<Begin Segment 22>

EG: And so how long were you an instructor at the language school?

TM: Well, through the war. The war was over in August of '45. And school, the MIS language school, in the meantime, moved from Camp Savage to Fort Snelling in, sometime in 1944. And the school after war -- June of '46 -- moved. The entire school moved to Presidio of Monterey, California, and then we moved with the school.

EG: But you had other military service then, too, other than instructor in the language school.

TM: Pardon me?

EG: You had military service beyond being instructor in the military school.

TM: Well, I was still in active duty around June of '46. In fact, after the war was over I could have gotten out, but not knowing what to do or where to go... especially, the Pacific Coast was off limit, and I had a family. And so a lot of us were signing up for another year or two, which I did. And I, at the same time, they wouldn't let me go to the front line overseas during the war, so I asked that they send me after the war to the army of occupation in Japan, which they agreed. And ultimately I was able to go, but not right away.

EG: Where was your family now, your wife and children? Were both children born by this time? You had two children?

TM: No, our daughter was born in, at a station hospital at Fort Snelling.

EG: Uh-huh. Fort Snelling is...

TM: Minnesota.

EG: In Minnesota.

TM: Well, in fact, it's in St. Paul. Closer to St. Paul than Minneapolis. She was born there.

EG: But she moved along to California when the school moved to California.

TM: Yeah, she was, she was six months old. [Laughs] We bought a car, used car, and we drove from Fort Snelling to Monterey. It took us about four days, and well, it was kind of interesting. [Laughs]

EG: Yeah, that's a big trip for a six-months-old. And you were, how long were you there until you finally got to go overseas?

TM: We arrived at Fort -- no, Presidio Monterey in June, and oh, what a peaceful time. The war was over, everything is off ration. Gasoline, no more, no more limit, no more rationing. It was so nice in Monterey. In August I finally got ordered to go to Japan. So I took my family to near San Francisco where her folks were, and I was able to find some kind of housing where some of the ex-army people were living. And I left there in August and came up to Seattle, to Fort Lawton staging area for overseas. So I left for Japan from the Port of Seattle.

EG: What was your rank by this time?

TM: Oh, I was a warrant officer.

EG: Now you were a warrant officer.

TM: Yeah.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.