<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So I'm going to move on to the military, so we only have twenty more minutes. So Terry, I'm going to now jump to around 1950 when you were drafted. So can you tell me what happened in terms of being drafted at this time?

HT: Yeah, yeah. I was in San Francisco when I got the notice, I was going to school. And I got this welcome letter from Uncle Sam. [Laughs] Nice letter, too. And I went back to Salt Lake where I said my hometown was, went to recruiting station over there, went through the process, then we got on a train from Salt Lake City and they sent us to Fort Riley, Kansas.

TI: Now, before all that, though, when you first reported, did they understand that you were born in Japan?

HT: No. I thought it would make a difference, but it didn't make a difference. Everybody else was Nisei except me, I was Issei. But I don't think that mattered to them at all. I was hoping they would ask. Said, "Hey, I'm a real 'Jap.'" [Laughs] I would have told them that.

TI: But they, they just assumed that you were American?

HT: I guess, I think that's what it is. Those recruiting people, they don't know anything. They assume I was Nisei, 'cause I was, in my whole group of city friends in Salt Lake City, I was the only Issei. I was the only one that was the Issei, rest of 'em was all Niseis. So they didn't, I wish they did ask, I would like to have went to MIS.

TI: Well, so did they ever test you for Japanese language or anything like that?

HT: No. They didn't care if I could speak in Spanish or French or English, didn't matter. They look at your hands, that's all they do. And if you got a trigger, you're hired. [Laughs] We used to joke about that.

TI: So you went through training, so any interesting stories during your time in the military?

HT: Oh, yeah. During the military physical we had fun. They take your blood test, there's about fourteen of us standing there. And they stick the needle into your thing, and they get little vials to catch the blood, and they just one after another, we're standing there. And the guy next to me was bleeding like hell, and he's dripping like hell. And I said, "Hey, come back here. Look at him." They looked, "Oh, yeah, we got a bleeder over here." And they go over there and stop the... blood all over the floor. He was one of those people that bleed like crazy, you know. And his thing was filled, he goes, "Hey, it's full. What am I gonna do?" Oh god, we had so much fun in the military, god. It was a riot. This one guy, he didn't want to get drafted. And they asked him, he acted like he was drunk, he acted like he was deaf, he couldn't hear anything they said. Everything they said, said, "Huh?" "What?" So what he do to get drafted? Or what's that he can do? He can do something else. And he acted kind of stupid, you know. We had funny people in the military, especially when we went to basic training camp also. But when we went to Fort Riley, there's three Japanese, the rest of 'em was Mexicans, was drafted, Salt Lake. And Mexican people were treated pretty bad, that's what I didn't like about that.

But when we went to Fort Riley, Kansas, it's a big camp, because three camp, three big camp, it compounded into Fort Riley. That's where the OCS school is, military Officers Candidate School. After basic, I was supposed to go to Officers Candidate. We took a test, they took the first so many percent that could go to... so I was kind of happy. I tell my wife, "I'm going to go OCS." So I was all ready to go but they didn't take me. They said, "I'm sorry, we can't take you." I said, "Why not?" Says, "You're Issei." I said, "It's okay for me to go up to get shot, but I can't become an officer?" I said, what kind of... but they couldn't answer either. They didn't understand why that's, the law was that way. They said, "We can't have a Japanese officer because during the war, you might just turn around and shoot at us." I said, "Oh, okay, that explains it, thank you." [Laughs] "I understand." Geez. I thought, "Oh, man, this guy's crazy." But we had a good time in basic. I enjoy everything I do. And the basic training's the roughest time, but I laughed through the whole thing.

TI: But did you ever worry, because this was during the Korean, the Korean War. So were you worried about going into war or anything like that?

HT: No. There used to always be a joke about that. They says, "If you see a Buddha with your name on it, then you'd better duck." [Laughs] If you get worried all the time, it will happen. Don't worry about it. If you get shot, you get shot. Enjoy as much as you can. Why worry about it? What can you do about it, right? Of course, if they shoot at you, you shoot back. I got shot, but it doesn't hurt.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.