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gky: Okay. Now, you volunteered for the army in March of '41 when you got in.

SY: Yes.

gky: Why did you volunteer?

SY: I wanted to volunteer to -- you know, at the time, it speculated that young men would be drafted, and I had my number for draft call on the third draft, and they had the first and second draft already called in. But time dragged and they didn't, I didn't know when they were going to call me in, so I felt rather than wait for them, I'd volunteer so that way I'll know I'll get in service and perhaps get my obligation over with insofar as conscription duty was concerned. So, that's why I volunteered. And...

gky: So it was sort of before anybody was volunteering to kind of prove themselves or prove any loyalty, or anything like that.

SY: No, I didn't have anything of that sort of thinking in the back of my mind at all. I just wanted to fulfill my obligation for draft and get it over with.

gky: Okay. Then, after you were in language class, what was it like generally at school, at the MIS language class? How did you know what was secret, what wasn't secret, what you were being trained for?

SY: No, I had no idea... it was, what kind of subject or what kind of topics would be classified secret or not. I thought that the entire undertaking of my attendance at the school, and the fact that the school was at Savage, was all confidential, secret information, so I didn't look to see what aspect of the training would be secret or not. I had no idea what would be secret, what subject would be secret; I just felt that the entire curricula, the fact that I was attending the MIS, MIS classes, was secret.

gky: You were learning the -- or you were studying the Japanese language, then obviously it had something to do with Japan. What were you thinking about when you thought that you would be fighting, or you would be facing the Japanese, people of your own ethnic background?

SY: That sort of thing didn't occur to me at all. It was quite obvious that the type of teaching they were giving me that we would be confronting Japanese prisoners. In what aspect, at that time, I had no idea what I was doing, but I, the fact that I would be confronting Japanese didn't give me any special feeling at all.

gky: When you went to see your parents before you left, you took a three-day pass and went to see your parents; this was in May of 1942.

SY: Correct.

gky: They were getting ready to be evacuated.

SY: Correct.

gky: You both had packed suitcases, only they were going to American concentration camp, if you will, and you were going overseas. What a funny kind of reunion that must have been for you.

SY: It was a very depressing meeting and, you know, you're supposed to be happy to be able to see each other again. But when I got home, like you said, or you mentioned that my folks were all packed up ready to be interned, where they didn't know. But my brothers and sisters and my parents all had one suitcase apiece, and just waiting to be sent to where they didn't know. And here I was going overseas. So it was kind of a sad atmosphere that I faced, and I think they did, too. And it felt that, I felt very odd that here they're going to the relocation or concentration camp, and I'm already in uniform, and I was already going to, what is it, serve overseas with, in the intelligence aspect.

gky: Were you given sealed orders when you went?

SY: I beg your pardon?

gky: Were you given sealed orders? In other words, did you know where you were going?

SY: No. I had no idea. Probably Major Swift knew. I had no idea. I didn't know where we were going. As a matter of fact, when I got back from my three-day leave, back to San Francisco, I was told that to report to the Hudson Park staging area. Because the war broke out suddenly, the facilities for embarking or disembarking was inadequate. So they ordered us to go to Hudson Park. They created a staging area where you were shipment for overseas. So we were at Hudson Park staging area for about three or four, no, no, a couple weeks I suppose. And we boarded a ship. It was a ship converted to a troop ship, civilian ship called steamship Uruguay. So we loaded onto the Uruguay and we were in a convoy, the ship was in a convoy of about, oh, countless other ships, and it took us about three weeks, almost three weeks, to get to Auckland, New Zealand. After we got aboard ship, they said -- I knew where I was going to Auckland, New Zealand and then to Australia. But until then, I had no idea, no semblance of an idea where I was going or what I was going to do.

gky: When you were sent to San Francisco, were you billeted at Angel Island or were you billeted at the Presidio somewhere?

SY: No, I was... billeted? You mean prior to going overseas?

gky: Uh-huh.

SY: No, no Angel Island. There was, like I said, Hudson Park is the park of San Francisco as you know, and they commuted that to a staging area for you to await shipment overseas.

gky: Is that an area below the Golden Gate Bridge?

SY: Yes, yes.

gky: Did you ever doubt your decision to volunteer in the army when you saw your parents, or when you were going overseas?

SY: No, I had no misgivings of my volunteering at all. As a matter of fact I felt that, especially after the war broke out, I felt that it, that my duty to be serving in service more than when I first volunteered.

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