Densho Digital Archive - Alfred Miyagishima Interview (denshovh-malfred-01-0020)

<Begin Segment 20>

TI: In Scottsbluff, the Japanese community, had that changed at all because of the war? Did you see any differences in how people acted during that time?

AM: I don't think so. I know we went to Scottsbluff this last fall. My cousin, she wanted to inquire about where her mother lived and things of that nature, and she said that her mother, course, they lived in California. But my aunt moved to California but she never did want to go back to Scottsbluff, and her kids asked her and she said, "I don't want to go back to Scottsbluff." So consequently, they didn't know anything about Scottsbluff, but they wanted to know, they came to me 'cause I was her buddy-buddy, you know. And she says they wanted to know where they lived, what they did and things of that nature, so we went there for a couple days. I tried to point out some of the farms and stuff that they lived at and things of that nature. We met, I called a couple of my friends and they're a lot older than I am, but they took us out to where they thought the farm was, and the farm was, buildings all knocked down already, but they had a good feeling about where their, where her folks had farmed. But these two guys that I called was in the service, and they spent their entire war at Fort Warren, which is in Cheyenne, and they were one of those people that they hear about that used to mow the lawn and stuff like that, and they spent the whole war there. They can't imagine that they thought they would be going to the 442 or maybe MIS or something, because they spoke pretty good Nihongo, you know. I can't believe it.

TI: That's interesting. And if you go back to Scottsbluff now, how many Japanese live in Scottsbluff?

AM: Come again?

TI: About how many Japanese live in Scottsbluff today?

AM: In town?

TI: Or in that area, that same area?

AM: Well, in that area, lot of the farmers don't farm there no more, and I'm pretty sure that the Kishiyamas don't farm there no more, the Yokomizos don't farm there, the Nagakis moved out, they still farm, but they're in Alliance, (Neb.). Hirazawas are no longer there. Joe Kakuda used to be married to my, my cousin, I don't believe nobody in his family farmed. I don't think there was maybe three or four families that still farmed there. That's not an educated guess, that's just a guess. Because most of those boys eventually went to college or did something, or found other kind of employment. I don't think they farm anymore.

TI: I wanted to ask you about another gentleman from Nebraska, Ben Kuroki was from Nebraska. And during the war, he was a noted soldier. I think he flew in those bombers. And during the war, he was used by the War Department to help recruit the Niseis into the army. Did you know about Ben Kuroki during the war?

AM: Yeah. He was more the age of my sister, but, 'course, we were, all heard about Ben Kuroki, and he was from around the North Platte area, Sutherland or Hershey, Hershey, Nebraska, which was just a little farm town outside of the North Platte. And somehow he slipped through the cracks and became in the Air Force. And there wasn't many Japanese in the Air Force, but he did make a name for himself, he flew fifty or more missions in, over the Romanian oil, Ploesti oil fields, bombing oil fields, which was the Germans' supply for oil. And I don't know, I heard somewhere that he went to the Pacific, but I just heard that, that he went to the Pacific and kept a good thing going, which is good.