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KL: I want to ask you about your experiences in the navy, and I know you taught there, so let's move into that. How did you come to be in the navy?

CT: They drafted me. And I asked for... everybody I knew that got drafted was stuck in the army no matter what they asked for, and how they put me in the navy because I asked for it, I don't know.

KL: Where did you go first in the navy?

CT: Farragut, Idaho, in the middle of the winter, which is about like being here in the middle of winter.

KL: What year was that?

CT: Somewhere down in there. And I didn't do any judo in boot camp because I was too busy being in the navy. But later after I got out and got stationed back in Los Angeles where I had my old connections again, then I could get back into judo which I did do.

And that's where the navy learned that I knew something about martial arts, and assigned me to teaching judo, teaching hand to hand combat, actually, is what I taught then. And I taught it for about three months, and then this draft I was on got shipped overseas and me along with it.

KL: Were people assigned to you for teaching or did they choose to...

CT: No, they wanted me to, once they knew I knew it, they wanted me to teach. The guy that was teaching, it was really funny because I went to this class behind the navy, I went to this class in self-defense. And so a lot of the guys that were in the class with me knew that I did judo and everything, and he was talking about this and that, and these guys were snickering, making points at me and stuff like that, and he finally stopped and he said, "What's going on here with you guys?" And they said, "He knows more about than you do." He says, "Oh, yeah?" He says, "Show me." So I got up and I showed him. He took me by the hand up to the top executive officer and says, "I want this guy to teach instead of me."

KL: So they were very receptive in the navy. They didn't have those concerns that L.A. government or police had.

CT: So I ended up teaching hand to hand combat, which was mostly based on judo, but I had to enlarge it to include knives and weapons.

KL: And that was in Long Beach? And I did this every day for about three months. And they wanted to keep me but they couldn't. I had to go to Guam, that was the draft I was on, so I did.

KL: Did you start learning Japanese language in Los Angeles, too?

CT: A little bit, yeah. I got interested in it and I also was rated as a Japanese interpreter when I was in the navy, it's on my record.

KL: Did you get navy training?

CT: Well, yeah, the usual navy training in Farragut, Idaho.

KL: I mean for language.

CT: No. Well, yes, I did take a course in Japanese that they were teaching. I heard about it and I did take that course, but it wasn't long enough to amount to much more than I already knew. But I did learn more about it, and when I was in Tokyo, when I would speak to the people of Tokyo, they said I spoke excellent Japanese. And then they would answer me and I wouldn't understand them. The reason was because they would speak colloquial Japanese, and they're not the same. [Laughs] So it was very disconcerting because I think I must be really screwing it up. "No, no, you talk beautiful."

KL: From the book, right? [Laughs]

CT: Well, but I didn't, I hadn't got enough of it that I knew any slang or regular language that they used.

KL: So you were an interpreter in Guam?

CT: Yes, at a prison. I was at a fleet hospital, and I would take any Japanese prisoners and take 'em to, "This is your bed, this is where you go to the john, this is what you can do, what you can't do." And if they had a problem with communicating, they'd call me in to the staff. And so I did act as an interpreter for a number of Jap prisoners in the fleet hospital that we built there in the jungle.

KL: What was their attitude, the prisoners?

CT: Oh, they were friendly, they were very friendly. Because I would talk straight with them, and they would recognize that right away.

KL: They weren't scared? They weren't afraid or angry?

CT: No, no. The other patients, of course, were very, they kind of got mad at me because I'd go in and talk to 'em, but it was a chance for me to talk Japanese, so I would go and I would visit them. It was like I was a friend, but I was there because I was increasing my abilities in Japanese.

KL: What did the other people who worked with you in your division --

CT: Oh, they knew me, they understood.

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