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LD: Let's go to the Merrill's Marauders. Let's go to, you are at Savage, and you're graduating, and you're a team leader, they want to make you the team leader, and they want you to organize something.

EM: Yes.

LD: What is it that they... what is it that Rasmussen, what does Rasmussen say to you? He's the CO, commanding officer?

EM: Yes.

LD: Okay. Say, "When I was at Savage, the commanding officer..." and graduating, right?

EM: We had graduated already, so they were making out assignments. So after we had graduated six months' training Japanese language at Savage, I was called in by Colonel Rasmussen, and along with me was Herbert Miyasaki, and we were told by Colonel Rasmussen that there's a special mission that had been worked out. And the special mission would need the help of interpreters, of people who knew the Japanese language. So he said, "What we want are volunteers for this mission, and," he says, "this will be a very dangerous mission, and," he says very seriously, "fifty percent should be able to come back, they will be lucky." He didn't think even fifty percent would be able to come back. So he says, "I want this only on a volunteer basis. Sergeant Mitsukado, do you think you can, will you organize a group of sixteen linguists including yourself?" Including myself, I was the worst linguist. But he says, "Including yourself." I said, "Fine." So I went out, I put out a sign asking for volunteers to a mission, to a very dangerous mission, return not guaranteed. And lo and behold, I thought the whole school had volunteered, because there were so many names on that list. Not only amazed me, but made me feel very good, that here we're asking for volunteers for a dangerous mission, where there's no guarantee you'll be returning alive, and yet, fellows in the school there, when they're studying language for six months, I don't know how many of them signed up, to tell you the truth. I know I saw so many of them, I just didn't, what do you call, didn't count or anything. It's only in talking with other people, I finally got fifteen names other than my own self, making that a group of sixteen.

Well, at that time, another very unusual thing happened. While I was asking for volunteers, before I took down the poster, I got a call from a hospital nearby, a hospital where one of the fellows was... he had been in there for about a couple days or three, I forgot how many days, anyway, for hemorrhoid operation. And he called me specially on the phone, and I didn't know him from Adam, too, because his Japanese was way over my head, he was way up in the higher classes, about class 3 or something. He was Herbert Miyasaki's class there. And he told me, gave me his name and everything, and told me that, "I want to volunteer, too," he says, "but I'm in the hospital, I can't go there and sign my name." He says, "Will you please take my name down?" And the way he talked and everything, I was so much impressed that I told him, "Yes, I'm taking your name down, but I will put you down as one of the volunteers." And, well, I don't mind mentioning his name, it's a fellow named Jimmie Yamaguchi. He was out in Japan, too, and he got married to a Japanese girl and everything. He was very, very helpful in the campaign.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1986 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.