<Begin Segment 10>

AL: And you said a couple times that you realized when this attack happened that you were gonna be drafted. So did you know then that you would definitely end up in the military?

AN: Yeah, we were at the age where our draft numbers would be considered, so I assumed that we were going to be drafted right away, because we were right age where we were going to be drafted.

AL: So what did you do?

AN: So then, of course, we realized that since we're going to be drafted, then we might as well get in and volunteer and form our own unit, because we had one, well, really two purposes in mind. One was the enemy, whether it's Japanese or European side, and the other one was we know the prejudice against the Japanese Americans in the United States, and here because we heard about the evacuation plans and so forth. So that kind of stirred us up a little bit, so we had two wars to fight. And that made a difference in the spirit of how we got together and formed. And that's the reason why the 442nd, the 100th, and the MIS were all Niseis, when they joined. We had a closed unity of brotherhood when we fought. Not just another military unit, but we were all one as far as spirit goes. So perhaps that drove us to really unite ourselves and fight like mad. Then we had to prove ourselves as citizens, because when we were, when we went to the army after the 442nd was formed, and we wore a uniform, we were still classified as "enemy aliens," even though we wore a uniform. That's how, shall we say, I call it just plain ignorance of the government. Here we are in American uniform, we're volunteers, we're sworn in, and yet, our classification was 4-C, "enemy aliens." Of course, that was changed, so you can see that we had to go through all that, that type of period.

AL: Why do you think they classified you 4-C?

AN: Because we were just Japanese. That's all I can say, because we were Japanese Americans, because of our race, regardless of whether we're U.S. citizens or not, we're being classified as 4-C. Of course, that was the dumbest thing they did, and they admitted that. So after we got in for a while, and then they reclassified as regular. I mean, they should have never had classified as "enemy aliens," and that's how I called it, how stupid the government was, doing such things like that, which angered us quite a bit. And that's where we really found out how the people saw us. So with that in mind, we formed the 442nd and the 100th.

AL: Did your parents know before you volunteered, or your grandparents, did you tell them that you were gonna volunteer?

AN: No, they had no idea. But they knew that we were the draft age, and so they expected us to serve in the military, but not like the way we did, that we would be drafted like anybody else.

AL: Did they have any advice for you when you went to war?

AN: The only advice that most parents gave to us was that, "You're American, you fight for your country," simple as that. No qualms about it. Most all of our parents, that was their feeling. Even though they're Japanese, even though they are immigrants, they say, "You were born here, you're American, you fight for your country, go." Simple as that.

AL: Did you, when you volunteered, were you prepared to fight Japan?

AN: Yes. We were up whenever. So, of course, we knew that we were gonna go Europe instead of Japan. Of course, the MIS people that went to MIS, of course, they were going to Japan. But as a combat unit, no.

AL: So when you volunteered, did you know that you were gonna go to Europe?

AN: Yes, we knew that that was our area of fighting, not Japan.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.