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gky: What was the difference between the students that first, that very first class, and as we got into war and this war's being stepped up, the feeling among the, and the kind of students that came in, in Camp Savage?

SK: It was no different. First class were all volunteers. The second class at Camp Savage, also all volunteers, and the quality of their Japanese was very good. The problem started to arise for assembling the third class.

gky: Hold on a second. You, you said problems...

SK: Yes. The reports from the field, Guadalcanal in Fiji, were that MIS graduates were badly needed, and for the first class at Camp Savage in 1942 there were quite a number of people who had previously been interviewed by Colonel Rasmussen. Then there were people, these were people already in the army, and so about a hundred and eighty of these people reported to, for training for the first class, but for the second class the conditions were quite different. By now all the Japanese Americans in Washington, Oregon, and California were in relocation camps, and the atmosphere in the relocation camps was negative. "Hell with the United States, throwing us into camps like this and treating us like enemy aliens," because that's what the Selective Service classified Nisei as, enemy aliens, not as 1-A draftees. We don't, the army said, we don't want you, and so there was no more drafting of Japanese Americans in the camps, and being thrown into these desolate camps, the feeling of the Japanese American was, I don't want to fight for the United States. I want to go to Minnesota to become a language student. And so Major Dickey and Aki Oshida were ordered to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin where the 100th Infantry from Hawaii were in training. The 100th Infantry was formed from two reserve units in Hawaii. The situation in Hawaii was getting very tense. They, the army didn't want Nisei troops in uniform in Hawaii, so they shipped fifteen hundred Niseis of the 100th Battalion to Wisconsin. They were training there. These were young men who were good in Japanese. Major Dickey and Aki Oshida were able to recruit a hundred of the 100th Battalion people to come for the third class that was starting in December of 1942.

And the recruitment problem still continued, so Colonel Stewart was sent to Hawaii in the spring of 1943 to recruit Japanese Americans, civilians, to come to Minnesota to study as Japanese language combat intelligence soldiers. And the response was absolutely positive. Colonel Stewart came back with over three hundred people. Many of these Japanese Americans were already close to forty years in age, people, principals of high schools, lawyers, bankers. They wanted to serve the United States. In Hawaii the situation was quite different from that on the continent. The people of Hawaii, first generation, second generation, third generation, were not in concentration camps, but they were not trusted by the army, so when they got this opportunity to volunteer they volunteered by the hundreds. At the same time, in February 1943, the United States under President Roosevelt's guidance decided to establish a 442 Regimental Combat Team comprised of Japanese Americans. The quota for the original recruitment was about three thousand from the mainland and one thousand from Hawaii.

gky: Can I interrupt you, and can I ask you about something else? You know when you described being at Camp Savage to me and living conditions, it sounded in a lot of ways like the camps that your parents were taken to. Did you ever think about that, that here you are, your working for the army, you're living in camps in a lot of the same, same kinds of situation as your parents, sharing a common toilet?

SK: No. The feeling among the dozen or so instructors at the residential area of Camp Savage was completely open. We were free. Clerks, military clerks would come around each week and take orders from each of the families for food to be purchased at the PX and the commissary at the Fort Snelling. We had access to butter, to bacon, coffee. Then we were free to shop at the neighboring town of Shakopee. The main thing is that we were free and working as instructors for the government. We were treated like family by Colonel Rasmussen and Colonel Dickey, and the people of Minnesota were warm and friendly. Each week while we were there, Aya and I would go shopping in Minneapolis and fix up sort of a comfort carton box full of goodies and magazines, cookies, candies, coffee when we could find it, and send it to our parents in camp. So we were free. We were working for the government. People from Minnesota welcomed us, so our feeling in Minnesota was, you know, we are American citizens. We're working for the government. People are friendly. Had no problems whatsoever. We communicated weekly with our parents in the relocation centers and we sent them cookies and candies and things like that, so we understood what the situation was. It was completely different from that of our residence in Minnesota.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2000 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.