<Begin Segment 19>

MN: So you're in Morningside and then, now, Bruce Kaji left Morningside College within two months. What happened to him?

SO: He got a letter from Uncle Sam. Was drafted.

MN: When did you get your, when did you get drafted?

SO: Well I was able to complete the semester, then I got my draft notice. I went to Fort Snelling to be inducted, and from there I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to receive my clothing allowance. This is the history of my service. [Laughs] Then I went to Fitzsimmons General Hospital in Denver, Colorado, to receive my training in becoming a medic.

MN: How did you end up there?

SO: I don't know. You know, with the army, they're famous for putting square pegs in round holes. I was an engineering major and they put me in the medics. From Denver I went to Palo Alto, to Dibble General Hospital, and worked in the psychiatric ward. Then from there I went to take my basic training up at Fort Lewis, Washington.

MN: Now, where were you when they declared VJ Day?

SO: VJ Day, I think I was taking basic training.

MN: At Fort Lewis?

SO: Yeah. This was in September, right?

MN: No, August.

SO: August or September. Well anyway --

MN: '45

SO: -- I was one bivouac at the time, and we always assumed that we were gonna go to the Pacific Theatre because we though they were hurrying our training, basic training. We were through in six weeks, whereas most of the infantry people, they, I think, get seventeen weeks. But anyway, I was on bivouac when VJ Day was announced.

MN: How did you feel when you heard the news?

SO: Sort of relieved. You know, the war was over, and it's a relief to feel that you don't have to go into combat.

MN: Now, the unit that you were training with, was it a segregated unit?

SO: No. It, they were... in fact, I, during basic training I think there were only two or three of us that were Japanese.

MN: How did the other non-Japanese American soldiers treat you?

SO: Just like I was a regular guy, no differently from anybody else.

MN: But you mentioned that when you were stationed at Fort Lewis you were restricted to post. What, why were you restricted to post?

SO: We were restricted to post because the Hawaiian guys, they'd go up to Seattle and they'd really raise a ruckus. I think it was because they'd get drunk and they'd crash different dances, social dances, and they were of the opinion that the guys up in Seattle told the women not to dance with these Hawaiian guys. In fact, we were, a friend of mine and I, we were leaving a, one of the socials and as we went outside about four or five Hawaiian guys came up to us and they said, "Hey, where you guys from?" Said, "We're from L.A." Says, "Okay, you can go." But if we were from Seattle they probably would've beat us up. But anyway, that's why were, the Hawaiian guys were raising so much ruckus up in Seattle we were restricted to post. Well the Asians, anyway, or the Japanese.

MN: So when you were in the army and you were part of this medical corps, what were some of your responsibilities?

SO: Well, I became what they call a ward master, and my duties were just to clean up the ward. Make the beds, sometimes we were allowed to give shots, but most of it was the dirty work that the nurses wouldn't do.

MN: Did you have to do any traveling?

SO: When I first, my first duty was to take a troop train, or hospital train, down to El Paso, Texas. These were guys that were wounded in service overseas, so we just took a troop train down to El Paso. That was my first encounter with the medic, medics.

MN: Did any of these wounded soldiers have any problems being administered by a Japanese American?

SO: No. In fact, the guys that were most seriously wounded due to the war, they were more closed-mouth than these people that got hurt just by an accident, maybe like a, stepping off a truck and broken their leg or something. They were the most vocal. They complained the most. But the guys that were wounded in battle, they hardly ever raised any ruckus.

MN: And when you say, I mean, complaining, they're not complaining because of your racial background. They're just --

SO: No, no. They're complaining because of their, they're hurting.

MN: Going back to VJ Day, and you know the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and your mother was originally from Hiroshima. How did you feel about that?

SO: Well, they, in order to show the effects of the bomb they could've dropped it offshore, just to show the power of the atomic bomb. But then to drop it on Hiroshima and then again on Nagasaki, that was to me unconscionable. You know, they could've shown the destructive power of the atom bomb very differently, and I thought at the time it was an atrocity.

MN: When were you honorably discharged from the army?

SO: December of '46.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.