Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Rudy Tokiwa Interview II
Narrator: Rudy Tokiwa
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary), Judy Niizawa (secondary)
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: July 2 & 3, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-trudy-02-0030

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RT: Well, you see, one of the things, a lotta the, even a lotta the other guys never knew it, but being that I was a runner in the 442nd, I was 3rd Battalion runner. But you get in quite a few of the conversation of what our full colonel, the boss of us all, saying. You hear a lotta this. And so one day, I happened to be talkin' to a colonel, and I said, "Gee, some of these officers, I don't think much of 'em." You know me, I just say what I think. I'm not, I don't hold anything back. And he was the one that sat me down, and he told me, he says, "You may not think much of 'em, but you know these officers that are in the 442nd, they're not just being shipped here. They go through a real rigid examination before they can come here, what their thoughts are and everything." And he says, "They don't just get picked by me. They got picked by a board. And they're the people that believe in you guys." After, when he told me this, then I really started to respect 'em all. Because to come into an outfit that's all Japanese Americans, you don't know nothin' about these guys, but you're willing to come in there and defend their rights and everything. You gotta give 'em credit.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.