<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Well, and when you were having these children, let's go back to the story about joining the military service. We had, earlier you had talked about before the war going down and registering to be a dentist in the Dental Corps, but they didn't call you then. Why don't you tell me the story about when they finally called you.

JK: Well, they didn't call me, but every year, just about every year, the War Department would send me a notice to wind up my business, they would be calling me. And so I would send my patients to other dentists, and I said, "Well, I can't take care of you because I'll be called into the service." But then shortly before I was called in, they would, the army would rescind the order. And that went on, actually, until '53. It went on for, for actually, for thirteen years, they kept me on the verge of going in and then they'd cancel the order. And finally on this one Monday morning, I got a call from the adjutant down in San Antonio, and he says, "You got our orders?" and I said, "Yeah, but I thought you'd rescind it. They've been rescinding my orders for the last thirteen years." And he said, "No, this is for real, you better get down here." So I packed, went home, packed up a bag, took the first plane out, and I ended up in Oklahoma City. And I changed planes there, and I got on this plane from Oklahoma City to San Antonio. And as it turned out, I'm the only passenger on that plane, and the stewardess came up to me and says, "Wouldn't you like something to drink?" and I said, "Yeah, I'll have a cup of coffee." So she brings me over a cup of coffee, and I look around and I'm the only person on that plane. And she says, "We've got a shuttle from the airport down into, down into town." We were staying at this Bannock Hotel, and I says, "Well, I've got to go to the camp, but then I'll go to the hotel." And they said, "Why don't you ride in with us?" so I rode into San Antonio with them, and I stayed overnight at that hotel. And the next day I went to, I took a cab and went over to the camp and registered, and all of a sudden I'm getting calls and I'm getting visits from these people that come over. And says, "Come on," they'd take me to lunch, they'd take me to dinner, but they wanted me to go to the store to get all my uniforms, get my clothes. And so I didn't know anything about a quartermaster where you could go and get your clothes and all that for army surplus, or army products, so I go to this store and they outfit me with a tailor-made uniform like the uniform there. And all my clothes and the army clothes were all tailor-made. And I paid a fortune for them, but then I thought, "Well, that's the way we had to do it."

And so I was there for, until, I think it was January or February from November, and then right away I was at San Francisco at the Presidio, and from there I went to Tokyo. And at Tokyo, at Camp Drake, which was the replacement depot there, and this one officer came over and he said, "Do you have any relatives in Japan?" I said, "Yeah, I have relatives here," and that's all he said. And so he, so the two colonels and myself, I was sent up to Hokkaido to the airbase, the Shitoshi Air Base, and these other two colonels were sent to Seoul over in Korea. And this was a funny story, but the one colonel there figured that he was gonna take a trip around the world, and so he'd ordered, he was from Philadelphia, he'd ordered his wife to pack up her duds and drive to San Francisco, and load the car onto the ship and come to Tokyo. Well, he couldn't find housing in Tokyo, and he couldn't find housing in Seoul. And so housing in Seoul was eighteen months, and by that time, he would be home. So he told his wife, "Well, pack your stuff and go on back home." [Laughs] And so, but he had planned to motor from Tokyo all the way to England, all the way across the country, and then, and have the army pay for it. But as it turned out...

TI: Well, in the same way, I'm wondering, so did your wife and children, did they stay in Salt Lake City when you were in Hokkaido?

JK: Yeah, yeah. Well, I was married, I had four kids, and I was forty years old when the army called me. And I was talking to Ed Ennis, who was the Civil Service Commission, chairman of the Civil Service Commission in Washington, and he says, "You didn't have to go," he says, "you should have talked to me." And I said, "I didn't even know you then," see.

TI: And why? Because you were, because of the children, the age, that you probably could have...

JK: Yeah, the age and the... oh, I think he was, he was about eight years old then, see. And the two other boys were two and a half or three, three and one, and the youngest one was just a year old.

TI: So did that present, sort of, problems for the family? I mean, it seems like it'd be difficult to have you gone all these, these two years.

JK: Well, of course, my wife took care of the kids and the household and everything while I was gone, but it was, I'm sure that it was quite a hardship on her.

TI: How about for you? How was it for you to be away from the family during this time?

JK: Well, there wasn't anything, wasn't anything I could do about it.

TI: Okay, and then after that, after a couple years, then you came back and got your discharge.

JK: Yeah. Well, the thing that was, rather seemed like all these people had, going to the service, they get a big high bye-bye and goodbyes, and they always get a big reception when they come home. Well, when I came home, I just walked all by myself right to the house. Well, I flew into Seattle, and I asked the, at Camp Williams, or I forget what camp it was.

TI: Maybe Fort Lewis?

JK: Huh?

TI: Was it Fort Lewis?

JK: Yeah, yeah, Fort Lewis, just south of Seattle. And I asked the, well, I think it was some sergeant there, I says, "Get me a sedan," I said, "I have to go up to Camp Lawton at Seattle and deliver some papers." And so he got me a sedan, and I said, "Well, instead of going to camp, take me over to this address up on University Street," where Toru Sakahara lived, he was living there at the time. So I went over there and I bunked with him for a couple of days before reporting to Camp Lawton to deliver the papers that I was supposed to take over there. And so, and then from there, I just flew home.

TI: Oh, that's, that's a good connection. After you returned to Salt Lake City, did you stay involved with the JACL over the years?

JK: Yeah, yeah.

TI: So this summer, they're gonna have another national convention in Salt Lake City. Are you planning to attend?

JK: I don't know anything about it.

TI: Yeah, it's gonna be in July, they're having the national JACL convention in Salt Lake City.

JK: Oh, is that right?

TI: Yeah. So I was wondering, knowing that, would, are you planning to attend, do you think?

JK: I'll attend knowing that, now that I know about it.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.