Densho Digital Archive - Chester Tanaka Interview (denshovh-tchester-01-0004)

<Begin Segment 4>

I: I wanted to ask you, Chet, about the training in Camp Shelby now. Did you have a sense that the units were trying to prove something even during their training period?

CT: Yes, there was a strong sense that you were on the spot, really, and that training was critical, I mean, you had to do well. And 99 to 100, almost a hundred percent of the group went through this, there were a few exceptions, probably I was the only one, maybe one other. But we didn't goof off totally. I would go up and fire the furnaces up for the service club because I didn't like to do hikes or close order drills, and I would be picked up and put on KP or whatever.

I: I understand that you were one of the people who were sort of, let's say lazy and sort of, wanted to get out of duty a little bit?

CT: Well, I don't know if it's lazy. We rationalized it. There was another fellow, Lloyd Inouye from Salinas, he was with I Company, he and I kind of buddied around during training, and we both decided that training, we needed the training and so forth, but we had been through a lot of this with the Boy Scouts earlier in our lives, and we didn't really need it now. And so through our rationalization somehow we ended up servicing the service club up on the hill and playing pool while the other guys were out marching. Of course, we were caught and put through KP and so forth. Lloyd and I, we really went through the training, picked up a lot of the essentials later on. But we were about the only two goof-offs that I know of, and we really didn't goof off too much.

I: But it turned out later... what happened later?

CT: Lloyd and I were good friends, we went overseas, eventually I became acting first sergeant for Company K, and Lloyd Inouye became acting first sergeant for Company I. I guess this is where goof-off training or service club training trains you to be a first sergeant, question mark? I don't know. Anyway, Lloyd was killed in action in the Folgorita area.

I: I had heard that many records were set by the 442nd for marching and marksmanship in Camp Shelby. Do you know anything of that? You mentioned what happened on the marches as well.

CT: Yes. Often when I was assigned to pull targets I was also on the other end shooting at targets. I became an expert marksman myself, they made you hit a bunch of bullseye instead of Maggie's drawers or you missed the target.

I: How is that, Maggie's drawers, M-A-G-G-I-E-S?

CT: Yes, that means they wave a red flag at you, that means you missed the damn target completely or you're so far off you get a --

[Interruption]

I: Were there any funny instances other than what you mentioned from training?

CT: Yes. One time... we lived in barracks, and there were a bunch of guys, I don't know, about thirty people in the barracks, twenty-four, I don't know how many, but a bunch of people, bunch of guys. The barracks next door, obviously they were getting a little bored, so they tore up all of our beds or bunks after we had fixed it up for inspection one morning. So we weren't going to let this go by unnoticed. So the next time, when they were away at mess, two of us, I'm not going to say I was included, but I won't say I was excluded. But the two of us got on top of the bunk -- this is on top of the barracks, and we had salamander stoves, one on each end. These are little potbellied iron stoves with the chimney going up through the roof. So we got up on top, this is in October, November, getting cold down there, even down south. So we got up there with a bunch of blanks, M-1 blanks. We dropped two or three down each pipe and carried a brick with us, and we put a brick on top of the chimney. Then we got off the roof as fast as we could and then headed over to the mess hall. After a few minutes we were eating there, and then we heard this muffled boom, boom. And that was great, because when we get back, all the soot had blown out of the pipes, goes out the front door of the salamander stoves, since it can't get out through the bricks, and it goes all over the bunkhouse, and that whole bunk is covered with soot. Now, you've got to be ready for inspection the next day, spic and span and clean, or you're going to hear from other people or you're on KP or latrine duty or whatever. But we didn't care because were weren't involved, essentially. Well, our beds were never touched after that. [Laughs]