<Begin Segment 29>

RP: You got drafted while you were in Chicago.

IK: Yes.

RP: And what were your feelings about going and fighting for you country at that point?

IK: My first thought was, well, I was an "enemy alien" a short while ago and suddenly I'm a loyal American. And what can you do? There's nothing you can do about it, so you can't have an attitude. It's just worthless. You can't, if you can't do anything about it, why worry about it?

RP: So you first went where?

IK: I was Chicago at Fort Sheridan, and that's when I got introduced, became a soldier immediately 'cause you knew you'd lost your life right there. Man, that civil... yeah, it's just another new life. Nothing else has, really matters. So you became a soldier right away by them telling you, "I can make you do anything I want you to do." Those are pretty strong words. They did.

RP: A few more questions. Tell us, give me just, maybe a brief overview of your experiences with the 442nd.

IK: Well, that's hard to say in a few words because they, I think they gave the proving answer to many of my young questions. One of the biggest questions was, "Would I be a coward?" That, that hurt, or that sat with me more than anything else, and it, it was, death had nothing to do with it, or wasn't involved. But the, being a coward was the biggest question in my mind, so all the anxiety, all the things that did happen had to do with that, because we heard some... everybody we talked to on our, in the service, on the trains, going into camp and all, everybody knew the 442nd and what they did, 'cause I didn't go in with the original. And only thing I could think of was would I be a coward, and that's what I worried about the most, so everything was, it was just, again, a different world, 'cause I had a real important point in my life... this is real questionable. I have no, no control, I didn't think, and so I gave that a thought, lot of thought, and I don't know what went by my head. It just happened, and all the way through, every train stop, they talked about the 442nd and -- other soldiers, other one that knew the reputation and then the things they did. And that just bring my... up, and I was honored, I felt honored and still wondering about being a coward. Now I could not be a coward because this is building up such a whatever, and it's, I guess it turned into semantics or whatever, you might say, because coward is just a nonexistent word it, that it come out to. It transfers into something else, anyway, and I was proud to enter the 442nd and hoped I would live up to their reputation. And that was the war for me.

RP: Did you feel that you did?

IK: Definitely. I found a spot where I did, and I proved it. And I kept wishing that they'd quit coming because I was poppin' away, and I was beatin' the war by myself. I just, I think... in fact, the only part that comes to mind is I was shooting all day. My buddy dropped his backpack, and we were into, back down into Italy from France 'cause it's a secret mode of attack. We don't really know, but it was, far as I know we were secretly brought down to help the, the black unit, it's funny to mention, the 92nd Division. And they couldn't take a place for a couple of years, so we were just a spearheading outfit, so that was our job. We... anyway, it was early in the combat and my buddy dropped his backpack, so they wanted, I assume, well, they would need that backpack to get some information on us, see who they're fighting. This is after we took the division objective, and we just shot all day, and after he dropped his pack and we were digging in, I was at a point, so he ran by me and while trying to get the pack a German would come sneaking up and I'd pop him off. And up come a big Red Cross flag, so I honored that. They honored us before that, in action, so I would have to admire it for now. So flag went down and nothing, GI came up and I popped him, so I shot about eighteen rounds and fired every time. About the eighteenth or the nineteenth time, I saw the, I shot, and then he yelled, "Medic," as they all did, and up came the flag. And then suddenly they went away, but the bag, the guy's pack was gone. They got the pack under the use of the red flag, and I thought that was pretty damned unfair. I should've shot, but I kept thinking, what if they quit? Just knocking you off and you can't get me, so why don't you quit? But they kept coming. I think it was eighteen of 'em. And I just felt bad, but then after I saw, or my buddy, very good buddy, Mitch's brother, got shot right in the middle of the head. That said, well, this is, this is war. That's really what war is about. And I was very sorry to do that, but, hey, if I don't do that to you, you're gonna do that to me. That's what it really came down to. So that's when it, whether I'm gonna be scared or not came to point. Forget it, which I did. And the rest of it, I was just fine. Just cautious.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.