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RP: So you graduated from San Fernando High, 1946. And then you were, shortly after that time what happened?

JO: Yeah. I graduated in June and then in July I went into the navy.

RP: Navy.

JO: And I was, did my boot camp in San Diego. And then they sent me to the clerical school all the way back to Bainbridge, Maryland, for a couple months. Then they turned around and sent me all... that was end of the year, and in January '47 they sent me all the way back to San Pedro to get on the USS Iowa. I was assigned to the USS Iowa. And they were just coming out of the yard period so I was on there and I put well, it's gotta be a little over two years on the Iowa. And I put it out of commission the first time in 1949. And then I was in, stationed in San Francisco, Hunters Point Naval Shipyard until 1950 when my time was up. And they decided that, they asked me if I'd go to Japan for a couple years. So I said, "Okay, I'll stay another couple years." I go to Japan. I was still single then. Then, unfortunately on the, got out one day. I was on the USS Chara AKA going to Japan, and one day out they turned it around because the Korean War started. And they loaded us down with ammunition because they needed ammunition on it, so they didn't have any. And we, two days later we went out. And the top speed on that particular ship is fifteen, sixteen knots when it's loaded like that, with no escort. So were going. Like the Iowa, even once she's loaded, she's doing twenty-five knots. When she's going full bore she could go up to about thirty-three. I've been on it when it was thirty-three. But we went out there and it took us about sixteen days to get to Japan. And then we transferred to the receiving station Yokosuka and I spent the night there. And the next day, when I get up I was, told me I had to go out there and move ammunition. So I went. They didn't care what rate you are. They needed the help. However, two hours later I got a call and I got chewed out. He said, "What you doin' out there?" And I said, "I'm doin' what they told me to do." "No, you're supposed to be going on a train down to Sasebo." He said, "You got two hours to pack your stuff and get on and go."

So I put about a year in Sasebo. That's when I met my wife and we got married. They changed the thing. Up to the point 'til about, I don't know, July or something like that or, you couldn't get married over there. No servicemen could get married. And they changed it. Well, and decided I would get married. I don't know what... it took us about four months to get paperwork cleared for... because she was born in Osaka, raised there. And the war started and they went to China because of all the incendiary bombs and all that. Then she come back and then after that, while I was there, I was doing, I had in charge of the food, the food warehouses. I was supplying mostly the smaller type ships. And when they were bringing... it was, in the beginning it was tough because there was only sixty-seven people there when I got there. And then we were working, I don't know, twelve, sixteen hours a day because the merchant ships start coming, and they divert a lot of the merchant ships that we're supposed go to some other port and then come to us. And all the stuff that was on top was all for the other place. We had to unload that, then load our stuff, unload our stuff, and then load their stuff back on. So that was something else. While I was there also, I had to teach the Japanese that we hired to drive forklifts. And they had never driven anything before. You don't think that was something else. And they put me in charge of that too. So, I had 'em out there. I used to put 'em on, get 'em started and then I'd run. [Laughs] But...

RP: You had some beer that went missing.

JO: Yeah. Well, while we were unloading beer and things, sometimes we'd unload the beer and one night they came up with about five hundred cases short. And they were lookin' for it all over. And we had put it, that, some extra beer inside our warehouse with the other beer. So they never did find it. Well, they didn't even think about checking that. So, we had about five hundred cases of beer. Oh, we didn't have time to drink beer too much at the beginning. But by the time when I left Japan they, well, they had an enlisted-men's club which has beer and all that. It was quite different. The supply office was moved from the administrative building to the auditorium and then they went out to a place called SSK, a big building. So I helped move all those records and stuff like that.

RP: Where did you have, take your meals when you were working there?

JO: The meals, they had a mess hall there. We used to... and like I say, the meals are not like the regular line in the navy. They had, everything was on a table. You get in there and sit down and you eat. And anything runs out on the plates on the table you, you just hold it up and someone would pick it up and refill it. And when you're done you just get up and walk away and they would clean the table for the next group to come in. You didn't do any of that. So the, however, when, like I was mentioning, we were doing the twelve or sixteen hours, we didn't have time to go eat so they used to bring some food out to us to eat.

RP: Do you recall, were there other Japanese Americans that were serving in the navy at the time that you were?

JO: When I went in there was a guy named, I think his name is George Iwata. He was from Block 12, I think. He was electronics guy. It was a guy named Kenny Fujimori. I don't know where he came from but he was in there. And I think there was a guy named George Maeda too. When I was in Japan there was guy there, Tenmo, and he was something else. He's much younger than I was. I had to, I chewed him out a couple times. Because I said, "Hey, you're not really giving a good impression of us." Because when I went to Japan, they hated the Nisei soldiers and things and sailors... I don't know about sailors because there wasn't that many. But I know I heard some conversation about whether they're gonna like me or not. So you know... I'm stuck anyway so it doesn't matter. You like it or not I'm here.

RP: How long did you work at, in the warehouses?

JO: That warehouse about a year.

RP: A year.

JO: Yeah.

RP: You were back on a ship again weren't you?

JO: Yeah. Well, I got married and then I got orders to come back to recommission a destroyer. And my wife couldn't come with me. Because first I had all the paperwork to get married and then I had all the paperwork to get a visa. So even though she was on a non-quota I had all this stuff so she didn't come until September of '51 I guess it was. And, but so, and I recommissioned that destroyer and you're going from a battleship which is like a floating city to a little bitty tin can that bounces all over the water. And then I got discharged out of that. I did recommission it. They retrofitted it, it went down to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for training purposes and then when they come back they were going to Korea but I got out. So, you know...

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.