<Begin Segment 28>

RP: So what was, what was the language school like for you? How was it organized and...

HN: Well, since I didn't want to re-enlist to go to language school they put me in the translation department so I just sat there working in an office again. So... [Laughs]

RP: What did you translate?

HN: Didn't translate anything. Did a little bit of translations from English into Japanese, but I couldn't write the language so I'd have to do it Romaji, you know what that is? Just English characters with Japanese pronunciation. [Laughs]

RP: Uh-huh.

HN: I could speak it and understand it and know the words, but I couldn't write the kanjis, the characters.

RP: Occasionally you'd sneak out to the Japanese restaurant and...

HN: Oh, yeah, all the time. [Laughs] That was a fun time. We had to hide from this one colonel though. He was always looking for us. Colonel Keller, that's what it was.

RP: Did you take any classes at all at the language...

HN: MIS? No, I didn't take any classes because...

RP: You just did the translation.

HN: Just the translation department, yeah.

RP: You said that you were translating some documents from Japanese into English?

HN: Well, somebody already had it translated so all I had to do was type it.

RP: Oh, type it.

HN: I was proficient in typewriter. I could type a hundred words a minute.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.