Densho Digital Archive - Minoru J. Shibata Interview (denshovh-sminoru-01-0025)

<Begin Segment 25>

KL: Well, thank you for backtracking. You were talking about deciding to join the army because you knew you were going to be drafted.

MS: So by doing that, it was right after War II had ended, so I didn't have to participate in that. And I got out just before Korea happened, 1950. As a matter of fact, after I was discharged and got home, was home, I receive a telegram calling me back in. I had the orders to report back in, so I was preparing to have to go back in. However, I got another telegram saying forget about that, because the air force had enough people already volunteering, so that they didn't need more people. So I just lucked out period, so I didn't have to engage in the Korean War.

KL: I want to hear some more details about your time in military. So where did you, things like where did you report first?

MS: Yeah, I was in Utah, right, and it was Fort Douglas where I reported in when I joined. And from there, for basic training, I went to San Antonio, Texas. And during peacetime, the basic training was very short, about six weeks for the air force. The army probably had a longer period.

KL: Were you already called the Air Force in 1946?

MS: No, it wasn't. It was the Army Air Corps.

KL: But it was its own thing, so it was...

MS: Yes, uh-huh, it was sort of separated from the regular army, the infantry, for example.

KL: So you had Army Air Corps basic training.

MS: Yeah, yeah. It was sort of on the soft side compared to people who had to prepare for infantry. And after basic training, they give you a choice of what occupational specialty you want to get into, and I chose radar technicians training. So I got that and was sent to Florida, Boca Raton.

KL: What made you choose that specialty?

MS: I was always interested, during high school I took a course in radio, and I did well in that, and I wanted to continue anything connected with electronics, so I chose that and got my choice and was sent to Florida, Boca Raton, for the training. The training lasted, I think it was eight months. Then I was drafted to become an instructor in one of the classes, and so I taught one or two classes and asked for a transfer. And as my choice, I had all the different theaters, European Theater or the Pacific Theater and whatever other theater there were. And I chose the Pacific Theater which included Japan. However, I didn't realize that I could have ended up in one of those small islands in between, that's the Pacific Theater, right? But luckily I got Japan, and that's how I ended up in Japan.

KL: What made you choose the Pacific Theater?

MS: As opposed to the European Theater. That was it. I was assuming, okay, Pacific Theater, they'll send you to Japan. Later on I said, oh, gee whiz, they could have sent me to any one of those islands, Johnson, Kwajalein, Guam. [Laughs] But anyway...

KL: Why did you want to get to Japan?

MS: I didn't really have any good reason except it was... I guess because of my relative or because being a Japanese, I was hoping to get there, no other reason, because I didn't know what to expect. This was in late '47, '48.

KL: And so you were doing radar work in Japan?

MS: Yes, technicians work. What that involved was that to be part of a crew doing maintenance on a unit called the ground controlled system radar, which is the radar which is used to guide planes in in bad weather. It doesn't exist anymore, because they had more sophisticated radar that they used to guide planes in in bad weather. However, that's what I got my assignment in, in Japan.

KL: Did you have interactions with your family while you were there? Were you able to connect with them?

MS: No, but they connected with me. "They" meaning my uncle who had already returned to Japan, found out that I was in Japan, and he found out a way to get in contact with the base I was in, which was called Itami Air Base. That's the same air base that MacArthur landed in when he went to Japan for his duty as a supreme commander. And Itami Air Base was near Osaka, Japan. I forgot how long I was there until I was transferred to another air base, Yokota Air Base near Tokyo, Japan, with the same duties.

KL: Do you have any kind of an overview for what it was like to be part of the occupation and sort of reconstruction and redirecting of Japan?

MS: You know...

KL: It's a big, broad question, but is there anything that stands out in your...

MS: No. Actually, I was on the air base more than in the local environment otherwise. But what I saw was really a bad situation, condition of Japan at that time in 1948. Everything was torn down yet, and there were people practically begging or finding how to earn their next keep or whatever to maintain their living or family. Things like young people picking up butts from the street so they can smoke it, all the terrible scenes that happens after a war in any city or country. And you see many bombed out buildings, that's what the environment was like outside the base.

KL: What was sort of the feel or the culture inside the base? I saw you have lots of pictures of that time and of individual people. Can you just talk about what the culture was like of being part of the air force in Japan in the late '40s?

MS: Nothing. Almost everybody got along, and they chose who to associate with or who to go out of the camp, when they want to, quote, "visit" anywhere. I didn't experience any big problems or situations where they would be memorable or that is outstanding. So in general, it was pleasant and an okay situation, nothing unsatisfactory or outstanding.

KL: And how long were you in?

MS: All together? Four years.

KL: And when you returned to the United States, your family was still in Utah?

MS: No. While I was in Japan, they decided to go back to California. And by that time, I guess my sister was, must have been associating with her future husband who used to, before the war, used to live somewhere in the area of Salinas. So when my father or my family decided to move out, they chose San Mateo for I don't know what reason. It's close to Salinas, but that area, but they ended up in San Mateo.

KL: So they all three came back together?

MS: Yes. And in the meantime, also before I returned, because I had extended one year from a three year enlistment, I wasn't going to return when they were expecting me to return. So therefore my sister and her future husband got married and not wait for me, which was the proper thing. So they got married before I returned.

KL: Had you met him before?

MS: No, I haven't. I hadn't. When I did return, I stayed with them in a rented house for I don't know how long it was, before my parents, who were living with... there's a name for... they were living in an apartment of the owners who hired them to do their housework. So they were living in a temporary apartment, so when I returned, they decided it's time for them to buy a house. And I was living with my sister after I got out of the service, and after my parents bought the house I joined, I moved into that house.