eat. So I had, one of my friends had a sister that was there and I'd call her up and we'd take her out to chop suey and that, but I'd go to New York... we always went to New York first weekend 'cause you could go to the USO and get tickets for shows. The only thing you had to do was eat. Then as it got later we would, pretty soon we'd run out of money so then we'd go to Washington, D.C. and they had a USO, we'd go to dance and all that. But it was fun in Baltimore. At that time it was 'cause you didn't have to pay for any train fare, you didn't pay for any bus, you could go wherever you wanted. We used to go to Seabrook, New Jersey, you know, where they had Japanese, and they used to have a dance there Saturday night. So one of my friends that we'd go with to Seabrook, he knew somebody there so then we'd go there. But it was a good life for me. I liked that.

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