<Begin Segment 27>

RP: And were you, you had some, some, a stint in the military.

HN: Yes, I was drafted in 1946, March. I went to Fort Robinson, Arkansas, for basic training. Then my dad died that year and I think it was May, or June. So I had to come out on break or leave so I got almost two weeks of basic in and had to come home to the funeral. So then my group got finished with basic so when I come back to Robinson they stuck me in the office there, the company commander's office. So I got stuck there and I did basic but just went out to the shooting range for the shooting medals. I never had to go on the bivouac or a hike or... I just went through basic playing in, working in the office.

RP: That was you basic training?

HN: Yeah, so that's my basic training, besides shooting. Then they sent me to Fort Lewis, Washington, in the engineer corps.

RP: Was that the place that you said you played pool with a mailman?

HN: No, that was... that's where it was, yeah. No, I played pool with a mailman at Camp Robinson when I was in basic. Him and I, after we did the morning report, we played pool all day, until the basic training... that was eight week basic. We only had eight weeks those days for basic training. Or was it thirteen weeks? I forget what it was. Anyway, then I went to Fort Lewis, Washington, for engineer corps training. Then I got shipped to MIS at Monterey, California.

RP: Oh they, they administered a test or how did they find out about your Japanese proficiency?

HN: Oh, they, they knew about it. They gave me a test in Japanese. And so I passed it so they said, "Well, we'll send you to Japanese school." So they send me to MIS in Monterey and then they asked me to re-enlist for three years. And so I said, "No, I want to go back to UCLA. I'm ready to go back to school." And it was interesting, 'cause one year, about one year and three months, which is what, fifteen months of schooling, that almost paid for UCLA time. 'Cause it's actual time at school that counts. So in those days if you went to school, what, eight months out of the year without vacations, then you almost... was a whole year, so I only had two and a half years left so I only had to pay for a half a year of school. And I graduated UCLA.

RP: What was the MIS school in Monterey like?

HN: Japanese language school.

RP: Uh-huh. Did they, were they also teaching other languages at that time, too?

HN: No, they hadn't started the other languages yet. But I understand that the next language they brought in was Russian, then after that it was Chinese. So right now there's three languages taught there, right?

RP: Maybe more.

HN: I don't know if Japanese is taught there yet anymore.

RP: But maybe Russian.

HN: Maybe Muslim, Arabic. Probably has Arabic school now.

RP: Yeah, Farsi possibly.

HN: Probably. Yeah.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.