Densho Digital Archive
National Japanese American Historical Society Collection
Title: George S. Matsui Interview
Narrator: George S. Matsui
Interviewer: Marvin Uratsu
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 11, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-mgeorge-01-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

MU: And then you got your business started, and then...

GM: And then the draft got me.

MU: Okay, so that was in -- before Pearl Harbor?

GM: Oh, (drafted) eleven months before Pearl Harbor -- February of '41.

MU: Okay. So...

GM: Pearl Harbor was December 7th, '41.

MU: Right. So where did you go?

GM: I, see, induction center was at, in San Pedro. I forget the name of the place. Then I went to San Luis Obispo -- Camp Roberts (for basic training).

MU: For your basic?

GM: Basic training. And (...) they were really building (army barracks). I 'member, some days we got moldy breads, I 'member. (I think we were about the second group of draftees to arrive at the Camp Roberts Basic Training Center.)

MU: Moldy bread?

GM: Yeah. We had to pick 'em off -- pick the mold off.

MU: How come?

GM: I don't know. They bought old bread, (I guess!)

MU: Yeah. What else do you remember 'bout Camp Roberts?

GM: Oh, well, Camp Roberts -- rattlesnakes on maneuvers. We had a guy, I had couple of guys from Texas, good friends, and they knew (...) -- where the rattlesnakes are hiding. And, my God they were good at it, (to kill them).

MU: Were they Nikkei or hakujin?

GM: No, hakujins.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.