<Begin Segment 26>

MN: When did you ship out for Japan?

MY: We were there for about three, four months, I guess, then we got shipped out to Seattle. Then we were in Seattle for a little bit, then pretty soon they put us on a boat and went to Japan. Well, when I got to Japan after being in, I was in the service for quite a while without really doing anything because when I went to Fort Snelling I didn't go to school for about two, three months. All I did, they gave me a job as a janitor in the theater. That was the best job in whole camp 'cause I'd go there early and I'd lift up all the seats and I'd pick up all the change. So I always made a few dollars every day and the new recruits... Fort Snelling was a recruit station, and the new recruits, they'd send me a half dozen guys and I'd give 'em a broom and I'd say, "Okay, you sweep it up." But all I did was go lift up the seats and pick up the change and I was the theater janitor. So when I went to Japan, I already had fourteen months or something in service, and they were letting out servicemen after eighteen month or so. So when I went to Japan, they had a school there in Tokyo and they looked at my record and they said, "Gee, you're going to be released in four months. We have to go to school here for two months and then you can only go out for two." They said, "You have to sign a waiver." I said, "No, I ain't going to sign no waiver. I ain't going to sign nothing." So they kicked me out of the CIC and sent me to an MP battalion in Yokohama. I went to Yokohama and I go to this MP station and I think, man, this is the worse job in the world. So they had a CIC office there, that's a criminal investigation division, and they needed a company clerk, somebody to do a morning report, payroll and stuff like that. And since I had on my thing that I had typing, I could type 'cause I had learned that in high school. When I was a senior I had everything completed and so I just did it just to learn something. Anyway, that was on my MO so this CO says, okay, got me transferred to a CID office. That was really good so I stayed there for a year 'cause I really liked it there, and they made me from a buck private to a staff sergeant in about six months. [Laughs] And I had some friends in Tokyo, so every weekend I'd get on a train and go to Tokyo. And so I said, okay, so then I stayed there for about a year. So I was in the service for about a little over two years.

MN: Did you ever get to visit Hiroshima?

MY: No. See like the CO that I had there was really good. He knew I was Japanese and he said, "Don't you have any relatives here?" I said, "I do," but I said, "it's like looking for a needle in a haystack." I said, "They're in Hiroshima," but I said, "it's like coming to L.A. and looking for somebody, you don't know how to look for them. No use for me to go there." But he says, "You know, if you want, just make out one report for payroll and you can go... make it out for a week." And he gave me the option to go but I figured it's no use going, I don't know where to look, so I never went. But this lieutenant, he was really good.

MN: When you first landed in Japan, did you land in Yokohama?

MY: Yeah.

MN: What was your first impression of Japan?

MY: Well, you're in an army camp there, so it's nothing like that. But once I got to Tokyo I sort of looked around and gee, it's just like a big city. 'Cause when you first go to Japan you go to this Camp Zama, everybody goes there first I guess. And it's just like army camp, but once you get out in the city it's just like any other big city. Big tall buildings and stuff. And then I had these friends that was in Tokyo that had been there and they were signed up as civil service workers after they got out of the service, so they were still there. And first thing, you think, gee, you don't have any yen so you're going to have to go buy some cigarettes and go take it out and sell it on the black market. And my friend, when I went to see him, I said, "Hey, I'm going to go buy these cigarettes. Where can we sell 'em?" "Oh don't worry about money," he had a whole bunch. He had a satchel full of money. "Oh, here, take whatever you want," and he gave me a couple of bundles of whatever so I never had to buy on the black market.

MN: Did you see a lot of orphans in Japan?

MY: No, I never noticed that. I guess there were because when I'd go from Yokohama to Tokyo, the train stations, a lot of people, destitute people, and I used to think, gee. So I remember one Christmas when I had bought a bunch of candy and as I would go from the station, after I got off the train, I'd see these kids and I'd give 'em something. Oh, you should see the smiles they give you. It makes you feel so good. I don't know how much I gave out but it really... you'll never forget the experience like that, 'cause when you're in a situation like that you realize how destitute some of them people were.

MN: And by the time you arrived in Japan, Yokohama, Tokyo area, it sounds like it was built up already?

MY: Yeah, it had been built up quite a bit. You could see where there had been destruction and things, but basically it wasn't that bad.

MN: And then what year were you honorably discharged?

MY: 1947.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.