<Begin Segment 13>

TI: Now I'm going to jump really forward now all the way to Camp Shelby. And I guess the first question is, what was Camp Shelby when you first got there? Do you remember what it was like?

BT: Well, we used to sing a song where -- used to say it was the bottom of the United States. [Laughs] No, it was a rugged area. The weather was either too hot or too chilly.

TI: So it was, it wasn't like Hawaii?

BT: Oh, no, no.

TI: Then I guess one thing, the Hawaiian boys got to Camp Shelby, and already there were mainland Japanese there. I guess, what was it like when you first met the mainland Japanese?

BT: Boy, they all talk like Ronald Colman.

TI: Now, who is Ronald Colman?

BT: He's a movie actor that starred in Lost Horizons and A Tale of Two Cities. Beautiful English.

TI: And, so what did that make you feel, when you came across these Japanese Americans who had beautiful English?

BT: Oh, I wish I could talk like that.

TI: What was it like getting along with the mainlanders, for the Hawaiian boys?

BT: Oh, I don't know. Ah, we had mainland and Hawaii boys together. Little differences at first, but eventually they all ironed out.

TI: One of the things that we talked about earlier was the VVV, the Varsity Victory Volunteers...

BT: Yes.

TI: ...who were primarily former ROTC students, how it was good to have them around, because they had quite a bit of sometimes military understanding or background at Camp Shelby. Can you talk a little bit about that?

BT: Yes. The Varsity Victory Volunteers were primarily ROTC students that were called to duty on December 7. And, later on, they were dismissed for the fact that they were Japanese. Then, they volunteered their services and served as a labor battalion, about 169 of them. Then, they did a good job. In fact, they achieved a good record that kinda paved the way for the formation of the 442, that it was impressed on the higher authorities that these young Niseis want to serve their country. And I think the VVV proved that in the early days of the war. And when we went overseas they were scattered throughout the 442. And with their knowledge on military matters, they could stand up to some of the NCOs that would try to show off that we were young recruits, and try to buffalo us. But no, these university students would shape up those NCOs. They, "You're wrong. This is what we do." And I keep thinking particularly of Sus Yamamoto and Herbert Isonaga, who were in our company. And they did help, I wouldn't say show up the sergeants, but put the sergeants in their place, that they weren't dealing with some back-country boys.

TI: So that was probably good, because the mainland NCOs would quickly learn that there were people who really understood what was going on, and so that probably gave them more respect for the Hawaiians.

BT: I kind of think so, plus, that the officers in examining the records of those Varsity Victory Volunteers has to be impressed. And I think eventually it proved out where many of them became NCOs themself, and some even got battlefield commissions.

TI: Another thing when I think of the, some of the differences between the mainland and the Hawaiian boys, was you talked about earlier that the mainlanders talked a different English. You say that it was a beautiful English. Were there ever misunderstandings just from the language between the mainlanders and the Hawaiians?

BT: We take it for granted that our colorful pidgin English is accepted English, and, yeah, there were times when the mainland people couldn't understand some of the words we would say, that tempers would flare a little bit at times.

TI: Can you give an example of a word or a phrase that a mainlander would have a hard time understanding?

BT: Okay. We used the word pau quite frequently. Pau means "it's over." Or hemo. Hemo means "to take off." Hapai means "to carry", and those are accepted words in our ordinary conversation. So some of these words would fall on deaf ears as far as the mainlanders were concerned.

TI: And the Hawaiians wouldn't understand that they didn't understand the pidgin English, that they would think, "Well, I just said something, and they don't understand it?"

BT: That's right.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.