<Begin Segment 8>

RP: Let's talk a little bit about your military experience. You said you were drafted?

KY: Yeah.

RP: 1943, '44?

KY: Yeah, it was in '44. I was put into what they call the ERC, Enlisted Reserve Corps, and I didn't do anything, they said, you're a reserve corps, just, we'll draft you when we need you. So I anyway waited until February '45, that's when I went into the service. And when I went to service we were, all Japanese guys were lumped together. Frankly, I felt a little out of place in a way being with all Japanese guys but you know, you soon get used to it. But anyway we were sworn in at Fort Douglas and we were put on a troop train and went to Texas. Texas was, Camp Wolters, Texas, was an infantry replacement training center. And for some reason they sent about, there was only me and about five or six other Japanese guys, were put into this one company. The rest were all white people, all Caucasians. I remember since we became friends as being together, Japanese guys, we went to the PX to play pool stuff like that. Then the next thing we knew, the two of us was sent to another company and we were the only Japanese guys in that whole platoon. The next door company had, I think there were three or four and I don't know what the rest of the platoons up at barracks had but there were more than a couple of them in each barracks. At the same time the battalion next to us was virtually all Japanese. And I didn't know that until we went to the PX down the street and here all these guys were, that we were drafted with in Fort Douglas. I don't know why that was but there we thought, well, maybe they're trying to integrate us, I don't know. But it didn't bother me that much because I'd been around white guys all my life. Then when we completed training they took all of us. Oh, during that training is when Germany surrendered, of course they surrendered in, what was it, in May? We completed training in July and went to Maryland. And when we went to Maryland, here we were all Japanese guys together and then when we went overseas, there was a whole six hundred and something troops going over, all Japanese. Of course, we had no explanation, we talked to each other about it but couldn't figure out why here we were trained, you know, all Caucasians and yet we were putting us back together again.

Anyway, when we got to France... England, we went from England to France to what is called the infantry replacement depot. And then they took about twenty-five of us were put into one camp and then the other five hundred and something were taken to another camp. Why, I don't know. One day we were called out to... it was about two or three weeks we sat around doing nothing. Oh, while we were in England, in fact, that's when Japan surrendered, August. Anyway when we got to France they put us in this one depot, about twenty-five of us and yes, the rest of them were in another camp. And we thought, why in the heck they separate us, we didn't know. Called us out one day and told us we were shipping out and we sat out there for, oh, must have been three or four hours, didn't do anything. Finally an officer came out and says, "You might as well go back to your billets," so we went, unpacked our stuff and then one of the lieutenants came and says, you guys were lucky. And we said why are we so lucky? He said, you guys were slated to go to CBI, China Burma India and the plan was to send troops around through Burma to attack Japan from the south. And we thought, us guys, CBI? And we started talking to each other and we found out that we were all expert riflemen. Now whether it was a coincidence or what but... and whether it was true or not, I don't know. But we said, hey, that's maybe it. And that lieutenant that told us about you're going to be trained as snipers and come through the... from the south. So you guys are lucky that's was about all he said. Anyway from there we went to... a few of us again, just four of us went to a quartermaster company, no only three of us went to our quartermaster company. It was all Caucasian guys and a lot of 'em had been there through the war and so they were preparing to move the company to another place. We went to Berlin and then we went to... from Berlin we went to Munich. And that's where we stayed down there. And we were a refrigeration outfit. We ended up in Munich hauling meat, eggs and apples and whatnot from one quarter master distribution to another center, other places. We distributed that kind of stuff around.

RP: When did you get back to the States?

KY: I spent a year over there and I got back to the States in September of '46. I think we left I think somewhere around the end of August or something. And I came back in September '46.

RP: To back home?

KY: Once again it was nearly all Japanese on the boat. [Laughs]

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.