Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Kunio Otani Interview
Narrator: Kunio Otani
Interviewers: Alice Ito (primary), Rebecca Walls (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 31, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-okunio-01-0025

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AI: And then after that, let's see, where were you taken after that?

KO: Well eventually, I went to Fort Meade, Maryland to ship out. But I was held back in Camp Hood for awhile and did not ship out with the others that came in. And...

AI: And that was because?

KO: Well, somebody felt that I would make a good cook. Which I didn't like, I found out in a hurry. And so, I decided that I'd like to move on. So I ended up in Fort Meade, and joined some other Nisei recruits there who were gonna' go overseas. And I think while we were there, the war ended. So we were wondering what was going to happen to us, but the army had a program in place where they were going to replace the people who'd been there in combat, in Europe, with new people. And so, we were shipped over there as part of that group.

AI: Now I think you mentioned that one of your brothers had gone into the service a little bit earlier?

KO: He went in the same time as I did, but he shipped out when he normally should've; and so he ended up in combat with the 522nd. When I went to Europe eventually, I was able to meet him a couple times.

AI: And had you heard anything from him as far as how that combat had gone, or what he had gone through?

KO: He didn't discuss it too much. But I'm sure he's got his own experiences to tell. All I know is that it affected his hearing quite a bit, because he was in the antitank battalion. And it's still, it's a problem somewhat to this day. And I think he's lost his sense of smell too, somehow, during the time he was in the army.

AI: Now how was it that you were able to meet up with him in Germany?

KO: Well, we kept in touch by letter, and so when I got over there, I started a little correspondence. See, the thing that happened, was I ended up in Germany in a place called Schwabacher. [Schwabach] And they had their reinforcement depot there, where the people coming in would be processed and the people going back to the States would be processed. And they looked through my records and I think they noted that I could do a little typing and things like that, so I ended up as a company clerk there for a person who was leaving. And so I just stayed there for the time I was in Europe.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.