<Begin Segment 18>

SG: You mentioned that you were in the army, and then when Pearl Harbor hit, they rounded up the Nisei?

BO: They made a stockade that three to four hundred Niseis were put in there. And from there, they marched them to the theater for orientation in fatigue clothes, never in the OD. They weren't in regular army uniforms. They were in working clothes. And like Watanabe, the car salesman in Seattle, said he was one of them too. But yeah, I used to see one guy over there standing, looking, watching us walk over to the theater. One went nuts because floodlights and all that, and they had a guard walking around. And one time I heard that they had to use those people to practice guard duty around the stockade. Either way, you're going to practice guard duty or whether to protect those men that's in service and put them over there, I don't know. But anyway, they didn't like on the record that they were in the stockade. But I got nothing to do with that because I was in my own company. And then in my company, a heavy duty maintenance quartermaster and they put me out in the [inaudible] with a master sergeant. He would stomp up there, put me back in our own company semi-trucks. Well, they couldn't figure out like in convoy, you go down the highway and the lights keep going out on the trailer. Why is the light going out? Nothing wrong with the wiring, no. It's a new truck, new trailer. So I got into it, and I find out that the trailer cord, one isn't ground. One is a left and right. But when it comes at end of the cord and it plugs in, that plug itself has no ground. The electricity got to go through the line, go back through the fifth wheel on the grease and grease is insulator. If you jerk and break through the grease, the light comes on. The moment you slack off it, it's all insulated, so light all goes out. So they didn't catch on to that. So I went and got some spool of wire, took the plugs out and start putting in the short wire and ground it, and I don't know how many trailers I got fixed. They say you're not supposed to be in maintenance at all, so they put me out, half finished. So I told the captain that they should tell the manufacturer to put the ground in the burnt plug on the trailer where the trailer cord plugs in. The lights, electricity hasn't got a chance to come back to the ground on the truck. Makes sense? "Oh, you're a good electrician." He's getting all the, I told him, "I'm schooling you." But I get my feet off the ground, breathe deep. The captain was surprised and he agreed, but he can't change a whole army to reject all those trailers or give out orders to put short leads on them. All the new trailers they had had no ground lead. They relied too much on that fifth wheel. When you walk around, all this long haul, you find out battery ground is on the fifth wheel plate to the frame. What good is it? Trailers sitting on top, not the plate, they had to ground the trailer. So we used to laugh, wasting all that money buying battery cable and drilling holes in [inaudible]. Why just throw them away. Yeah, that's how wasteful they are, the long haul trucks are, they forget. That's where we came in, where I came in finally. I studied electrical, carburetor, transmission, all that stuff.

SG: So I had a question about, I was curious why they rounded up other Nisei soldiers but not you?

BO: That's a good question. I mentioned earlier that Captain Heinichen is a German. If he was, is he protecting me, you know. And Japan was joining up with the German or is he covering up for me? That's what I'm after. You answer, I can't, but that's the way it looks to me.

SG: You're not sure why you were able to get out of being in the stockade?

BO: Huh?

SG: You're not sure how you --

BO: I think that's the reason. And then on top of that, I'm a full corporal. You don't take a noncom or corporal and stick them in the stockade unless you take the rank off. That's good assumption. I know it's just short of it.

SG: Were there any other Nisei who didn't, weren't put in the stockades?

BO: No, I don't know. I never walked around Four Rivers to find out.

SG: But as far as you knew in your company and people you knew, you were the only one who didn't.

BO: I didn't go in. But then again, I was working on maintenance. See I was working on the trailer lights and stuff, I was working on those things, yeah. And then on guard duty, I was carrying a .45 live ammunition. So when I go on guard duty on foggy morning, I go to PX or canteen and I buy candy, then I walk and check my boys. I say, "You want candy? Pick out what you want," and I give it to them. But the one upstairs, see that sergeant from the other company, he jaywalks right company, and he won't stop. Well, just holler at him. Well, I pulled my .45, live ammunition now, see. How come? We're at war. Boy, that guy, he just froze right there, and we told him, next time, you're going to get a bullet in your, you know. My guard, he was scared, but I told him I will pull it because we're at war. That's the only time I pulled it. And that sergeant, he stopped and came back. He's shaking me up now, you know. You guys make me happy. I'm tying up.

SG: This was in Washington --

BO: Fort Lewis.

SG: Fort Lewis.

BO: Fort Lewis.

SG: How long were you in Fort Lewis?

BO: I left there about November, I guess. Of course we went to, summertime we went to California, California maneuver, then we came back and they had a, California came up to Northwest maneuver. And when that's over, then we had this deal going on, so must be about March, February, March. I got shipped out with the guys that I don't know. It tells you that the mess hall gave me a box of apple, said you're shipping out and your group is waiting by the car, and you're in charge of that and go to Leavenworth, head for Leavenworth. You get off at Leavenworth. Each one at Camp Crowder and all that, all spread out. No officer in charge. All troop train must have an officer in charge. But in this case, no officer in charge, just us guys in charge of the car. Now that box of apple when they gave us at mess hall, wow, they don't know me, so I brought that in. I says, "We're going to have an apple a day till it's gone." And sure enough, those Niseis, they made sure that everybody got an apple. One that don't want an apple, I just leave it there, and we, it lasts us three days, and the last one in the car has to clean up that car, so I didn't have to do nothing. You know, that's how they really help you out, the Nisei. They all worked together. You don't have to boss them or anything. If you had to boss them, just leave that guy alone. The other guy will tell him, so it went pretty good. We got off at Fort Leavenworth. [Laughs] Not the penitentiary now, the Fort. When we get off, Sergeant says, "Now listen. See that thing over there standing, that's the penitentiary, federal penitentiary over there. In the back is a guardhouse, so think before you do anything." So then say, okay, and then they put us up. I told the boys, that's what I told them, right there in Leavenworth, I told them that you got your uniform. You lost your home. Your folks, you don't know where your folks are at now. They're all scattered, but take good care of that uniform, and that's your home. You'll get paid and be sure and don't come home with shame. Don't shame your uniform, then you're safe. Don't shame your folks or anybody, and then you'll get paid while you're in that uniform. You're busted or anything, bring shame. So the boys all worked together, and we had the good job too. Boys are all, anytime they say anything like the warehouse job that they issue new uniform, and boy, they really did a wonderful job and they liked us. And then they want us to be at a garrison soldier to exhibit our formation and march and all that. Major couldn't keep us there. But after we got done with there, they shipped us to Fort Riley. And boy that Fort Riley, officer, man the long one. You stand there, the officer, three, four of them stand there and then they tell me to read it. I stood there and read it, read the name, and they're supposed to tell me the last four numbers of the serial number. So you listen to them and if it's correct, they keep on going and load up. Boy and some names I haven't even heard of, never seen. How you read this one? Then all three of them kind of giggle, then I catch on and I saw, this is where the kendokiai comes in, loud and clear, and then they reply back on the last four number. Well, I was pooped out. When I finished, I told them who I was. Then you think that the officer or anybody helped me bring my bags to the car? No. I had to lug that bag from down the car myself then find out which car it is and get on the train, but I did it.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.