<Begin Segment 26>

AL: So when you went back into the military -- because you had a break from '45, right, until '46. When you went back in, was that by your choice, or were you called back in?

AN: Yeah, it was by choice, and yet, I was called in. They asked me to sign up, I was in the reserve, and they said, "Why don't you sign up to be, go on active duty?" I said, at that time I was struggling with raising a family and then trying to go to school at the same time, so I had to make up my mind whether to work full time or not, but I wasn't educated enough to work full time, because I didn't finish my college. I thought, oh, well, I'll go back in the military and then go to college. We could do that. And so I joined, I signed up to be called back, and that's when they were releasing a lot of officers instead of calling them back. But somehow I got called back. I didn't think I will be, but they called me back on active duty. And then once I got in, then that ten years, the first ten years, they were releasing a lot of officers. And here I am a new one, and I'll be the first one to go, but no, they kept me, they kept me, they kept me, and all the rest of the officers, my friends were being released.

As a matter of fact, after about ten years, I was, of course, with Intelligence, and there was a full colonel. And one day, he came to me, I was working in New York, we worked in the civilian area, we don't go to military base, wear civilian clothes. Anyway, I was working in New York City and I see these names come through as a sergeant. I said, "Wait a minute." As far as I'm concerned, because he's in civilian clothes, but he's ranked as sergeant. I said, this man is a full colonel when I was a second lieutenant. And so I waited for him, he came over and reported to me, he was going to come and work for me. So when he came, I said, "Colonel, what's this, you're a sergeant?" He said, "Yeah." "Why?" He said, "Well, I only got two more and they rifted me. I had eighteen years in, I just want to finish up two more years and then I can retire as my full colonel. So I came back in, I couldn't gain any rank for the next two years." But as far as we're concerned, no one knows his rank. We all call each other Mister. So I told him I was living on Staten Island, I said, "I'm going to assign you to Staten Island. You don't come in the office at all, okay? You're my agent over there, you take care of the investigations over there, don't come in at all." So I left him there for two years. But that's how much they're rifting people, all the high-ranking officers, and here I'm still in. And somehow I've been blessed, I've never missed a promotion, every one, up and down, every step until I became a full colonel. Gosh, somebody's watching over me. And so I went through that period and I retired.

[Interruption]

AL: So you, yeah, you said that... so where were some of the places that you were stationed? You were in counterintelligence the whole time?

AN: Yeah.

AL: And where were some of the stations that you had?

AN: Oh, like in the United States, I was in San Francisco, Baltimore, I was in Florida, I was in Alaska. So north, south, east, west. Of course, most of the time was in Japan and Korea. I loved my job, because I had an operation going, undercover work, those kind of stuff.

AL: So what kind of things does counterintelligence do? Is that like what we would consider like the CIA except it's military?

AN: Yeah, that's it.

AL: So you're a spy?

AN: Yeah. I can tell all kinds of stories on that, but I won't. [Laughs]

AL: Okay, yeah, we'd have to turn off the camera.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.