Densho Digital Archive - George H. Morishita Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 33>

KL: This is tape four, we are in an interview with George Morishita. And you graduated from Roosevelt High School, what year did you graduate?

GM: That was winter '50. I was a half year late.

KL: And what happened, what did you do with your time after you graduated?

GM: Oh my god. I just had short-term jobs for about two years until I went in the army. I worked, it was a joke, I mean, no more than two months at a time. And I think the last two jobs was the only one that I took a little bit... the last job was Farmer John packing house. I worked there for three months with a friend of mine who I understand he stayed, he got his brother and his brother's son, they moved up the ladder there. But I enjoyed that one there, there was a crew of five, three Irishmen, they're older, and learned a lot from them and all that. And then when I was in the army...

KL: Did you enlist in the army?

GM: No, I got drafted. For a while I thought, like a lot of people did, I enlisted in, I tried to enlist in the air force to get out of the army. And lucky for me, when the woman said, "Well, all you got to do is be sworn in," and I go, "Wait a minute. Give me a little time." Then I got my draft notice. I went back there to pleading, and she said, "No, we can't do anything." Then within a couple of months I thought it was good maybe just as well I didn't go in, because that would have been four years. And I tried to talk some, one or two other guys out of the air force, and they went in, and I don't know how they reacted to it. But I thought, no, better off gone in for two years instead of four. But when I was in the army, I was lucky. When I was in Japan I met this... when I was in Japan I met this, I met a lot of guys that had gone to school and all that. And one kid from Chicago, he kept saying, "George you got to go to school. What's wrong with you?" and all that. Said, you know, this and this and that. And I said, "No, it's too late for me." He said, "No, it's not too late." I said, well, the whole three years of high school I didn't study. But so I did go to school when I came out of the army. Then I dropped out and I went back when I was thirty.

KL: Are there things about your army time that you wanted to share with us that were significant? The interactions you had or places you saw?

GM: Well, in a nutshell, I guess any veteran, anybody that served in the military will agree with me that if one comes back without being injured, mentally or physically, it's a wonderful experience to be in the service in all kinds of ways. Not only you fulfill your obligation, but you see all kinds of things.

Off camera: So you were in Korea?

GM: I was in Japan and Korea. I was in Japan for about... I lucked out and I was there for almost a year. And then the outfit I joined were the 24th. And if you know that history, when the North Koreans came down, we rushed guys over there that were probably having a good time in Japan. And one of the guys with the 24th, they lost the regimental flag, General Dean got captured and all that. And they experienced where World War II bazookas would bounce off the tanks until the 3.5 came out. Well, they were in Japan for about eight months when I got there. So some of the veterans were still there. I had one funny experience, one day early on, our sergeant said, "I could send two guys to this school up north," it was winter warfare training for officers to learn skiing and all that, they wanted these guys to drive Weasels, take the officers around. So these veterans, they said, "Hey, send Jake and George." Jake was this kid from Gary, Indiana, Jake Nice. We were both the youngest ones. And so all the veterans said, "Sarge, send George and Jake to the school." It was a funny thing, that evening I went to the sergeant and I said, "You know, Sarge, why don't you take me off the list?" And he wouldn't listen to me. And I said, "I don't think I need to go to that school to get out of..." there was a big drop going to Korea at that time. On the train from Yokohama to Sendai, I meet a kid from Kansas, and we talked on the train, and he taught me how to play certain games and all that. I went to that thing up north, it was really bad. It was cold, and our little outfit was the only one that didn't get paid, so we were pawning our things. [Laughs] Anyway, I come back -- that was a good experience, too, I met people that, you know. And I come back and this guy from Kansas, he was working in headquarters, too. We didn't hang around together. And he caught me in the middle of nowhere and he said, "George," you know, we didn't have cell phone then and electronics. He said, "You didn't have to go to that school. I was the clerk that separated people," and he said, "I tried to send a message to you." I said, "You know what? I went to the sergeant that evening to say something tells me I don't have to go." He said, well, you got the [inaudible]. But yeah, this kid saw my name he said, he pulled it aside and said, "You don't have to go to the school. And I heard that you were going to that school up there, I tried..." but he said, "I was scared."

KL: What was your job responsibility in the army, or your task?

GM: Well, at the end I ended up becoming a clerk typist. I was just a rifleman, that was my training, so that would have been Far East and all of that. When I got to Japan, after we finished that training up north and came back to the base, this Captain Bush, he was the head of the court martials and all that kind of stuff, and I guess he heard that, "Hey, there's a Japanese kid in headquarters company." So they used me for errands and all that, I guess. So he called me in one day and I had the flu. I still remember, he says, "Can you type forty words a minute?" And I took typing before I got drafted thinking that might help, and I thought, nah, it's not gonna help. Then when I got stationed to that camp, I even tried for three weeks, this and that. And when he said that, I said, "I think I could learn." So I got a job as a clerk up there. And I used to wonder how in the heck, why does he keep me?" This corporal said, "There's a reason why he's keeping you." And only one time he asked me to do something. He was a scoutmaster, and all the kids that he was head of, they were kids of higher-ranking officers. So Captain Bush would take them out for treats and he would spend his own money and all that. So one day, he asked me, he said, "George, can you go down and pick up some art supplies," and this and that, he gave me a list. I said, "Sure." He said, "You know, I'm the scoutmaster," and he told me that story. I said, "Yes, I heard about that." So he said, "Can you ask the proprietor to fudge a little bit, make that bill just a few dollars..." not much, it wasn't much, it was just for about three dollars and fifty cents more than... it was something that came out to about seven something, and the guy made it for ten something. I said, "Got it." So I started walking out and he yells at me, "Corporal!" I turned around, "Yes, sir?" "What did I ask you to do?" and I told him what he asked me to do, pick up some supplies. And he says, "Okay." And so I went into town and told this proprietor the truth. I said, "My boss is a scoutmaster too, and he spends a lot of money. Can you, just a few dollars, American dollars?" He said, "Okay." So I thought all right. But then that was the only time he asked me to do anything like that.

And it was funny because when they used to have hearings or something, casual ones, they'd bring their own interpreters. And one day this lieutenant comes and sees my name, Morishita, "You speak Japanese?" And I go, "Oh, I'm sorry, sir, I don't." Then a colonel comes in, and I said, "I told your lieutenant I'm sorry." Then the captain comes with the colonel. "George, I hate to ask you this, but the colonel's in a spot." Oh my god, I was in trouble, and that colonel was mad. And it was a case where there were about five Japanese workers, blue collar workers being questioned, versus a woman, Japanese gal that was wearing a satin dress. And she spoke English. And these guys were telling me, "She's lying, she's lying." But the first witness, colonel, it was in the language of the courts and all that, and I can't translate those things verbatim. So I said, "He wants you to tell the truth," and he goes, "I know enough Japanese to know that you did not translate that verbatim, soldier, verbatim." So I told this guy real fast, so I'm going to just tell you everything, okay, anything. And he says, "Eh," and I said, "How's the weather and this and that?" "Eh." "How's your mom and all that?" Okay, he said yes. Then after the thing ended, the gal won. And then I heard the colonel telling the captain, "That damn soldier of yours, he doesn't, he can't speak Japanese worth a damn." So the captain came and says, "George," I said, "Do me a favor. No more."