Densho Digital Archive - Bill Hashizume Interview (denshovh-hbill

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NI: So what were the circumstances then, before you entered the Japanese navy? Did you volunteer for the navy?

BH: Well, it was either, it's either if I didn't volunteer for the navy, I'll be conscripted into the army. There's no conscription into the navy, it was either conscription into the army or go into sign up for the navy, and I opted for the latter, navy.

NI: And what was, what was your job in the navy?

BH: Well, they sent me off to school, a cadet school, to, for aircraft maintenance, aircraft maintenance. And that was because I had a technical background. Of course, I was in civil engineering, aircraft maintenance involves mechanical engineering, but I still had the technical part. Which, sure, we went to, they sent us to the maintenance school, aircraft maintenance school where I took basic training, and how to service the airplanes and so forth, but that didn't last long. Before long, after about... after about eight months, I was appointed an officer of the navy. Until then I was only a cadet. And once I got my commission as an ensign, ensign, they assigned me to a school where young cadets wanted to be, to be pilots. I went there, I went there, which, this cadet school was in Okayama. I went there, and that's, I worked there, I stayed there 'til the end of August, end of August of 1945, two weeks after the surrender. I was demobilized then.

NI: I see. What, what were your feelings? What were your feelings to be a member of the Japanese navy when Japan was at war with Canada?

BH: Well, it was either you fight or be killed. And I sure as hell hated to be killed. But it's like any, it's like any soldier, you have no, you have no animosity against the other guy, but if he's out to kill you, why, you want to be the first to kill him before he kills you.

NI: Did you see any active action?

BH: No, no.

NI: You didn't see any action.

BH: No. But, you know, once you graduate from a higher institution, you know what the score is, you begin to know what the score is. And what the heck, even if you are on the losing side, well, you got to do your best. And I was willing to do that; I was willing to do that like any, like any soldier or sailor.

NI: Did the navy make any use of your English ability?

BH: Surprisingly, no.

NI: They didn't?

BH: No, surprisingly, no. And I wondered about that; I wondered about that. Probably wasn't in my resume that they had. They, you know, my resume showed that I was born in thing and went to high school in, Kansai Gakuin high school, and Kobe Technical College. I don't know why they didn't put me more, you know, thing where use of, knowledge of English would be more useful to them. But probably naval bureaucracy or army bureaucracy, lot of stupid people there. They're good at writing entrance examination, but making decisions, some were really bad.

NI: Were there other Niseis that you knew, Canadian Niseis who were...

BH: There was one American Nisei that was in the cadet group, basic training. I think his name was Shimizu. But it's only a fleeting time that I was able to talk to him, he was in a separate, separate contingent, whereas I was in another one. And forever, most of the cadets, they're complaining about the bad food, how hard they had to work, they were always complaining. And that's one thing I never did, complain, complain. About the food that... heck, probably some of them were from well-off families, and they reluctantly had to, either they had to go to the army or navy, and they ended up being with the same group that I was. But this fellow called Shimizu, a Nisei from the States, started talking about Oh Henry! bars. You know Oh Henry! chocolate bars? Heck, yeah, I knew about the Oh Henry! chocolate bars and all the ice cream and candies, and this and that. But the only Nisei that I knew that was in the same class that I was, cadet class I was, is Shimizu. And I never, I never volunteered to seek out, but I was talking about -- he must have heard that I was Canadian-born. And during one brief period there, he came up to me and says, introduced himself and says he's from, he's a Nisei from the States, Shimizu. There was only that brief moment that I was able to get to know him and talk to him.