<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Okay, so after training, after Camp Robinson, where did you go next?

NM: Camp Robinson? We were gonna go Europe. You know, we took our training, finished, we're all getting, packing, getting ready for going together. They went...

TI: Well, before you go there, so why didn't you go to the 442, like, Camp Shelby? Why were you sent to Camp Robinson?

NM: Went out to Snelling.

TI: Okay, but before, when you're basic training...

NM: Basic training, I took mine at Camp Robinson.

TI: So not with other Japanese Americans?

NM: No, no. This is regular training. And then, after we finished, we're all getting ready to go home first, then we're going to be shipped to Europe. They got ready, we got ready, all of a sudden, "Report to the main office." They called our name. All Japanese name. Oh, god, I know what happened now. I said, "I bet we're gonna go Minnesota," Japanese, 'cause they're all Nihonjin no name. They're calling, so we had to report. "Report to headquarters right now." And then we had to leave, and we were just supposed to go to nani. We went. All my friends are there, lot of friends. Fresno guys.

TI: This is at Camp Snelling in Minnesota?

NM: Camp Robinson.

TI: Oh, Camp Robinson, okay.

NM: Robinson. So we had to report to the headquarters, and there's about a hundred guys there. Said, "Fall out," call our names, and we go there, "you're going to Minnesota." We knew then, when they call all the Japanese, "I bet we're gonna be in the MIS." And sure enough, yeah. So we had to go to there.

TI: So did they give you any tests, like Japanese language tests?

NM: Huh?

TI: Did they test your Japanese language?

NM: No, they didn't test nothing, no. They figured we know Japanese already. So every time we come to a city, "Get in line, four abreast," and then march and go to, they took, we stopped for dinner, lunch and all that, they think we're a prisoner. [Laughs] They thought we were, you know. So we kind of feel funny, you know, us guys, walking around together, marching down. Then we go to eat and all that. But it wasn't bad. They didn't say nothing, nobody.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.