Densho Digital Archive - John Wakamatsu Interview (denshovh-wjohn-01-0003)

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RP: What were your father's early experiences, say before the, joining the military? Or his earliest experiences and sort of exposure to the discrimination and prejudice that targeted Japanese Americans? How did he, how did he react, experience that and how did he react to it?

JW: Well, my father said that he went to, first of all he was born in Los Angeles and he went to, I think, Ninth Street School and then they moved to the Adams area and he went to, I believe he went to junior high school out there. I'm not sure which school. They moved to Venice area in 1929 and he went to Venice High School. So, I'm not sure if, at the time, if Venice High School was a middle school and a high school. Yeah, I'm not sure. But I think that might be possible. But anyway, my father told me that there was discrimination. I mean, people at the high school, he played football and it was obvious that being two, one of two Asian Americans or Japanese Americans on the Venice varsity football team, they used to call them names. They thought he was Chinese. they'd call him "Chink" and things like that. So he had, he said people didn't like Asian Americans period. And so he, he was a fullback and he fought very hard against the other people. And he said he had to, he said there was a discrimination. He knew that. In fact, before, after he got out of Venice he went to Santa Monica College. He played football there. And then he went to work for his father doing farming and he told me that he realized that you try to work for McDonnell Douglas before the war and, as a draftsman, and he was told there was no way that he'd be hired there. There was no way. McDonnell Douglas, Sr. could hardly even hire him, because there was discrimination against any Asian Americans. My father knew people that went to Cal Tech and they couldn't even get a job as, in their fields. So when he got drafted in January 29, 1941, he realized if you're gonna be in the army you might as well get the best pay. At the time the army people, the Japanese Americans were not segregated. They were put into completely non-segregated units. Although, I didn't see any blacks in the 53rd Infantry. The 53rd Infantry was two Asian -- he was in F Company, and in the 53rd Infantry, there were two Asian people in there. My father was drafted on the same day as a fellow named Colonel Kim. Colonel Kim is a well-known --

RP: Is he an MIS guy?

JW: No, no. He was a very --

KP: A lieutenant? He was a lieutenant or captain?

JW: No, he was a captain in World War --

KP: In 442nd?

JW: Captain in World War II of, in the 100th Battalion and then he was promoted to colonel later but he was the only person that was in charge of a American fighting unit in the Korean War. So, Colonel Kim received every medal except for the Congressional Medal of Honor so he was a very famous soldier. But he was drafted on the same day my father was. Another fellow was drafted the same day and reported at Fort MacArthur, that's Frank Morimoto who came to F Company later. And Mas, Masao Chomori whose family was at Manzanar as well. I believe they were in Block 7. And so my father and Mas Chomori followed each other all throughout the war from, from Fort MacArthur to Fort Ord. When the war started, well, my father became a sergeant before the war actually started. He became a, he had three stripes in about six months. And he worked very hard to become a sergeant because at least the people in the 53rd Infantry, his captain, was a fair man and he allowed my father to become promoted over the other people since there's only two Asians in the company, you'd think that he'd, first one to get promoted to sergeant, that's very, very unusual. So, at least he was allowed to, to obtain that rank. Because he said, "You're gonna get much better pay, you'll have much better duties." And so my father was actually a sergeant before the war started. And he was assigned to guard heavy railway lines and whatnot in between the California and Nevada border and he actually was in places like Reno and things like that. And so he told me before the war started, he was allowed to actually guard heavy railway lines. So, if they thought he was a threat, why would they put him in charge of that kind of security? But after the war started, of course, everybody was taken out and put in different units. My dad said they went to Camp Crowder, Missouri, and they, many of them stayed there.

KP: Did he lose his rank when he did that?

JW: No.

KP: He maintained the sergeant?

JW: Right. My father, 'cause he was a sergeant in the regular army and had, did not have a wartime promotion, he was, he had three stripes. And went to Camp Crowder, Missouri, he then became a staff sergeant and then in time he became a first sergeant when he went to, from Camp Crowder, Missouri, to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. And that was in I think March 3, 1943. So my father was forty-two, forty-two soldiers from Crowder went to Camp Shelby. My father was in charge of those forty-two men. I have a record of that letter.