<Begin Segment 18>

TI: And so what was Camp Ritchie for? Was it just another army base that people trained, or was it specialized in anything?

GN: It was a specialty camp. Because my lieutenant in the basic, he was a West Pointer, and just close by. He knew exactly where I was going. And I told him I didn't want to go there, get me out of here, he says, "No, you just go get packed up and go, 'cause I know, I'll guarantee you'll be better off than the rest of the guys there.

TI: So he knew it was like a specialty camp?

GN: He knew it was a specialty camp. He told me, he says, "You guarantee me I'll be in better shape than the rest of the guys."

TI: And then you said, so you're there, and they make you an actor?

GN: In camp? In Camp Ritchie.

TI: And Daniel Inouye...

GN: Inouye gave me a sheet of paper like this and said, "Read this." I read that and he says, "Go to that room there." I go over there and there's half a dozen guys there, we were the actors being coached by...

TI: Because you could read it in a good voice, and that was enough to be an actor?

GN: I guess, yeah. I had a much clearer, stronger voice in those days.

TI: And so after Senator Inouye selected you, did he work with you at all?

GN: No, never saw him again.

TI: That was the last thing that...

GN: That's the last I saw of him. All we worked with were a bunch of old actors from the New York stage.

TI: So tell me, what was the acting for? What were you doing?

GN: We're going to act in front of a... you know, they had big theaters, they'll march a bunch of guys just coming back from Europe in there, and we're supposed to put on this play and show 'em what the mentality of a Japanese soldier that they'll be fighting against was, what kind of mental state they're in. So the three of us were a general, a colonel, and a young lieutenant, that's being overrun in the Pacific. And this general would rather commit suicide rather than surrender. And I'm standing there with a young colonel ready to help him finish him off.

TI: So you're supposed to cut his head off or something as he commits suicide?

GN: Yeah, he's supposed to cut himself, and if he didn't die instantly, I was supposed to chop his head off.

TI: And then what did the lieutenant do?

GN: Lieutenant was frantically trying to keep the (general) from doing, committing suicide. And along about the time he says he's going to commit suicide, the curtain falls. [Laughs]

TI: So this was to show that the, again, the mentality of the Japanese military.

GN: Yeah, they'd rather commit suicide than give up. That's the kind of guys you're up against.

TI: And so you would actually do this with... lots of GIs would see this.

GN: Yeah, yeah. Custom made Japanese uniform, for crying out loud.

TI: And how'd you feel about that? How'd you feel about...

GN: Oh, god, I didn't want to have nothing to do with it at first. What are we gonna do? None of us wanted to be doing that kind of stuff.

TI: Well, and then what did the Hawaiians do? You said they weren't selected because their English was harder to understand.

GN: They were out in the front marching around like a platoon of Japanese soldiers, marching, all the orders are given in Japanese.

TI: So these were Japanese Americans from Hawaii dressed up as Japanese soldiers.

GN: Yeah, carrying Japanese (rifles and sword).

TI: Pretending that they were Japanese soldiers?

GN: Yeah.

TI: And then why were they doing that? I mean, to show the American GIs what that looked like?

GN: Yeah, yeah. Show 'em what it looks like, I don't know what for.

TI: So how did these Japanese Americans from Hawaii, how did they feel about that?

GN: I have no idea. We never talked about it. We never talked to each other about that kind of stuff, it's funny. Yes, it's absolutely funny; we never talked about it. All I know is our lieutenant that was in charge of our group, he would tell us, "We're all meeting at the CP tonight," it was a tavern outside the post. And one night, we were supposed to be in camp by midnight, you know, it was about five minutes after, so we know where there was a hole under the fence. We crawled out, and the lieutenant was right with us, he crawls through that hole. [Laughs] By the time all of us got out from under the fence, there was the MPs there.

TI: So did you guys get in trouble for that?

GN: No. MP says, "Don't do this again," and just let us go. It was so funny, that first lieutenant...

TI: But the lieutenant was with you, too.

GN: Yeah, he was with us.

TI: I suppose he would be the one who got in trouble.

GN: Yeah, he would have gotten in trouble, too.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.