<Begin Segment 22>

MN: Now, what year did you graduate from San Fernando High School?

MO: 1948.

MN: And then from there you went to college?

MO: Yeah, went to L.A. City College, Cal State L.A.

MN: Almost became a journalist?

MO: And did graduate work at SC and Cal State L.A.

MN: And then you were drafted into the army, what year were you drafted?

MO: 1953.

MN: And when you were drafted, the Korean War was --

MO: Yeah, it was on.

MN: The cease fire had not been..

MO: No, no, that wasn't until July, and that's just when I finished my basic training. What a relief. [Laughs]

MN: Now you spoke some Japanese, so were you sent to Korea?

MO: No, no. They weren't going to send me to Korea because two of my brothers were there. The strange part about it was when I got to Fort Ord, the first lieutenant was, the personnel officer was a person I knew. He was, he'd been student body president at San Fernando High School, and he and my brother were in the same class, my older brother. And I remember telling him, "How do I get out of going to Korea?" He said, "Well, you go to a service school," so I signed up for about ten of 'em. [Laughs] And then the war ends and he calls me in and says to me, Lieutenant Supernaugh says, "You're going to Fort Benning." I said, "What do you mean I'm going to Fort Benning?" He says, "You're going to Fort Benning." [Laughs] I said, "The war's over." He said, "You got to go to service school. I'm going to give you three choices." I said, "What are the three." He said, "You're going to go to jump school to become a paratrooper." I said, "I don't want to do that." "You're going to OCS and become an officer," that's another year. "I don't want to do that." He says, "Well, you can go to weapons training school." I said, "What's the advantage of that?" He said, "Well, you become PFC when you get out." So I said, "Yeah, that's what I'll do." So it worked out well for me because when I got to Europe I got a real plush job with the Seventh Army NCO Academy.

MN: And then when you were in Germany, you met a lot of Japanese Americans from Hawaii?

MO: Oh, yeah. All they wanted to do was drink and fight. [Laughs] That's all they wanted to do, drink and fight. The bad part is that one of the guys looked just like me. We could have passed as brothers. So people wanted to fight me because -- [Laughs] -- fight with Kazuo. I still remember that. But we were the same size, six feet tall, skinny, and all Japanese look alike. [Laughs]

MN: Did you get along with the Hawaii boys? I mean --

MO: Yeah, yeah. They would tell me, You're different than most of the kotonks." He says, "You talk to us like regular people. You used to talk to us." And this something I noticed after Hawaii people came here, say, in the '50s and '60s, and Nisei people wouldn't have a lot of dialogue with them unless they were neighbors. And then when they got to know one another, it changed.

MN: Do you want to share with us why you don't drink anymore?

MO: I just had a serious accident and I almost died because we'd been drinking.

MN: So when were you honorably discharged from the army?

MO: I got out of active service in April of 1953, but I didn't get my honorable discharge until 1955. That's what it says on my discharge papers, because I had to spend time in the reserves. So I spent two years in the reserve. And upon completion of that, they gave me an honorable discharge. But, see, at the time we left, we just got separation.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.