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BY: So, and then you stayed in the military. So you liked the military?

HY: No, no, after I got out, I was discharged from the military in 1956, and then, after I finished, I thought, well, okay, I better look for, start practice. Then the American Board of Surgery says now, instead of three years of recognized residency, you got to have four years. So I said, oh gee, I had my three, I was going to go and practice, but now I got to have another year of residency. That's why I spent another year, year and a half, actually, at St. Vincent's Hospital, my fourth year of surgical residency. I spent a year and a half there because the chief surgeon there thought I'd need the extra training because I'd been a year, well, two years not doing anything surgically. I was a surgeon at Iwakuni, but there wasn't that much surgery to do. So I spent another six months, so I spent a year and a half at St. Vincent Hospital, after which I took the board examination and all that. So I didn't start looking for a practice in 1958. And then when I started a practice all by myself, a solo practice, and that's tough. Because here I'm a surgeon, this is a specialty. Nobody knows me from Adam, from Tojo. [Laughs] So anyway, I set up my office there in the little town of Milwaukie, and I had lots of free time. So I said, well, okay. The Navy had been so good to me and I appreciate what the Navy had done for me, went out of the way to take my family and my goods and stuff, I thought, I think I'll pay 'em back a little bit. So I joined the U.S. Naval in inactive reserves. There's a difference between active... inactive and active reserve, but I joined the inactive reserve, and I spent the next nineteen years in inactive reserve. So I retired in 1970-something with the rank of captain, which is equivalent to an army colonel.

BY: So, yeah, talk about that. Tom had mentioned to me that, you know, that's a pretty high rank.

HY: Well, that's equivalent to a colonel. Well, to me, all you have to do is keep your nose clean. No, really. Any damn fool could become one. [Laughs] I think so. As long as you just pay attention.

TI: Well, so Homer, what does "inactive reserve" mean?

HY: Active reserve means that you're on active duty, but you're in, ordinarily it's called the U.S. Naval Reserve instead of USN. See, there's a difference between USN and USNR. I'm U.S. Naval Reserve. But most of the people, the active duty people now, are usually U.S. Navy. They could be reservers, but I was always... but inactive reserve means that you agree to spend one weekend every month drilling with whatever organization you're attached to. I happened to be attached to the Marine unit, but the Navy took care of them medically, took care of the Marines. So I was attached to a Marine Corps unit for twelve years. And then I'm seven more years with Submarine Division and different divisions. But inactive reserve, that's what it means. You drill with them for one weekend a month for the whole year, and plus two weeks of active duty training. The active duty training could be almost anywhere, doing almost anything in the medical field. I could have gone to medicine, I could have gone on the field, most of the time I chose to go with my unit, like the Marine Corps. Because the Marine Corps was good to me, too. They let me shoot the guns. [Laughs] So that's inactive reserve. So you spend most of your time in the civilian life, almost all of it.

BY: So I have a question. This is off the script, but it's just something that's made me wonder. So you tried to enlist when you were in camp, right? You were seventeen, eighteen years old. You tried to enlist, you got rejected because you were declared 4-F, right?

HY: No, no, no, who told you that? I never volunteered.

BY: Well, what is it that you said you were classified as 4-F? Is that because you were drafted?

HY: Oh, that was draft.

BY: Okay, so you were drafted, you were rejected, right?

HY: Right, twice.

BY: Okay. And then you eventually ended up serving in the Korean War as a medical doctor.

HY: Correct, as an officer.

BY: And so it was pretty cushy?

HY: Oh, it was plush. I didn't have to go through the manual of arms and crawl through the mud, go out on campouts.

BY: So I am wondering, do you have any feeling of regret or disappointment or any of that that you were not able to serve in the 442 or the MIS or any of that?

HY: Well, no. In hindsight or even then? What are you talking about?

BY: Either.

HY: Okay. In hindsight, no, I have no regrets. I could have been shot and killed and mutilated while I was in World War II. That was a terrible war, and especially being with the 442 Regimental Combat Team, eight hundred casualties? No way. It would have been too tough. I was very glad to be in the U.S. Naval Reserve after, where no one was going to shoot at me and I'm not going to get hurt. And I just, like I say, any fool who spends enough time there, they're going to get their eagles. So it wasn't hard, and in fact, it was a lot of fun. And they also, when I think about it, I got a nice pension for life, and I lived longer than I thought I would, and I get most of my medical -- not my medical -- plus my medical, but also my medicine, my drugs. Not free, it used to be free, but it's gone up to twelve dollars now. So I got a tremendous bonus from that.

BY: In the moment, though, when you were declared 4-F, did you have any feelings of disappointment or wishing you...

HY: Well, yeah, because I'd hear the story of the heroics of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Battalion. You never heard much about the exploits of the MIS, though. Nobody really started much about them, it was always the 442 and the 100th. But I felt, well, yeah, could have been me, but then on the other hand, I could have been shot and killed, too. So I had no real regrets missing that.

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