<Begin Segment 16>

TI: I'm going to now go into your military service. So after basic training, what happened next?

RK: I stayed down at Fort Ord for advanced training, what they call AIT. So that was another eight weeks, something like that, sixteen... whatever. And then from there, you get your shipping out orders, and that's when I found out that I was... at first they ask you, "Where would you like to go?" So everybody puts down "Europe," "Germany," number one, "Hawaii," number two, and then I just put down "Korea."

TI: As your number one choice?

RK: As number three.

TI: Oh, as number three? Your number three choice.

RK: They look at what you put down, "Oh, this guy wants Korea? Let's give it to 'em."

TI: Because no one else puts "Korea," and they need people to go to Korea, probably?

RK: Not in my company.

TI: Because everyone puts, you said like Europe, and then Hawaii.

RK: I didn't mind.

TI: And when you put "Korea" down, why Korea? Was there something that you were interested about Korea, or why Korea? Because at this point, there were still things going on in Korea, there were skirmishes and things going on, there was fighting still happening over there in Korea?

RK: It wasn't real heavy skirmishes. Yeah, the North Koreans would come down and ambush things, whatever, and then go back to their side of the border, but it wasn't a real heavy-duty war. So that's what I got. I put it down, that's what I get.

TI: But you chose it, so what was it about Korea versus maybe Japan or some other place? What was Korea?

RK: Well, number one, there weren't too many infantry units in Japan. Things have changed now, but it was different back in '62. So I ended up on a troop transport going to Korea. Took twenty-one days. Stopped in Guam, stopped in Yokohama, and then on to Inchon.

TI: So in 1962 Korea, what was Korea like when you got there?

RK: It was in pretty bad shape. They didn't have the big cities the way it is now. I mean, that's changed drastically since I was there. But they had one train from Inchon to the different stations, and it took almost ten hours to get from Inchon to where I was, to the Seventh Division Repple Depple replacement depot. And then from there, another day, and then I got moved up to the Thirty-Fourth Infantry Brigade. And then come to find out after Derek graduated, and he was down in officer's training or whatever, that was his first duty station overseas.

TI: Oh, so the same location as where you were?

RK: Roughly.

TI: That's kind of special. I mean, during this time when in Korea, any experiences or activities or events that, stories that kind of stand out that you want to share?

RK: Well, when I was there, I ended up doing just about everything, carrying a radio, carrying a rifle, carrying machine guns. I even carried what they call a BAR, Browning Automatic Rifle. Only problem is I couldn't fire it. It didn't have any extra blank adapters. So to fire it, I would have to load a round, fire, load a round, fire. See, the M-1s, they had an adapter, so it would act like a normal rifle. So what I did was, when we go on the road like this, I used to take the guts out of the BAR. Because the weapon itself weighed about thirty pounds, and I couldn't fire it, so I figure, why carry this thing?

TI: With all the extra weight that wasn't doing anything.

RK: We had a war game once, and I was laying down in my position, but I wasn't firing. But the platoon leader asked me, he goes, "Why aren't you firing?" and I don't have any guts in it. Because everybody else is shooting, I would go, "Bang-bang, bang-bang."

TI: And everyone else was just shooting the... so explain, so your BAR in particular just didn't, was malfunctioning?

RK: It wasn't malfunctioning, I just couldn't fire it because I took all the...

TI: But before you took out the guts, you said it was still just single firing, right?

RK: Yeah. But the problem is you have to clean after you get done, you go back to your squad bay, you have to take everything apart and clean it. I figure, "Why should I do that?" because when you fire blanks, it's got a little wax plug in the front end and that gets into your weapon, it's just hard to clean. I figure, why am I going to do that?

TI: So when you went to the war games, did you get in trouble then for taking out the guts?

RK: I did.

TI: [Laughs] Yeah, because I interviewed a lot of the Niseis who were in the 442, and some of them had to carry the BAR, and they said, yeah, it was a pain because it was just so heavy.

RK: You know, it was a great weapon, but it just weighed too much. And then they finally got rid of it because they didn't have what they called an adapter that you can plug into the barrel, which makes it more like a firing mechanism.

TI: When I just found out about the BAR and that story, I thought about some of the other men I've interviewed who were in the 442. I'm curious, when you were in the infantry unit, the 442nd was a well-known Europe-based infantry unit, Japanese American. Were you aware of the 442 and did people know about the 442 in Korea?

RK: Yeah.

TI: So what did people know or say about the 442?

RK: Well, they knew it was one of the most decorated units.

TI: Oh, so they knew at that time?

RK: Oh, yeah. There was one guy, wasn't in my platoon, but he was from Hawaii. So he used to tell me stories about...

TI: The Hawaii guys, in particular, knew the 442.

RK: Yeah. There was a bunch of them over there.

TI: And so what were some of the stories this Hawaiian guy told about the 442?

RK: Well, about how good of a unit there was, how much they did for the war effort. So then when he went back, he sold me his transistor radio. I still have it, I think.

TI: So it was kind of a special keepsake?

RK: Yeah.

TI: That's good.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2024 Densho. All Rights Reserved.