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gky: The date is December 14th, the year 2000. We're talking with Rusty Kimura. K-I-M-as-in-Mary-U-R-A in L.A. Rusty, what year were you born; when were you born?

RK: January 19, 1915.

gky: And how long did you serve in the MIS?

RK: From December, about December 5th through...

gky: And the year?

RK: December 5th of 1942 through about February 26, 1947, and then I received a discharge overseas, but I continued to work for the army doing the same job as a civilian. So I was with the army, in other words, in the army for approximately fifty months but I stayed another over seventeen years as a civilian working for the army.

gky: Were you drafted?

RK: No, I volunteered from Topaz Relocation Center in Utah.

gky: Why did you volunteer for the MIS?

RK: Well, I heard there were army recruiters in camp seeking volunteers for the language school in Minnesota. And at first I thought they got a lot of nerve asking us, putting us in camp and then asking us to volunteer. But I thought, after thinking it over, I felt that I would like to volunteer, because by going into the army, in view of the fact that others were also going into the army, as a group we might be instrumental in, say, making life a little bit more easier and, what would you say -- friendly, a society more friendlier to our families. It might be an advantage to our families, you see.

gky: So, you always think of yourself as a Japanese American.

RK: Yeah. As a Japanese American being put in camps and then still we volunteered for the service in the army and for our country. I think it would give a good impression. Of course, I didn't think of all those things in detail. Only briefly it might be of some help to my brothers and sisters, 'cause I didn't have any parents at the time.

gky: Yeah, your mother died in Tanforan just before you went to camp.

RK: Right, right.

gky: And you originally stayed out of a relocation -- so-called "relocation center," but after your mother died, you decided to go there.

RK: Yeah, and join the family.

gky: Gee, that must have been a hard decision.

RK: What was that?

gky: It must have been a hard decision; instead of staying on the outside of the barbed wire, you chose to go in with your family.

RK: Well, my mother died so I figured I should be with the family. The purpose of my not going into camp with my family at the time was that I felt that I could go to -- the government said that if anyone moves off the coast, even if they stay within the state but inland, they may not have to go into camp. Those persons may not have to go into camp. The government didn't promise, they just said they may not have to, so I thought I'd take the family car, go up to the, further north into the Marysville area with which I was very familiar, and that way I could send to camp whatever little necessities that they might want, you know, like peanut butter, canned goods, or whatever, and clothing. But then my mother died, so I felt that I should be with the family, with the rest of the family. Not only that, the Marysville had to go into camp anyway. Most of the Marysville people I think went to Tule Lake.

gky: What did your mother die of?

RK: Cerebral hemorrhage.

gky: She had a stroke.

RK: Uh-huh.

gky: And, you're the third of eight children, right?

RK: Right.

gky: So you had eight brothers and sisters, seven brothers and sisters who were actually parentless. Your father had already died, hadn't he?

RK: Right.

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