<Begin Segment 21>

SG: So how did you be, end up, how did you become a sergeant?

BO: Right there, right there. The major says -- he gave me a whole list of ranks. He says, "Pass them out." You look at each other, how much school have you got, you know. I don't do all that or you know. Can you do this, can you do that? I just look at him, "Oh, you're a pretty good guy, here take this." I give it to him. And I only took buck sergeant. What do you do with staff? Oh, I don't care. I don't want it because the staff is going to go up to shop, see, and boy, that really, went real good that I give up myself and give them the ranks, and get paid.

SG: What happened after that?

BO: I got shipped out to Camp Savage.

SG: Away from your --

BO: Oh, yeah. I got taken away and head to Camp Savage intelligence school.

SG: Do you know why they chose you?

BO: Oh, yeah. December 7th, I told them I could speak a little bit. I could interpret just a little bit, you know. We were just raising a family, and if I could help, I'll help. That one is a sore spot that grabbed me.

SG: So they shipped you to Camp Savage?

BO: Then I went to Camp Savage.

SG: What was that like in Camp Savage?

BO: Here again, they load us up, got on a train at, in Kansas City, and the boy says, "How about taking that fast train, okay?" We'll take the fast, let's see. We'll take the fast train and not take the slow train, he said that. And to catch a fast train, we had to catch a train later instead of getting on the train now, so check your watch and then get out of here. MP was looking all over for that group of guys, about twelve, and he couldn't find them, so we had a good time. Then after a short time, we got there. "Where were you guys? We were looking all over for you guys. Get on that train. You missed the other one." So we got on the train, and that train went so fast that we passed up the old one, got to Omaha, and then we wandered around in Omaha. I went to, me and Okazaki went to the Mr. and Mrs. Yoden who had a gift shop downstairs, we went up there. We ate rice and tsukemono. "Well, don't you want these?" All the gotso All we wanted was just rice and tsukemono. We thanked them, and they were worried about their son. I says, "Well you know, ranks all depend upon how the upper feels about you and how you could tell the soldiers do this or do that." And when we head back to catch our train, they all talk about they went this place, that place. Oh, we had rice and tsukemono. Then we got on train head for Saint Paul. "Dear Old Nightingale, never on time unless a gale behind it." It goes right by Camp Savage. Instead of stopping there, we went clear over to Saint Paul, and there's a truck waiting out there, truck, not a bus or anything. So we climb in the truck and end up freezing. Where is this going to end up, you know. Oh, back to Savage. Then you got to get off here, so we toss our baggage over. They called. You guys got to eat, so we go up to the mess hall. We ate then go to our belongings. First step you make in the log cabin is soggy, spongy, and stinky. We step on, get in, but we have to hurry up. It's already past midnight. We have to find a bunk and go to sleep. So we match or find a bunk and feel. Then finally, we went to sleep.

And here they come, woke us up already. So we woke up and look around, there's nobody higher than us. I was the highest ranking guy in that barrack. I got sergeant in charge of everything, don't know nobody. I thought we just came in there. It was, floor was just soggy, juicy, like there was ice under there that's melting. It was, originally, it was a CCC Camp, and they changed it to a hobo camp. And from there, the intelligence got in there, and they tried to get us to -- and the guys are just laughing. Where you guys from? Continue? So we get the questionnaires and this and that. We get the classified to a certain class. Everybody gets different class. They don't all go into one, like a regular -- just didn't go this way or that. It depend upon which class you're assigned to because they want to know what part of the country you've been to in Japan, you know. If you've been to Kyushu, where about, you fill out the form, then you select. Then this guy, he belongs over here or this guy belongs over there. So we get assigned, then we go to school. Where you started? Well, I don't know. We still got the IUL. I don't know how that's going to win the war. It has no meaning, IUL, ABC. The guys just lay in the bed with a blanket over here or drop light, studying away, and they get caught, not supposed to have a light. You supposed to go to sleep, so they did. Well, the other one is a good one. They take the books, they go to the bathroom, about ten, dozen of toilets, sit there, laundry, the barracks' washing machine, a shower. So they go there, all the lights up, study away. "What's the matter with you guys?" "Bad food." "What do you mean bad food?" You're missing the bed check. See your name, your tags is on the bed, bed check. So if they're in there, they erase the name. And they say, "Bad food." "You mean you had bad food, and you're sitting there with the pants up?" The pants wasn't down, it was up. That's the first secret weapon in the Asian Pacific. That's the beginning. They were really studying, hard to believe. The Nisei were studying that hard. Me, I would throw the book away and go to sleep. If people only knew how hard these boys did. But first ones that really took it because they were going to get sent, a lot of them were by themselves. That was one or two that I help them, by myself.

SG: Where were they sent to?

BO: Asian Pacific from the Aleutian all the way out to the Burma Road, didn't have enough men.

SG: So how many Nisei were sent with you to Camp Savage?

BO: About a dozen, that's all out of that group. But they were sharp boys, they're young. But there were others after that out of the Los Angeles, something like that. Oh, they were sharp, one man, one man they have. One month, one month, boink, they stuck him in civilian clothes with the AMP on it. They just smuggled him into the one radio listening post on the coast of California so that the state police or anybody wouldn't catch him. In other words, they smuggled him. And I don't know when he come out, but I know he won't be able to come out because they were after any Oriental. Now connecting to that story, we had one platoon -- I can't say too much. Anyway, we have a platoon of men all finished school, they had all the papers, everything, all in the envelope, everything, then they had a big batch of envelope that these boys are all finished intelligence school and they must get on that ship. They go to Frisco. Oh, these are Oriental. They round them up and stuck them up in stockade. Oh, the fire really went up. And when it did go up, didn't you see those orders that they're all carrying and the master orders. They got to get on that ship. You held them back one day. It might turn the war over, you know. They had to be on that and get over there. So they finally settled and then let the boys get on that ship. Well, they were really hard on that one. That's how, my friction among the hakujin on the West Coast.

SG: So who rounded up the Nisei soldiers?

BO: Those MPs and stuff like that, military police and stuff, along the coast. They round them up. Never heard of it? You did now.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.