<Begin Segment 12>

MN: You told us a little bit about the relations among the AJA. I was wondering, in Shelby, when you folks did go into Hattiesburg or other areas, what were your relations with the civilians?

KM: Very little. I had very little, our artillery group, we had very little interaction with the Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg people. Because if we go down there, we go to a bar or something, or the USO where... what you call, Nakahara, what is her name now? I'm beginning to forget now. That later on got married to Kochiyama?

MN: Yuri.

KM: Yuri, yeah. She was the USO. She had an uncanny memory. Meet you once and she would remember your name and face. So she was in charge of the USO that we developed later on in Hattiesburg. Of course, you know the story of Earl Finch? But unfortunately for artillery, like a lot of things that we are left out, too, artillery has always been left out of the infantry activity. Earl Finch took care of the infantry boys real well. But I don't remember the artillery ever being invited by him to any of his functions. But he was, as far as the infantry boys were concerned, their godfather. Yeah, he exposed them to all kinds of southern hospitality.

MN: Did you ever meet a southerner who did kind of become very friendly with you?

KM: Well, let me tell you. A couple of years ago, like in 2002, 2001, I took a trip back to Louisiana visiting the Camp Polk site where we did our training maneuver. At the same I visited the town called Bogalusa, Louisiana. And the reason why was that very early in our training, I don't know when it was, but a group of the 442 boys were invited to go visit and stay with a southern family, later turned out to be Bogalusa. So my memory was that we were invited to Bogalusa to be exposed to southern fried chicken and baked beans and whatnot. So I spent a weekend very early in my training in Bogalusa. For years thereafter, we didn't have any followup except for the one weekend visit. But for years I've always wondered what or how it was that we were invited to Bogalusa. And so four years ago, and four years ago when I had this change to visit the Camp Polk by virtue of Hawaii Herald reporting to Hawaii Herald, because that was when our Hawaii guard went for special training, which is now being utilized by them in Iraq. They were preparing for Iraq, although Iraq had not started, but they were preparing for that type of warfare. And I went there to visit and inspect the site and reminisce. And at the end of that trip, I visited Bogalusa, and in one of my archival documents, I found, I had discovered my old address book from 1943. And there were two names in that from Bogalusa. And I had probably corresponded with them once or twice back in 1943, but I had completely lost track of them, but except for this trip to Louisiana, through the army, through the trip that we were going to take, we tried to chase down and we discovered that we discovered that one of the addressees was somebody who we remembered, the Niseis. In my case, being my host. So we went to Bogalusa, and the daughter-in-law of the host family, the father-in-law was a doctor in Bogalusa. Bogalusa was a small mining and timber town just north of New Orleans, I think it was. And what I found out was that Bogalusa was in the center part of the so-called maneuvering areas in Louisiana. We had a lot of GIs spent their furloughs in Bogalusa, this small little town.

And the citizens of Bogalusa, at that time, got together, and they said, "You know, all of these GIs coming into town, we have to do something for them." Because their boys were going all over the United States for training, instead of Bogalusa. I mean, you come from this site to train. And so they formed a committee, welfare and friendship committee, to invite various military units to Bogalusa, and host them for the weekend. And when they found out about the 442, and Bogalusa to Hattiesburg is kind of far, but we got their invitation and I accepted and then visited. I met this lady who was the daughter-in-law of my host family and found out that the reason why we were invited way back was because Bogalusa had this friendship committee for the GIs training in that area. It was a very nostalgic trip to Bogalusa. It was just about this time of the year because the Mardi Gras parade in Bogalusa was held that day that I visited, this family. Small but, it was just a town maybe the size of Waiawa, about the size of Waiawa, and there was a regular Mardi Gras parade. That was four years, five years ago.

MN: So from Shelby you went out to Bogalusa. And you were saying that sometimes folks went into Hattiesburg for, like, USO.

KM: When we had a three-day pass, the other passes were overnight. There were just no passes, just go out. But three-day passes were given out every so often. Then we'd go to New Orleans, that's how we were exposed to Oysters Rockefeller. I never forgot Oysters Rockefeller. But we enjoyed Bourbon Street and I went to New Orleans maybe twice.

MN: So going from Kahului, you really traveled.

KM: We did. They wouldn't consider after that, we went overseas. When we were in Germany after the war, we even went to visit Brussels and Belgium.

MN: You know, I just have one more question about Hattiesburg and the AJA soldiers there. Some of the men have said that they were really quite well-treated by this by the Hattiesburg people. When they would go to, say, places to eat or to drink, they were treated well. And some have attributed this good treatment to the fact that the boys had money, they had money to spend.

KM: I think so, I think so.

MN: I was wondering what you felt. What would be your take on that?

KM: I don't remember going that often to Hattiesburg. Spending money more or less was a special three-day occasion, then we really, like New Orleans. I think one weekend, I went to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. No, there weren't, we weren't one of the big spenders.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.