<Begin Segment 19>

SY: Explain though how you ended up in Japan?

FK: Got to Japan? Every so often they come up with something like if you're a typist you could try out. In the bulletin it said that those who want to try the Japanese language test or the Chinese language test, report on such and such a date at a certain time. So I followed my Kibei friends and we went and took the test. Well, it just happens that the person that's giving the test, he had to... one of them was missing so he had to go back and forth from his room to our room. And every time he left, well, I kind of looked over this side, looked over this side and I copied all what they wrote because my Japanese was not a good Japanese, it was a Nisei Japanese. So I copied whatever they had written and I passed as a Japanese interpreter. So that was my MOS, I was an interpreter, so the chances looked pretty good that I might be going to Japan and sure enough that's what happened.

SY: And what happened when you got to Japan and you weren't really --

FK: Well, before we got there I have to tell you that we all got on the boat in San Francisco and it was late November and we got on the boat, there was a small transport, we left San Francisco and that's the roughest day is the first day out of San Francisco. In the winter time the water is very rough. It got so rough that sure enough within an hour everybody was over the rails or in the bathroom. Everybody threw up including the merchant marine. Everybody threw up; it was a mess. The next day you would think they would serve you something dry and, you know, fruity or something but they give you something like Hungarian goulash that looks and smells and I looked at that and we had to stand up and eat. So we had our tray so if you were the one in front of me, your tray and my tray would bump and then we would face each other, and they would have rows and rows of it. And I could see that probably about ten rows and I could see about fifth row down everybody's kind of... and then this one guy went like this and just like a domino, everybody threw up and everybody ran out the galley sick as a dog. And one of my buddies, a Japanese guy from Japan, he was drafted he was in bed twenty-one days of the twenty-one day trip. He didn't eat anything. I don't even know how he lived twenty-one days without eating. He would just sip some water and go back to the bunk.

SY: The whole trip?

FK: The trip was not a good trip, no.

SY: The entire trip and it takes how long?

FK: Twenty-one days. We landed in Yokohama, from there we bused to Camp Drake and that's where --

SY: You were stationed.

FK: That's where we were going to be detached or attached or whatever to where we're going to be going. But as soon as I got there, all of us the following day they had another exam, this time it's a Nisei soldier one on one, and he started rambling Japanese military terms at me and after a couple of sentences I told him that's enough. Assign my name and I said, "Thank you very much," and I left and then I went to pack my duffle bag ready to go to Korea and all my buddies that took the test, they were very happy. And then they were celebrating that evening that they were going to be staying in Japan. Well, the following day we all got our orders and they were all shipped to Korea and I was told to report to, in that camp, to the Korean language school. So I spent... I was supposed to spend six months learning Korean eight hours a day.

SY: And they figured that you were better learning Korean?

FK: My English was better than their English, my Japanese was nowhere near as where it should have been.

SY: It didn't matter though.

FK: So they put me in Korean language school.

SY: And you're the only one?

FK: The only one.

SY: The only one of all your friends.

FK: So I said, wait my luck is changing. [Laughs]

SY: You got to stay in Japan. What was that like?

FK: Well, it was very difficult it was trying times. A yen was 360 yen and we would get rationing of a carton of cigarettes a week and we'd pay a dollar for it and we'd all gather all our cartons of cigarettes and we would go into Tokyo and then we'd go to this Chinese restaurant and then we would unload our bags of cigarettes and go upstairs and eat our fill and after we would finish we'd come down and they'll give us our change. Yes, it was difficult times.

SY: Did you save any of that money or did you spend it?

FK: No, we got paid, what, twenty-eight dollars a month now how much can you save? But I got to tell you this experience that I had the very first time I went to Ginza. Now you got to keep in mind where I'm coming from that as a young eight year, nine years old I was confronted with this change of events and from a friend I became an enemy of the country and so forth and being scorned and everything else. Okay, now we took this bus, the army bus from our camp to Ginza and it takes about maybe forty minutes and we got there and then I got off the bus in dead center of Ginza and I looked around and I said, I looked around and I could see everybody about my size, some taller, some shorter, black hair, glasses on and looked kind of like me. And I said, gosh, and then this warm feeling this real warm feeling came from me and my heart and I said gosh, no matter what it is, I know this is my mother country and this is where I belong. If everything turns the wrong way I got to come because I feel very, very comfortable. And then so I was looking around and that only lasted ten seconds because within that time, now as I'm walking in Ginza, the people are looking at me with distain and looking at me like "you traitor." I'm a Japanese American wearing an American uniform and they still didn't forget the World War II, of course Korean War was on at that time but they looked at me like, "What are you doing? You're a Japanese, why are you in an American uniform?" And so I came to realize that no, this is not the place where I belong either. So my world shrunk again back to normal.

SY: Yeah, it is surprising that so many years after the war there was that feeling against Niseis.

FK: Yes, I couldn't believe that. The only ones that really... when I didn't wear my uniform, of course they can't tell but as soon as I open my mouth they know I'm not a Japanese. But usually the ones that look at you the way that, you know, "get the hell out of here" look is the ones that really don't know you. And they had something, an experience or something in the past, but your relatives and things, they're very nice to you and they're very happy and so forth. So I think no matter where it is, what country or whatever it is.

SY: So you didn't have a warm and fuzzy feeling when you left there or did you still?

FK: No, when I left Japan?

SY: Yeah.

FK: Yes, when I left Japan

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.