<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Describe the Japanese community, things like, was there a Japanese language school and did you have to attend that, other Japanese events? What was it like in Sumner?

FS: You know, in Sumner, right next to where the old grade school is, there's an old church that the Japanese community had bought before the war, and that was the community center. And that's where I used to go to Japanese school every day after school. Go from the grade school across the street, go to Japanese school.

TI: For a farming community that is a little unusual. Most of the times I heard in farming communities, it's just on Saturdays and Sunday that they had Japanese language school. But you had to do it every day.

FS: Yes.

TI: Because a lot of times they wanted the sons, especially, to go back and work during the day, too.

FS: Yeah, that's true. And you know, I'll tell you an interesting story. You may want to hold on this, but my brother John, when I found out about him going to Japan, after being on the USS Missouri, he volunteered to survey the damage in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He was given this assignment, saying, "If you guys do this, when you're through, you can get out of the service." And, of course, that's what all the guys wanted to do. But when John was on that survey team, one day, when he's walking through all this rubble, he ran across this lady, her name was Oyanagi, who was our Japanese school teacher in Sumner. Talk about a strange coincidence.

TI: And this was in what city? Nagasaki or Hiroshima?

FS: Hiroshima.

TI: When you tell me that story about your brother being in the MIS and then also being on the USS Missouri, it makes me think that his Japanese language skills were strong, for him to be in that position.

FS: No.

TI: No? Okay, because a lot of the MIS guys were there. So that's what I was going to ask, so how good was the Japanese language school in Sumner? When you talk about seeing the teacher and all that, were you good in Japanese, were your brothers and sisters good in Japanese?

FS: Well, I think the way... I think my older sister Betty was pretty good, John was pretty good, but as the language skills kind of seemed to decrease, I was probably the worst. John was pulled out of the 442 I think because he had some language skills, not strong. But when they tested him, he was one of the highest IQ guys. And so I think they just surmised that he would do well going to Fort Snelling language school. But there's also another interesting aspect to him. He never went to Europe. He was sent to Orlando, Florida, for tactical Air Force training, Air Force Intelligence training. And as I look back on it, I think even then, the U.S. Department of Defense must have been tentatively planning the atomic bombing. John was sent to Orlando, Florida, and from there to Hickam, and ultimately to Guam and Tinian. But when you stop and think about it, why would they have pulled him out and sent him to Air Force tactical training at that time? See, I don't know, but I'm just guessing.

TI: And this was, like, early in the war, like in '43, or about when would this have happened?

FS: '44.

TI: Okay, '44.

FS: John was in the first group of volunteers that went into the 442.

TI: Okay, so that'd be early '43.

FS: '43, yes.

TI: Okay, we'll come back to this.

FS: That's kind of... but I thought it was interesting that he would run across our old Japanese school teacher.

TI: Right, in Japan, so that was interesting.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2017 Densho. All Rights Reserved.