<Begin Segment 13>

JC: Tell me what it was like to be a woman in the military.

FO: Well, the women in the military, of course, amongst my peers, you know, we were brought up rather sheltered, you know. You, we didn't go gallivanting, going out at nights and this and that. We were all kept close to home and such. So my feeling when I first volunteered, I thought my peers would think good little girls don't join the service, especially in that era, because we had often heard that you don't date a sailor, you know. Don't you remember that sort of... but the tides turned quickly when I was in school at La Grande. We had the air cadet corps stationed there with us. You wouldn't be caught dating a civilian. Everybody was for their air corpsmen. How the tide changes. But my military service, all in all, it was an adventure. It isn't what people would imagine, that only bad girls or wayward girls are joining the service. It was a wonderful group of kids. I've corresponded with a couple of them all these years, and we had wonderful commanding officers. And like I said, rather than languishing in those internment camps, I'd think what a waste of time for people of my age to be just... oh, it was just a waste of time. You could have been doing something meaningful, productive, and they didn't. That was horrid. And here the military led me to a more productive life because of the time that I'd served, Uncle Sam in turn rewards you.

JC: So you went to Minnesota.

FO: Uh-huh.

JC: What was the experience like in Minnesota?

FO: Oh, in Minnesota, it was bitterly cold. The sidewalks are caked with ice, and no one seems to clear it or anything. People who live there act like, well, it's common. And here, we're walking like we're on pole sticks or such, you know. We're afraid to walk the streets. The ice is cold and thick. It was bitterly cold. I remember that mostly.

JC: And that was the school for linguistics?

FO: Uh-huh. It was the, the language school, uh-huh.

JC: Say more about that. What does that mean, the language school. What are you training to do?

FO: Well, they recruited the Japanese Americans or anyone with knowledge of the Japanese language. And they were training them supposedly I guess to use for the occupation services, or many of them went to the Philippines and such to act as interpreters, the men. Now I often tell Johnny, "Oh, if I had stayed, I could have been able to go the occupation group to Japan," because a group of women did get to go to Japan under the occupation. That was after the war.

JC: And what would they do in Japan then?

FO: I... well, my sister who next, my sister who remained in Japan, she had her English knowledge because she almost finished grade school here, so she was able to speak English well. They hired her at the police station, and she worked a spell for the Red Cross. Here she's just a teenager, and they're using her because of her English ability and Japanese as well.

JC: The Women's Air Corps, WAC is Women's Air Corps?

FO: No.

JC: Women's Army Corps.

FO: Army, uh-huh.

JC: What is the, what is the Women's Army Corps, and who was in it?

FO: Well, there were wonderful officers. And mainly it was to do the home, home base work, I would say, clerical, you know, and not for combat, and they didn't mix the genders like they do today. I don't know how the girls get by being mixed with the males on their everyday lives. How do they cope, their personal lives. Because in the WACS, we had different barracks. We were completely segregated from the men. Our mess halls and everything, we were all separate. But today, my goodness, I don't know what they're doing today because it seems like they're right in with the men. And like basic training from what I read, they're not as hard on the women as the men. Like the pushups, they're only allowed, required to do certain number of pushups compared to what the men have to do and such. Our basic training, well, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't that rough. But we were completely segregated from the men. So --

JC: What was your basic training? What did you do during basic training?

FO: Well, you get up early right at, what was it five-thirty, six, and it's the mess. And after that, I think we had our training. We had some march drills. And of course, there's a lot of orientation class work, but it went by fast. It was six weeks.

JC: Did women also have physical training?

FO: Oh, yes. We go through, uh-huh, but not as severe as what the men went through. But I remember marching at, in Iola. It was so bitterly cold that my face would, we would be numb when we came in. But it was all an adventure. And being young, you know, you can tolerate most everything.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.