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gky: When you went to the MIS, what happened? You went to Camp Savage?

RK: Yes. From the relocation camp in Topaz, we boarded army trucks, went to the railroad station, and by train we went to St. Paul, Fort Snelling in St. Paul where we were inducted and received our, you know, our -- well, we'll just say equipment, clothing and whatever. Then, I think, we stayed in Fort Snelling only a few days and then we were shipped to -- across the way to, it was called Camp Savage. I think there's a city of Savage there, and our camp was called Camp Savage.

gky: What was it like to go to language school? What did you have to do? What were the requirements?

RK: Well, first, when we were recruited in Topaz, we had to pass a very simple Japanese test, you know, And I didn't know very much Japanese because I didn't have the foundation, the basics of Japanese, but I guess I knew two or three -- I just happened to know two or three of the kanji that they presented me and they figured, they just said, "Oh, you're okay. You'll do fine," and accepted me. They just were looking for personnel because they figured they could train us anyway, and they certainly did in Camp Savage.

gky: I heard that school was pretty rigorous.

RK: Yes, it was; up early in the morning, I don't remember what, six o'clock or whatever. Then we went out on an eight-mile march first. At that time, that happened to be a very cold winter, 34 degrees below zero. And after the march, we'd have breakfast. After breakfast, I think breakfast was from about eight o'clock, then from nine o'clock we'd go to class. And class was mandatory from nine to five. Then study period was mandatory from six to nine. So from nine to eleven, you see, the lights were out at eleven o'clock. From nine to eleven, most of us studied in our barracks, and some fellows would go to the latrine to study after eleven o'clock, because the lights were always on in the latrine. They'd sit on the stools and study. I didn't do that even though I probably should have. But, however, I did study in the sense that the first month in Camp Savage, the first month of school, I didn't go into town, into Minneapolis with the other fellows who went in to have Chinese dinner, or whatever, you know, to see a movie. I stayed in and studied because I thought I was in over my head in my class, and I had to study to keep up with them.

[Interruption]

gky: What, why was it important to you to pass?

RK: Important to me to what?

gky: Well, you said you studied, you studied when you could have gone out and had fun or had a little relaxation.

RK: Well...

gky: Why did you want to pass so badly?

RK: Well, I just wanted to keep up with the rest of the fellows in class because I really thought that I was in over my head because it just happened to be that during the test, in Camp Savage that is, we also had a test so they could determine what class we should, they should put us in. So I think it just happened to be a coincidence that some of the kanji that appeared in the test happened to be something I knew, and they were rather difficult characters. I think that prompted them to put me into a class that is higher than I should have been in, and I felt that, gee, I didn't want to be kicked out of the school; volunteer for the army then have to be sent back to relocation camp because I failed in the task, in the test, I mean.

gky: So, that must have been sort of a prevalent feeling though, a certain amount of pride, of ganbatte, or...

RK: Right. I mean, I would be embarrassed to have to go back to camp and say this fellow volunteered for the army but they didn't want him. They kicked him out. They sent him back. He was rejected.

gky: So you did make it through camp.

RK: Yeah, I made it through.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2000 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.