<Begin Segment 15>

TI: And so what did you end up doing, then? So you didn't join the 442, didn't join the MIS, so where did --

YU: So they had us, there was a lot of work to be done, cleaning in barracks, like... we, then we got shipped to Fort Meade, South Dakota. And in Fort Meade, Fort Meade, South Dakota, that's close to where Custer made his last stand, and it was a small fort, but it was just overwhelmed with 88th Airborne group, and it was just jam packed with soldiers going overseas. And our job, taking care of the service center or the theater, and my job was to... order comes in the commissary, and my job was to take it every day.

TI: Okay. Now, during your military career, I mean, while you're doing these kind of jobs, were you ever given a bad time for being of Japanese ancestry?

YU: No. They didn't give us anything that was very important. Like for me, they'd have me clean the theater, and of course, it's a full time job. It's an eight hour job. You start from the top and you sweep the, all the popcorn kernels and popcorn boxes down and clean it up, make sure that the place is clean. So I did that for a couple of days, then I said, this is the stupidest job I ever saw, so I said, "I got to figure out a better thing than this, better way than this." So I got a hold of, I looked down and look at, it was cement, and so I got hold of the fire hose, and they had a big fire hose and it was strong, and I turned it on and my god, the water just shot right out with a lot of power. And I looked at, I shot it down to, down, not the stair but the slope to the theater, and all the popcorn bottles, I mean, not bottles but package, just went sailing down. Said, "Hey, this is smart." So I turned it on and I washed all the popcorn boxes down and cleaned it up, and I found that, and then I turned on the air, heater, dried it out, and in an hour or so I had the whole place clean and spic and span. The sergeant comes by and he says, "Wow." He says, "I never saw anything like this. It's so clean. You did a great job." Course, I didn't tell him I washed it down with the water. [Laughs] So that was my life there, and it was very easy. The sergeant thought I did a great job, so every week he would give me a five dollar bonus or something like that and then a free ticket to the theater.

TI: But you were just using your head. You were just kind of thinking of something smarter. [Laughs]

YU: I thought it was dumb. I said, "What the hell, I can't be this dumb."

TI: So how long were you in South Dakota?

YU: Let's see, I was there about a year.

TI: And then where'd you go?

YU: I went to Fort Warren, Wyoming, in Cheyenne.

TI: Now, in Wyoming, did you ever visit, or did you know about Heart Mountain?

YU: Yeah, I knew about Heart Mountain, but I never visited it because I, it worried me that if I get inside they might start questioning me about something, I don't know. And those things, those times, you couldn't trust all these officers and things 'cause some of the officers were nice, but some of 'em were bad. Like I was in, from Joplin to Salina, and there an officer was assigned to our company, and he had been on a ship going to, I don't know where, but it got torpedoed and he fell or something and hurt his knee real badly, so he sort of had a hatred for Japanese. And when he came and seen all the Japanese there, he said, "What is this? Am I in charge of a Jap battalion or something like that?" And he screamed at the, all the Japanese guys that were in the room there. So we were, so those were times, you couldn't, we couldn't really trust -- unless we're somewhere where we're sure everybody can see you.

TI: Okay. Before we move you back to San Jose, any other memories or stories about the service? Because you were there for about four years?

YU: One time in Camp Crawley, Missouri, there was a guy that just came along and, we were the kitchen police group, so we, afterwards, we'd go to work in the morning and then night, and then we'd get one day off and one day on. So the days we worked, we'd get through about one o'clock, everything's clean, you just lay in the bunk, rest for a while. Had a great big guy coming from Oklahoma, and he just came along and he, we would all be in the bunk and he'd just flip 'em over. I said, "What the hell you doing that for?" He says, "I don't like Japs. It's fun flippin' you guys over." So this went on all that day, and the next day he's back again, flipping us.

TI: And is he all by himself, or is he with --

YU: He's by himself. And he says, so finally I said, "Hey, quit that." He said, "This is fun." And of course, none of the Nikkeis would challenge that, so I got out and I said, "I'll take you on. Try that again and I'll take you." And he said, "You're too small. I used to be a pro wrestler." I said, "I don't give a goddamn. Come on." So he said, "Well, I'm gonna crush you," he said, "because I used to be a pro wrestler and I used to crush people." So he got a hold of me and I just sidestepped him and I knew exactly what he was gonna do, use a lot of strength on me and try to knock me over. And I know that, so I just picked him up and I just slammed him on the floor, and the guy was shocked, and of course it knocked his wind out and he's laying on his back. The whole barracks were Niseis, so I was a hero of the barracks. [Laughs]

TI: So you used your judo on this...

YU: Yeah.

TI: You just used his energy, his force and used it against him.

YU: He's coming at me so I just threw him. So the Niseis thought it was great. [Laughs]

TI: That's a good story. And so I'm guessing after that point he didn't do this anymore.

YU: No, no, no.

TI: Well, did you ever see him again? Did he, like, respect you more, and did you ever talk to him?

YU: He didn't, I saw him once.

TI: Okay. [Laughs]

YU: After that, he never came up there.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.