<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So any other stories about Ogden, Utah, before we go, so next we'll go to, I guess, when you were at Ogden, Utah I think you were contacted by the army about the MIS?

KT: No, I was contacted before, but I didn't know enough. I was --

TI: This was...

KT: -- they were scraping the bottom of the barrel when they called me in Utah, and they said report to Fort Douglas for a physical.

TI: And this was specifically for the MIS, to do, to be a linguist?

KT: Yeah.

TI: Okay.

KT: 'Cause I volunteered for the MIS. And so I went to Fort Douglas and I took my physical, and he said, "You're 4-F. You can't see out of your left eye." So I said, "Oh, okay." And I went back to, at that time I was working for Wasatch Motors and the guy said, "Oh, good," he says, "I want to get some guy and train him for diesel mechanic school." So he says all of the people he trained were all drafted, so he said, "You're 4-F," he said, "Boy, that's it." So he said, "We'll make arrangements to send you to school. And now," and this is in December, says, "Right now, then you'll be ready this spring to go out in the field and work on these tractors and stuff." Next thing you know, I get a telegram saying, "Report back to Fort Douglas." So I go back to Fort Douglas and they say, "Go to this building and draw a uniform." I said, "Hey, they told me I was 4-F." "No, you're in the army now." [Laughs]

TI: So they needed --

KT: Yeah, they swore me in, they swore me in and gave me a uniform and a travel voucher and some money, and told me to catch a train and go to Minnesota.

TI: Because they needed linguists so much, they kind of looked beyond the medical deferment.

KT: [Laughs] I guess so.

TI: Now, why did you want to join the MIS? I mean, you said you volunteered early. What was the interest in MIS?

KT: I had two brothers in the service and I figure when you're roaming around outside it's a lot better than walking around in camp. Yeah, I think in late, late '42 I think I volunteered. When I was in Ontario I got a questionnaire and a little test, and I guess I didn't do good on the test because they said, "We'll contact you later." You know, it's one of those "don't call us, we'll call you" businesses. And it was December of '43 that they, yeah.

TI: So I'm curious, when you got to Camp Savage and you start the Japanese classes, courses, how was that for you? Was it, the studying and the learning the language, how was that?

KT: It was very, very hard. Very difficult, yeah. I'm not a scholar or guy that studies a lot, so I don't have no system, but some of them guys, they, when you learn kanji, they're giving us, there's more like a hundred kanjis that you -- and how can you learn that? It's beyond me. I thought I was gonna wash out of there, but I don't know, somehow or another I managed to struggle through that. In fact, after six months they wanted the volunteers to go to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and be MPs, to handle prisoners of war overseas, Japanese prisoners. So I volunteered for that, and they said, "No, we can't take you." I said, "Why?" And that guy said, "Hey, we spent three, four thousand dollars on you, teaching you Japanese." He said, "You can flunk every test for next three months, and," he said, "we'll still run you through." [Laughs] Yeah, they wouldn't flunk me out.

TI: But at this point, with all your training, you were too valuable to be just an MP. They wanted you more as a linguist, is what they thought.

KT: Anyway, this, took the nine month... and like I say, I'm not a bookworm, so that was a hard life for me. [Laughs]

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.