Densho Digital Repository - Katsugo Miho Interview IV (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1022-4-4)

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MN: Okay, now that I've got my follow up questions answered, we're gonna move on. After you volunteered for service in March '43, I was wondering, what happened? What was the process after you volunteered?

KM: On Maui, we... I don't remember the process of volunteering, I think it was a matter of signing a petition, signing an application or something, after which we got notice to report. I don't know how long after, probably... volunteering was done February 1st, I think. There are some references that I noticed now that the volunteering was opened on February 1st. And sometime in March, it must have been middle of March that we got orders to report, in my case to the Wailuku gymnasium at a certain time of the day, prepared to join the army. And so we took a minimum number of clothes and things and reported. And I think that the day after or, in fact, even the same day we reported, we got transported from Wailuku to Kahului, where the harbor was. And I forget, either the Hualalai or the Waialeale were there to transport us to Honolulu. And I was assigned to Company 11, and that was basically the hundred-something boys from Maui.

MN: You know, when you volunteered, were there any questions in your mind as to whether or not you would be accepted?

KM: No, when we were given notice to report, as far as I knew, we were already accepted to be, to join the army. We did not... Did we get sworn in in Wailuku? I think I think we were sworn in in Maui as a formal procedure. And then there was this big, big formal so-called swearing in ceremony at Iolani Palace. But that was basically for show, I think.

MN: So from Maui you came to Oahu?

KM: Oahu.

MN: And then to Scofield Barracks?

KM: Schofield Barracks, we came in and already the Honolulu, basically all the Honolulu group was already in, because we were assigned Company 11, I think, because we were, of the total number of people reporting in, we were number eleven reporting in, and I think that's how it was. One, two, three, it was twelve or thirteen, I think. So the last two, I think, was from Kauai, I think. The thirteenth was Kauai group of boys.

MN: And how did you find conditions at Schofield? What was it like at Schofield?

KM: Oh, everything was brand new. It was a content... oh, how should I say it? Expectations were rampant as to what's next. But all of this physical examinations, which is, first time you get gathered in a group of men and we all do everything together kind of a thing, standing in line and waiting, you soon learn that everything you did in the army was get there early and wait, wait, wait. No matter what you did, you waited. I think the ten days that we spent in Schofield was full of standing in line. My company commander, I remember distinctly, was Yasutaka Fukushima, with whom my personal contact had been, even after the war, I continued to be somehow connected with him because we both became lawyers and he was a judge. He was an unusual Republican member of the senate. And he was my first company commander.

MN: How did you take to this regimentation? This is your, sort of, initial initiation into military life.

KM: Oh, yes, oh, yes. And like I said, one of the very first things was to stand and wait for everything. And part of the waiting, I think, is the basic foundation for all griping in the army. All griping in the army, I think, is based on the fact that, because you wait. You spend so much time waiting. And you stand there, things are bad, but I think the fact that you had to wait for it is the reason why, why couldn't it be done faster? But everything is unusual, it was the totally, I think, new for many of the people who were doing the processing. Because we came in, like I said, over three thousand strong. And I don't think, in the normal process of enlisting in the army, you had such a big group being processed at one time. Although you may have basic training groups of maybe two, three or hundred, in the case of volunteers and whatnot. But nothing like we had, close to three thousand of us were being processed at one time. I think this was highly unusual.