Densho Digital Archive
National Japanese American Historical Society Collection
Title: George Koshi Interview
Narrator: George Koshi
Interviewer: Marvin Uratsu
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 10, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-kgeorge-01-0010

<Begin Segment 10>

MU: Okay, now, how long did you stay at Camp Savage?

GK: I went to school first session. I went to Camp Savage in December -- or, I think November of 1942. I went through one session, six months of it and graduated in June. And then I was drafted, I was appointed as an instructor, so I stayed for another six months to teach (...). And then I was sent to War Department in Washington, D.C. So I stayed in Camp Savage for one year.

MU: Apparently, the Japanese class was not that difficult for you then.

GK: Oh, that was the easiest class I ever had. Everybody was struggling but, class one was mostly Kibei, and they were proficient in Japanese to start with. For me, during the civilian life, while I was going to college and law school, because I was the oldest, older (Nisei) in Denver, and proficient in Japanese language to some extent -- and we had Japanese language school in Denver and surrounding areas, and their teachers were from Japan. But Japanese students stopped coming, so they were recruiting anyone from, proficient in Japanese. There was one other old (Nisei who) was a Kibei. (...) We were selected as (instructors), so, I taught in Japanese language school in Denver, before being drafted. So with this background, when I was, I was at Fort Warren, Wyoming, they concluded that I was good enough to teach Japanese.

MU: Was there anything that happened during that time -- when you were studying at Camp Savage -- do you recall any incident at all, something sticks to your mind, or memory?

GK: Nothing special. Just everybody was studying hard...

MU: And you had an easy time.

GK: I had an easy time. And then I was selected as an instructor, so I started teaching there --

MU: Okay.

GK: Which was a easy job, too. And I remember, I was the most hated teacher. Because the first day at the class -- there were twenty in the class (...) that I taught (...) -- and the first lesson I assigned to them was a translation of the Preamble of the United States Constitution. And I wanted to test their ability to read and write and translate. So I was the most hated person because of that. [Laughs]

MU: That was a tough job. [Laughs]

GK: That was a tough job even for myself. I had to struggle hard to translate that preamble into Japanese.

MU: So any interesting replies that came in, interesting translations?

GK: Well, some of them, only a few did a reasonable job. But most of them couldn't do it.

MU: Couldn't do it?

GK: Couldn't translate it.

MU: So you got labeled a tough teacher.

GK: That's right.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.