<Begin Segment 8>

KY: My training at Savage, I think was, as far as army requirement for our use, I think was very necessary. Because the tests given were on the basis of basic Japanese language, written and writing. And, of course, what was difficult were the Chinese characters, but I had all those basics before joining the army when I was going to school in Japan. The tests were difficult for many because they didn't have the basic Japanese. And actually the thirty classes at Savage, Minnesota, what they did was they grade the test and had the groups by the score of the tests. The subjects taught were a lot of them military, too, military words, terms, nomenclature of weapons.

LD: We will cover that. I'm really asking you your feelings. In other words, were you glad to be with these other guys in this kind of training, and do you feel that you built, did you feel you built... see, like the 442 guys, they felt the unity, and certain developments got [inaudible]. The MI men only had that chance at Savage.

KY: Yeah, we dispersed, that's why.

LD: You dispersed after that. During the time that you were at Savage, did you feel that there was some kind of special esprit? Was there a unity in your class or in your barracks or among the students about the purpose, about the responsibility? Was there a special feeling that something they had to do as a group, not just me or him, as a group, do you think there was anything like that there?

KY: Well, the classes at Savage, of course, we were by class. I was class one, and we had certain... because there was a group there, had the same type of training. But we from the 100th, from Camp McCoy and went to Savage, we were in one barracks called Barracks 13. And we had a unity, we knew what the purpose was, but even though you're undergoing training, we didn't know exactly where we're going to be sent on our mission. But as far as our group, which was called the Sempai Gumi, we named ourselves the Sempai Gumi, the pioneers or the forerunners. We had an esprit de corps, sort of, and even after we graduated, we came back, we still were really... but the Savage group as such, there were about five, six thousand of us. But as soon as we got our training and were sent out, then we were all dispersed all over the Pacific, in my case Europe. So there wasn't the closeness of unity of the MIS, so-called.

LD: Did you ever feel that there was any difference between the guys from the mainland who had families locked up and the guys from the islands? Was there any difference in the way they felt, do you think there was?

KY: No, I think the group that volunteered from the relocation centers and the group from Hawaii, I think once they got to Savage, I think they had a sort of single purpose in their studies and their objective. And maybe at the start, they didn't quite understand each other, like the 442nd had some pretty difficult times adjusting. But I think the Savage group, I think were more of the same level. They understood... easily adaptable to the difference, the social differences. So I think they got on pretty good. Once they got in the field, they just worked in unison in one unit. Because if you were out in the field, you just got to stick together, otherwise... so I think they got on very well.

LD: Harada, the other fellow who had a father at Camp McCoy as far as they knew at that time, did they ever express any feelings about that?

KY: I think Ray Harada and Sadao Koyama, although they had their parents interned, as far as I can see, they never expressed any hostile reaction. And I think they served very well in the military.

LD: How about supposing your father had been picked up and had been... you knew he was interned right there at that very same camp where you had been, how do you think you would have felt?

KY: Well, I think if my father was interned, which he wasn't, and he was in the same camp at Camp McCoy right next to where we were training, I guess my attitude would be similar to Ray Harada or Koyama, it's just one of those things. You've got to serve your country, you serve your country.

LD: What did you think would happen in the future? What do you think Ray and the guys felt would happen later?

KY: Oh, I think Ray and Koyama didn't have any bitter feelings, I don't think, anyway, I never heard him express it as far as I know.

LD: They weren't particularly worried that something was going to happen to their father as long as they were serving?

KY: It didn't seem to me that they had any ill feelings.

LD: But you didn't think anything terrible was going to happen to them? You said they'd been locked up, kept in, locked up for a while. There was no worry about what would happen to them, just that they were being locked up and held, but you didn't think anything worse was going to happen?

KY: I think they probably knew the treatment given internees at relocation centers, nothing harsh. The only thing is that they were locked out of the other communities, but I think they were well provided for. Maybe under the circumstances, it's pretty hard to fight against it, it's something too big for an individual to fight against.

LD: So sort of realistically and practically speaking, you just sort of accepted it.

KY: Accept, we had to accept it, there's no choice.

LD: And you didn't think anything really cruel or terrible was going to happen, just the hardship of being locked up and separated.

KY: That's right.

LD: There's nothing you need to worry about, just something you lived with.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.