<Begin Segment 6>

LD: You were hearing a lot of rumors about big battles. What were you hearing about that, and then what happened?

KY: Well, while we were Schofield Barracks, I guess ready for shipment at that time, we were hearing rumors either in the post or friends would come back. Some friends would be living in Honolulu, working in the post, talking to them, "What's going on in Honolulu?" and they started talking about, the rumors are something is coming up. And so we tried to tie in our shipment with that, and they shipped us out pretty fast.

LD: Tell us about... I'd like you start off by saying, "I got shipped out from Hawaii to the mainland and became part of the 100th Battalion." I want you to tell me about all that. Start out by saying, "I got shipped out..."

KY: I got shipped out after leaving Schofield Barracks. We were ordered on short notice to be ready for shipment, and we got on the train. The train had gone to the pier at that time, and we went straight for a troop ship. We had no chance to even call our folks or family. And the troop ship was the old SS Maui. I don't recall whether it was... maybe it was during the day, but we had a destroyer escort when we left Honolulu harbor. And I think that night, the troop ship kept... I think we had an inkling we were going to the mainland, but we weren't sure. The next morning, when we got out, up on board the deck, we see no destroyer. So holy mackerel, we were just going by ourselves, no escort or nothing. And we did have an experience out in Molokai channel, I think, a submarine had sunk a ship going interisland. So during, after my travel on the troop ship to the mainland, I made it a point to sleep on deck. [Laughs] As long as you have no escort, at least you have a fighting chance.

LD: You were afraid the ship might be sunk.

KY: Oh, yeah, because we had no escort. We went all over, we zigzagged all the way, because a ship would go zigzag all the way under. Clear vision of any submarine could just spot you and torpedo you.

LD: You had no inkling that this was going to happen. They suddenly said, what did they way to you when they asked you to ship out? What did they say to the troops to move out? What did they say to you?

KY: Well, they did, they took all... we had to return our arms and ammunition, and actually they reissued us new gear. And from there, why, the orders were just to entrain on the train and we just followed, get on the train, and of course, being a train, we didn't know where we were going, but we most likely thought it would be onto a boat, to a ship.

[Interruption]

KY: When we were ordered to ship out, all members of the 298th/299th infantry, our National Guard, were ordered to go to Schofield Barracks.

LD: Excuse me, tell me this is June '42.

KY: June of '42.

LD: June '42 was the Battle of Midway.

KY: Yeah, well, that we didn't know until later because we were on board ship all the time. We actually pieced together that information months later.

LD: You figured out that that might be the reason why they shipped you out? You thought so then?

KY: Yeah.

LD: I want you to tell us that.

KY: But we didn't know it was the Battle of Midway. We knew that something was going, that's the rumors in Honolulu.

LD: Fine. "In June of '42, we knew some big thing was going to happen." Tell us that.

KY: Well, in June 1942 when all the Nisei soldiers were called in... actually the suspicion was that it was some battle imminent. And from rumors we heard, there was a lot of activity at Pearl Harbor, it must be a naval battle somewhere near Hawaii. And for that reason we were called because we were the only people of Japanese blood armed, and the military wanted to get our weapons away. And when we arrived at Schofield Barracks, I don't exactly recall where the order was, all soldiers, officers and enlisted men of Japanese blood were to be recalled. But it obvious it was so, but what was surprising, that even soldiers of only fractional Japanese blood were also recalled. For instance, what comes to mind is, for instance, we have, in our company, we had a James Holahula, he was as Hawaiian as you can find any Hawaiian. But we found out he had a small percentage of Japanese blood. He was included in our group. And so in June 1942 when we were recalled and shipped out immediately, we kind of pieced things together, that our reason for our recall was because of the imminent battle that will occur someplace near Hawaii. Now, we never knew it was the Battle of Midway, because we were on the ship all the time, from landing in Oakland, we went to [inaudible] and we sort of lost contact with what occurred in Hawaii. But later we found out it was the Battle of Midway.

LD: Tell me about you were, about how you were always moving in the darkness, and you said you were, the ship was somehow always, was scheduled to land in darkness and your training was in darkness, and why was that? Tell me about that.

KY: Well, when we were shipped out, the method used actually came to my attention immediately because when we landed in Oakland, when the troop ship finally landed in Oakland, it was in the stillness of the night, I think it was about midnight. The boat landed in Oakland harbor, and I'm not sure whether the war evacuation had already started or not. But all the hysteria on the West Coast, I think the army didn't want to create any suspicion. We stayed in uniform, of course, American uniform, but it could be misinterpreted. And even when the men, which at that time wasn't known as the 100th Battalion yet, it was known as the Hawaii Provisional Battalion, and we were split in three trains, three different trains. One went to the south, one in the central route, and the other the northern route. And we all converged later, we found out we all converged at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. But even when we reached Camp McCoy, it was in the stillness of the night again. The train just slowly moved in at night in the darkness. And it seemed to me that the U.S. Army, I think, trying to avoid any problems. Japanese faces in a large group, in uniform, is moving into the continental United States, it may cause problems, I suppose.

LD: When you were on the boat and when you were on the train with the other guys, you must have been talking about what was up. You didn't know what was going to happen. Do you remember any of that and what were you thinking? What were the other guys saying? You must have all talked.

KY: Well, I guess the troops knew that with all the West Coast evacuation talk and so forth. So actually, as far as I was concerned, I thought, the first thing in my mind is that they took our arms away, they're shipping us out, West Coast evacuation going on full blast. The only conclusion I can reach is I think they're going to put us in internment camp, too. So when we reached Camp McCoy, as I say, in the stillness and the darkness, and all you can see is the stockade, they had four corners of, either internment camp or PW camp, they had guards on each tower. And when we were going into Camp McCoy on a train, here this tower with a security guard, and flashing, with a searchlight shining on the borders of the fence, I said, "Oh boy, looks like they're going to intern us," that was the first impression I had. That's when I think I heard some of my buddies in my company said, "Hey, that's the camp my father is in," which was really a surprise. Then, more so, we felt that boy, I think they're going to really intern us like PWs, that's the impression we had.

LD: What did he mean by, "That's the camp my father's in"? Can you tell me what he said? "When we got to Camp McCoy, one of my buddies said..."

KY: When we arrived at Camp McCoy, not that night but I think the following day or two, two of my friends said, "Oh, this is the camp my father has been interned." Whether he's there or not, he didn't know, but he said, "Camp McCoy is where my father's interned." But the following day, which was, was a relief to us that we're marching to open tents, it was outside of the guarded encampment, so that we knew that we weren't going to be interned, we went to regular army tents. And it looks like we were pretty much free and not to be interned.

LD: When you went into, sort of, basic training, went into some kind of training.

KY: That's right.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.