<Begin Segment 21>

MN: Now from Belmont High School, what year did you graduate?

BS: I graduated 1948.

MN: And from there what did you do?

BS: And then I didn't want to go to college, but my dad insisted, so I started Los Angeles City College. Then after the first semester I dropped out, and then he said I better go, so I continued. So it took me three years to get out of junior college, a two-year college, because I was working at the same time. So then I got drafted in the army. So one thing about going to college, I stayed out of the army. As soon as I graduated from City College, they were gonna draft me. But I said, "No, I'm going to UCLA." At that time I had conferences with the counselors at UCLA and they told me what classes to take. So I was all set for registration in February. But no, the army says, "No, UCLA didn't give you a deferment because you're not enrolled yet. L.A. City College says, 'No, you graduated already,'" so I got drafted in February 28, 1952.

MN: Where did you do basic training?

BS: I took my basic training up in northern California at Fort Ord.

MN: How did the other soldiers treat you during basic training?

BS: I was treated okay. No outright prejudice against me. It was a big mixture because we had Asians, Hispanic, we had blacks, so we got along okay.

MN: So after basic training at Fort Ord, where did they send you?

BS: Then they said that I'm going to go to Korea, I said, oh, no. So they gave me a leave, and we got on a ship, went to Yokohama, Japan. And when I was there, Yokohama, Japan, they said, oh, they're going to send me to signaling school. I said, well, if you're going to send me to signaling school, I said, send me to clerk typist school. I had two year of college typing and one year of high school typing. And next thing, they said, "Okay." But the next thing I knew, I got orders to go Korea to report to a personnel office. So now I had to change my story. I said, no, I just had one semester of high school typing. So the commanding officer said, "No, it's all right. We don't need speed, we need accuracy." And then technically he apologized to me because he said, "We're in 1 combat zone area," number one. That means you only get one point a month. Whereas if you're in the actual combat area, like the infantry, you get three points a month. So take much quicker to go back home. So he was apologizing to me, but I felt happy. I said, the further away from the front line I'm happier. Because prior to going overseas, my buddy just got back from Korea, he lost his eye, so he had a glass eye. And he told me, "Don't be a hero, keep away from the front line." So I remember that. So I had to say a little white lie when I first went overseas, but then after I got to personnel, I was okay.

MN: Now when you were stationed there, did you have any contact with the South Koreans?

BS: Yes. The South Korean, the general public, in fact, they were so-called houseboys for us. So they worked for the personnel, the government, and then on the side, we would pay them and they would clean our bunks and our living quarters where our office space, sweep and clean it. And then we used to pay them, like the wife of the man, she would do our laundry. And whether it's a hanky or a fatigue jacket, it was ten cents an article. So we paid them ten cents an article. But then, we gave them cigarettes in place of money. So cigarettes, for the GI it cost us ten cents, but on the black market it costs us twenty-five cents. So we gave them a ten cent article, but it's worth twenty-five cents. So they were happy with that arrangement, and it's cheaper for us, too. And by the way, I was learning Japanese from the Korean houseboy. He was fluent in Japanese, so when I used to get letters from my mother, she'd write usually in katakana, but once in a while she'd throw in a kanji and I couldn't read it. So I would help him, so he was teaching me Japanese. So I said, "Okay, I'll teach you the typewriter." So we reciprocated, and I was learning Japanese from him, and he was learning to use a typewriter from me.

MN: Is this when you were also doing a correspondence course in Japanese?

BS: Yes, along that line, I figured, well, I don't know Japanese so maybe a good time, because we had lots of spare time. So I looked into it, under the government programs, and the University of Oklahoma had a Japanese language class, so I enrolled in that. But after a few months I got bored because it takes too long. By the time I get the assignment, I do it, I send it, then they correct it and then send me something else, it took too long and I got too bored, so I dropped out from the University of Oklahoma.

MN: While you were stationed at Korea, did you ever have an incident where you felt your life was threatened?

BS: Well, one time. Like I mentioned, I was in personnel, and personnel in the artillery unit. So the front line is the infantry, behind the infantry is artillery unit, and then since I was in personnel doing office work, I was behind the artillery. But when they, the commanding officer, or the sergeant major, he came and he says, "Oh, we need some volunteers to unload a munition truck that broke down." So I asked for volunteers in our personnel office since I was the personnel sergeant, I asked for volunteers, not any hand would go up. I said, "All right, I'll volunteer, but I need one more person." So that way I was able to get a volunteer. We went to the front line where the artillery were shooting off, and it was very interesting. It was frightening, but it's interesting. It was two mountainsides in the valley. In the valley, they have artificial smokescreens. And that mountain is the Korean, North Koreans, on this mountain is American soldiers, and they're shooting artillery, but they can't see because of the smokescreens. But we had to go unload a truck and transfer to another truck and bring it back. So that was the closest I saw actual combat, but that was too close for me. You could hear them shooting and landing, but nothing up where we were, so it was a little bit in the back yet. That was my closest combat. My major combat was the battle of the Remingtons and the L.C. Smith and the Underwood typewriters.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.