<Begin Segment 15>

MU: That must have been interesting time for you to work with John Aiso. Now, what was his title again?

MM: Well, Director of Academic Training. Prior to that, I don't know. But when he was recruited to come and establish the school, the unique school at the Presidio of San Francisco, I think he that he was chief instructor or something like that. But he was eminently qualified to establish such a unique school where they taught Japanese language and Japanese military intelligence and military terms and so forth.

MU: What was his education?

MM: Mr. Aiso? He had a brilliant background. He was first in everything, if you know what I mean. He was, I think this had a lot to do with his parents, like any other Issei pioneering family, and inculcated in his mind that education was utmost in order to succeed in the world. And they had a lot to do with molding his character and shaping his destiny, you might say. And he, well, in junior high school, I think it was called LeConte Junior High School, he was the first Japanese American student body president. He had won oratorical contests and he was the captain of the debate team. And while in high school he was valedic-, at the end of the high school, he was valedictorian. That would be the first Japanese American valedictorian and he was elected to this honor society, Ephebian Honor Society. And after that he convinced his father that he would like to study Japanese, that meant going to Tokyo, I think. But at the age of seventeen, he entered Brown University -- on a scholarship, mind you -- and he graduated cum laude in about 1930. And then he went on to Harvard to earn his law degree and from there he worked, I guess, in a law firm in New York and elsewhere. And somewhere along the line, he attended Chuo University in Tokyo, so he could've been there a year, I don't know. And from there he went to work for a British company in Japan-occupied Manchuria until about 1941. That was getting close, 1941. Then when he came back to the States in early, sometime early 1941, he was drafted into the U.S. army.

MU: Do you know, do you know what his rank was when he was ordered to the Presidio in San Francisco?

MM: I don't know. His wife Sumi, she was a talented violinist from what I understand but I did not know her at all.

MU: Okay, I mean what his rank? Was he...

MM: Oh, his rank, his rank... he must've been a private, private or private first class. I don't know what -- captain, must have been -- Kai Rasmussen went all over the country recruiting for Niseis. And he was pretty disappointed at the outcome, as you know. But it was in Southern California that he found Private, or Private First Class Aiso in a motor pool. And of course he wanted to serve his short time and get out of the military, see. And that's what -- 'cause he's a lawyer, and he can make a living on that, but when, I'm sure it was Captain Rasmussen (who) said to Mr. Aiso, "The country needs you." And that was the first time anybody said such a thing to him. He was overwhelmed, taken aback, overwhelmed and he said, "Yes, sir." And that's how it all started. Of course, he came to San Francisco but there was no facility, so they ended up in this abandoned hangar in Crissey Field where they had orange crates for desks or chair or whatever and they had to partition off the, this hangar to be used as barracks, and part of it was for teaching.

MU: Living in quarters and schools...

MM: But the teachers had a time because there was no teaching materials to begin with, you know, military this and that. And so what they did was, of course, they had to recruit some of the civilian instructors like Shig Kihara and you know, the others, (Paul) Tekawa-san. And they went around Goshado or a place to gather material, text material.

MU: Teaching materials?

MM: Text materials, like, and also dictionary. But the basic material that they used was something that Captain Rasmussen had brought back from Japan, like the Naganuma reader, things like that. And of course with Captain Rasmussen, he was with the military attache in Tokyo for about three years, I think. And so they tore apart his book to make copies, mimeograph during those days.

MU: Yeah. That's the way, that's the way the school started.

MM: That's the way school started with about sixty students to begin with.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.