<Begin Segment 10>

TI: Going back to Camp Savage, do you know how, what class you were in in terms of how early in the training? Like how long Camp Savage was in operation?

HU: I don't know how they decided who goes into a class. I was on the third from the bottom.

TI: And how many different levels did they have?

HU: Oh, there must have been about six. So at the top of the class were some of the guys who left first, go overseas. We had fun, anyway. We made the best of it.

TI: So what are some of the fun things that you remember from Camp Savage?

HU: Oh, poker games, ran out of money. [Laughs] You know, we were getting only eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents a month. It didn't last very long. So a friend of mine, we used to put the boots on, overcoat, we went into the town of Savage. We brought hamburgers, and sell it to the kids and made some money to play poker. [Laughs] You got make some fun. So the day came, I shipped out, April 1943. Got on the commercial airline, landed in San Francisco. We used to go in team of ten men, ten of us. Some can read, some can speak Japanese very fluently, some can translate and write. That's how the team was made up.

TI: And in that team of ten, what was your, your job or your role? What did you do?

HU: I was the one who was gabby. I can speak Japanese. Principally, I was the interrogator of Japanese prisoners. Wonderful experience.

TI: Okay, so let's go back to San Francisco. And so you take an airplane to San Francisco with your team.

HU: From San Francisco to Honolulu, we stayed overnight.

TI: Now, before we go to Honolulu, in San Francisco, were you able to walk around the town?

HU: No, no. We were kept in the barracks. So in Honolulu, we were able to walk around. We saw all those bullet holes, and those cables, barbed wires on the beach. Next day, we got on the plane and we landed on a small island. We stayed overnight, and the next day, we were in Brisbane, Australia. There were, what, hundred, two hundred Niseis? Same objective.

TI: But yours is a little bit different. You took airplanes all the way to Brisbane? Because many of the men had to take ships to get there, it took a lot longer.

HU: No, we were a critical item. No, when we were up in the front, we had riflemen going to latrine so we'd be safe, we don't get shot in the latrine.

TI: Oh, so whenever you had to leave the quarters...

HU: Restricted area.

TI: ...they had a Caucasian, a white soldier, assigned to you to make sure no one shot you.

HU: So...

TI: So, Harry, I want to ask a couple questions. When you were with the MIS fighting, going to the Pacific, at that time, how did you feel about fighting against Japan? 'Cause your father had gone back to Japan.

HU: It didn't bother me at all.

TI: So what did you think? I mean, why didn't it bother you?

HU: It didn't bother me at all. I'm a soldier, U.S. Army. I had more fun than worrying about those things. [Laughs]

<End Segment 10> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.