<Begin Segment 7>

LD: How did you first hear about the Merrill's? I don't even remember what you said about that. How did you hear about it?

HF: I heard about the Merrill's Marauders, of course, it was known by some other name, in fact, we didn't even know about Merrill's Marauders at the time. It was represented to us as an unknown --

LD: You are in Savage, right? You're about to graduate.

HF: Yes.

LD: Okay, tell me that. You're about to graduate, and who coached you or what did you hear? What did they actually say to you, what do you remember thinking at the time?

HF: I was about to graduate in the first graduating class at Camp Savage. And one day, out of a clear blue sky, I was approached by our team leader, later to be team leader, Edward Mitsukado, who took me to the commanding officer. And they proposed to me a campaign of some magnitude, which was to be a secret mission, and that there would be fourteen of the graduating class to be recruited for this purpose. And I was to be given one of the slots as an opportunity. I could refuse if I wanted to, or I could volunteer for the mission.

LD: What did they tell you about it?

HF: That, all they would depict at that time was to expect, perhaps, a fifty percent casualty, and this would take us behind enemy lines.

LD: Why did you want to do it?

HF: When a Nisei or anyone at that particular time, I suppose, it doesn't have to necessarily be a Nisei, is put on a position of accepting a challenge, especially in wartime, and especially from a Nisei background, it's very, very difficult to say, "No, I don't want to go."

LD: Did you want to go?

HF: Yes. In my heart I felt that I did want to go. And it wasn't long after that that we were put on a train to Camp Stoneman, and then onto the Lurline and across the waters to a training camp in India.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.