<Begin Segment 12>

MU: How did you end up with the MIS?

HW: How did I...

MU: Yeah, how did you come about...

HW: Well, in July of 1941, we drove -- convoyed from Fort Lewis to California. We maneuvered against the California's 40th Division.

MU: Now was that a mixed unit that you were with at that time?

HW: Well, it was a National Guard, it was a National Guard division. And the National Guard division was based in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho -- that's how it's formed.

MU: Okay.

HW: And we drove down and the 40th Division was down in California. And we were maneuvering against them, having field exercises, when they called me and said, "Come on over here." I was near the headquarters at the time, and, "Somebody wants to see you." It was Rasmussen -- turned out to be Rasmussen. He was the captain, then.

MU: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

HW: He didn't say much, other than he pulled out a Japanese textbook and says, "Can you read this?" Elementary tokuhon. So, I read it to him. That's all he said.

MU: You got orders later to report to...

HW: I think after that I got tagged because I had a chance to volunteer for the army air force. Because they're looking for volunteers and they turned me down. I tried for the 442nd. They said, "No, can't go." And then they, finally, the word came -- report to Savage, Minnesota.

MU: About when was that?

HW: Well, that was in a, in the -- I got the order to go to Savage, Minnesota in December of '42.

MU: '42?

HW: Yeah.

MU: Well, 1942 was the year that the war in the Pacific started to turn around in favor of the U.S., and...

HW: Yeah, excepting there was a lot of cleanup had to be done. Yeah.

MU: Okay.

HW: Yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.