<Begin Segment 16>

FO: So, no, I was just bummin' around in camp. So when my dad got this letter from Grandpa Yamazaki asking what I'm doing, so he says, "You want to go to Chicago?" "Yeah, why not?"

SY: So you were allowed to leave as long as you had a sponsor and a job.

FO: Job, yeah. So I went, and 'cause I knew Ronnie Shikata because he grew up, we all grew up together in Uptown, and we all did judo together, and we went to high school together. So when Ron says, "Come on out," so we all, I went out. Then I got tired of that job, and I didn't have any money. I wanted to go to Northwestern because the other two went to college. Ronnie went to Chicago Art Institute and Tosh went to Illinois Tech. So at that time, I went to see Grandpa Yamazaki and I says, "You have somebody coming in to take over our place? Because I think we're gonna move out, the three of us" So he got the Kasai family from Uptown to come out. So Tosh and Ron and I, we moved to a separate apartment, and then I says, "I'm going to go in the army." So I went back to camp and told my dad what I was gonna do, 'cause I wanted to go to Europe. And he says, "Baka." I said, "Why?" He says, "Don't you know that the European war is a white man's war? Your war is over in the Pacific." He says, "Japan's gonna lose the war. There's no doubt in my mind they're gonna lose the war." So he says, "I want you to go to MIS and learn Japanese and help the Japanese after the war. Because my brother had told my dad that he was gonna go to MIS. So I went to MIS and struggled. [Laughs]

SY: So the decision to enter, to volunteer for the army was really just yours. Out of the blue you decided you wanted to go to Europe, and just kind of an adventure?

FO: No. The thing was, a lot of my friends were going into the 442 from Chicago.

SY: And had you heard from them? Did they tell you what was going on?

FO: No. I heard a couple of guys while they were in training, infantry training. So that's why I said, well, it's better than sitting around in camp or in Chicago doing nothing, so I volunteered.

SY: So while you were... you actually had the choice to go either into MIS or... how is it that that happened, that you got to choose?

FO: Well, if you volunteer, you could choose for anything. So my dad told me to go to MIS, so I said, "Yes, sir," and I went.

SY: Did you have to take a test?

FO: Yeah, we took a slight test. I knew a little bit of Japanese because we went to Japanese school after junior high school class ended, high school class ended.

SY: And then you had to go through basic training, too.

FO: Yeah. Once we got up there, you see, before, before we got up there, the boys that volunteered to go to MIS, they went to school first, then they went to basic. But during basic, if you don't talk the language or write the language, you forget, so the army changed their ways. So our class was the first one to go down to take basic, then we went to school.

SY: And where did you go for basic?

FO: We went to Fort McClellan, Alabama, in July. Yeah, it was hot, muggy. But we all went, and then there was a group of guys that were taking their final training before going overseas to join the 442. Well, these guys went over, they were just in time to join the 442 for the rescue of the "Lost Battalion." So they were involved in the rescue of the "Lost Battalion."

SY: So you met those people while you were in basic.

FO: Yeah. 'Cause I knew some of those guys. They were some of the Uptown boys.

SY: So did you hear, follow what happened to them, or did you know at the time?

FO: No.

SY: But later on you found out.

FO: Yeah. You know, when you go to church and you have coffee and you sit around, you start talking, and then the museum really helped me understand a lot about Europe.

SY: What happened with the 442?

FO: Yeah.

SY: And because you were really sort of in your own little MIS training.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.