<Begin Segment 14>

AI: Well, here you are, you are, first you're -- because you've got a Japanese background you're put in, segregated into a camp. Then they go draft you and you're in this, in your basic training. And then suddenly you get this notice because of your language, because you've got the Japanese they were going to put you in this other special place. How were you feeling about this?

RS: Well, at that time I thought maybe that was a little bit easier, so, we didn't complain about anything. We just, they took us draft or send us over there and we went over there and went to Japanese school. And to Minnesota and from there I went to Monterey, California for a little bit further training. And then they just discontinued that service.

AI: So by then, that would have 1946?

RS: Yeah, it was 1946. So I guess no longer they needed Japanese language. We were mainly trained to go to Japan to be interpreter. That was the main reason.

AI: But you, so you didn't end up going to Japan?

RS: No I did not end up going to Japan, because the war ended, and I kind of wanted to go to Japan, sightseeing, but I never got the chance to go. [Laughs]

AI: Now in the meantime, what had happened to your other brothers, had they been drafted too?

RS: Yeah, I had two brothers that... was drafted, and they decided they wanted to make it careers, so both spent over twenty years. One of them in the army and one in the Coast Guard. So now they're spent -- served their time twenty years plus, and then they're retired now.

AI: And then, what about your folks? Let's see, I think in 1945, the camp closed down, is that right?

RS: Yeah they closed down, so they went to Idaho and started working for some farmers over there in Idaho.

AI: And that was your mom and dad?

RS: Yeah, and my sister I think. And the rest of the boys were on their own somewhere. So the folks and my sister.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.