Bring on Japs, Says Nipponese In U.S. Army

[Photo caption]: PVT. DICK KIMURA. "I've been treated swell"

Pvt. Dick Kimura, 30-year-old American-born Japanese, is itching really to get in and fight for democracy--and he would just as soon take a crack at Hirohito's henchmen as at the Nazis.

Back in Seattle yesterday for the first time since he was inducted into the Army 15 months ago, the former Seattle bank employe was impressed and highly pleased with courteous treatment he said he is receiving.

"There has been no discrimination here at all, and Seattle is really treating me swell. Why, friends that I knew before I left even call to me from across the street to say hello."

Rumors Prove Groundless

Kimura said rumors that his reception here would be unfriendly had proved baseless.

The soldier said that he is spoiling for action, a chance to put his training to work.

"I was rather scared at first at the thought of going to the battlefront," he said, "but after you've had your basic training you get darned anxious to get overseas and into action. It makes no difference to me whether I fight the Japanese or the Germans."

Kimura said he believes he is the first Japanese-American soldier with more than a year of military service that has been permitted to return to Seattle, in the military area from which Japanese have been excluded for a furlough. Several others have been here on preinduction furloughs, he said.

Getting permission to visit in the area was not a particularly easy matter, he explained, since it required not only the consent of Seventh Corps area headquarters, but also that of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the War Relocation Authority.

Private Kimura is stationed at Camp Hale, near Pando, Colo. He is in the finance department, the only Japanese in that department in the area. He planned to return today.

Plenty of Friends in Army

"There is no discrimination toward any race or nationality in the Army. The boys all treat me swell. In fact, I have more friends among the white soldiers than I have among my own second-generation Japanese," Kimura said.

Kimura was born in this country, but was taken back to Japan by his parents when 10 months old. He completed his education there, including graduation from college, and then returned to this country. He was back in Japan in 1936, he said, but returned to America when he found he couldn't make a living there.

Before his induction Kimura was employed by the Sumitomo Bank of Seattle. He has an interest in a Seattle hotel, which he still retains.