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LS: But because, after Pearl Harbor, I couldn't join any military, and I wanted to, so early in 1943 when they started forming the 442nd, you had to volunteer. So I did volunteer in March, but because everybody on the mainland had to go through the draft board, if you were in Heart Mountain, you had to go through the draft board in Montana, if you were in Utah, you had to go through, and I'm Colorado, so all the Japanese Nisei boys were scattered all over now. So you were at the mercy of the draft board. Just because you volunteered, they didn't call you right away. They called you by probably initial, because my brother-in-law was Hirasaki, he got called in April. Mine is Sakai, I didn't get called 'til May. So by the time I got to Camp Shelby, it was late in May. And by that time, of course, in about March or so, all these boys from Hawaii, one shipload came and filled up all the positions. So as the mainland boys came drifting in one at a time, they filled in here and there. But like all of the Camp Shelby pictures taken of the company, about ninety percent of the boys in there are from Hawaii, there was only a scattering of mainland boys, because most of us didn't get there 'til late.

PW: So when you volunteered to join the 442, did you go into an office and sign up that way, or how did that work?

LS: We had a local recruiting office in Grand Junction, and I signed up there. But when they called from Denver, the main station, we had to go to Denver, and then from there they shipped us to Camp Shelby.

PW: So explain how that worked. So you'd been living in (Colorado) and you took the train to Shelby, to Mississippi?

LS: Well, we took a, everybody took a train. So Denver, Rio Grande, DNRG, Denver-Rio Grande Railway from Grand Junction all the way to Denver. And after the recruiting office went through the ritual of getting you signed in, they put you on a train, I don't know how long it took to get to Mississippi, but there were a lot of stops.

PW: How did you feel on the train getting ready to go to camp?

LS: Well, we're going to war.

PW: How did your parents feel about you volunteering?

LS: I think... because my parents were more Westernized because of their religion, they weren't so diehard. Like in the Buddhists, I think, there's more of this, and the school, Japanese school, yamato damashi or whatever they call it, allegiance to your emperor, you die for your country. We didn't have that. And I know when I told my parents, "I'm going to volunteer," they didn't say anything, just kind of like, okay. They knew. I'm an American citizen.

PW: What was life like at Camp Shelby? Like what was your daily routine and what did you train, how did that go?

LS: It was the worst place on earth. [Laughs] It was a terrible place. I've been invited to go back to the museum, but I don't want to go to Camp Shelby, I never want to see it again. It's just miserable.

PW: What kind of training did they put you through?

LS: Well, because even though the 100th, which had gone to north Africa in September of 1943, to join the 34th Division and go up to Italy, the 100th had become so well-known as the Purple Heart Battalion that General Mark Clark said, "Send me more Japanese, they're the best soldiers that I have." Of course, we're still training, and normally six months you're ready to go. But General Eisenhower didn't want us. So we just kept training and training we were in Camp Shelby for a whole year before they shipped us overseas, May of 1944. And, of course, we joined with the 100th after Rome in June of 1944.

PW: So I'm just trying to imagine you, the orders that you're now going to Europe, tell me more about the details. So you got on another train and where did you go, and then how did you get to Europe?

LS: Well, all this training, it was just kind of repetitions. Because you do your first six months, you've done it all. Then you have to keep doing it, and they have to keep you busy, so they do the same thing over again. Anyway, when we finally got to go, we had to take a train to Newport News, Virginia, which is the port of embarkation. And I think we were there like two days before we got on the ship, liberty ships. And little, all worn out, small boats going back and forth, up and down, it took thirty days to cross the Atlantic because the original fleet from Newport News, it was from sea to sea, nothing but ships, over a hundred ships. And they're dodging the German submarines, so they're going back and forth. And finally, after thirty days, we got to Naples, Italy.

PW: And that's where you met with the 100th?

LS: No, the 100th was already beyond Rome, and they were at rest. And after we got settled in Naples, they sent us by truck up to northern Italy, and that, we joined the 100th. 100th Battalion, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, to form the 442nd.

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