<Begin Segment 9>

WH: Are there other stories that you recall vividly from those camp days?

DT: Well, I guess... I think it came out before, but it's about one Nobu Kajiwara, who was a Nisei from the Oakland Methodist Church. And while in Topaz, when they called, asked for volunteers, he said he wanted to volunteer. And the parents said, "Why, Nobu, you're the only son. Wait for the draft; don't go." But he said, "No, I have to go, because I just feel that I should do it." And so he volunteered, and sadly, he was killed at the crossing of the Volturno River in Italy with the 442. The 442 was the most highly decorated outfit in the U.S. Army of that size, and after he died, in Topaz, the mother was still in camp, in Topaz. The project, assistant project director and his wife, Gladys and Roscoe Bell, Gladys wanted to go to visit the mother. And she thought, well, she hesitated, but she went to see Mrs. Kajiwara. And when she saw Mrs. Kajiwara, she said, "I'm so sorry that you lost your son, and he was your only son." And Mrs. Kajiwara said, "You know, other mothers have lost their son, some their only son. Why should I be any different?" What a story. You see? All kinds of stories.

WH: How did your brother come to be in the, in the army?

DT: Oh, he was drafted. He was, he was a student at University of Utah, and then the draft called him, and he was going as a replacement as the 442 Combat Team in Italy when the war ended. And so he was in Japan with the counterintelligence corps, and I think he had an interesting experience in Japan, visiting relatives, too.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2005 Densho and The Japanese American Film Preservation Project. All Rights Reserved.