<Begin Segment 24>

BO: Commandant Rasmussen says, "I'm going to treat these boys good. I'm going to turn all the beans back and ask for rice at the Chicago Commissary." Chicago said, "Yes. We could do that easily," so they shipped the rice to Camp Savage, Snelling this time. So then they asked the Japanese farmer if they could raise some daikon and they only could raise the round-type daikon instead of the long one. Okay. Then they point the finger at Company C in the basement. So then they got the barrel and start the tsukemono here, start the... and they're so dumb. They say, smell rotten. This stinks. Condemn this company, no more. He didn't know what that was. Then he find out the commanding officer said, oh, make tsukemono, and those tsukemono and rice, oh, really taste good. That's what the commander was trying to do. He's nodding his head. [Laughs] And the gal, Betty and Margaret, that was the office girls, and one of them is a missionary gal, and she had a nice leg -- daikon ashi, working around. And this Hawaiian boy, "Oh, look at that nice daikon ashi." She just stopped, turn around, and she told him off in perfect Japanese because she was raised in Japan. Just perfect. They were really amazed how perfect, and she told him off, no more daikon ashi. You want some more?

SG: Keep going.

BO: It makes you laugh. That's how we won the war. And then Camp Savage happens to be just in our correct position. Railroad that goes from Omaha to St. Paul happens to be going on outside highway. This other one, this freight train, man, going. He goes up the hill. It was 4 o'clock in the morning. He wouldn't let us go to sleep. Then on top of that, they got these night fighter or night bomber mosquito all night. Talk about mosquito. Then the wintertime, everything gets so icy, you can't go to the bathroom. So I made a geta out of two by four. Wear geta, that way I could go to the bath, and I could walk outside. Boy, our hair is just ice, so you wash and come outside. The guys there said, were trying to wear slippers in that mud, but I had geta and walk right into bathroom and then, wash up then come right back out. Slippers, you got to take them off. What else I got? Oh, talk about food. They go to the Jaws Cafe only, [inaudible] in Minneapolis, and [inaudible] is a good one. The boys would fool with the waitress and some got in trouble, and I made off-limit that place. I didn't know about, I went down there, and the guy says, "Why don't you guys come and eat?" I don't know. You think, I thought he was going to buy me food. Hell no. He's the chairman, he's so tight. He made me pay for the food. But anyway, they finally left there, off-limit. And then they kept saying, "Don't those guys feed you down there? You guys come up here and want to eat rice and this and that." They were always asking, "Don't they feed you down there?" Yeah. Oh, we say sure eat lots, go to Minneapolis, eat this fried rice or I forget all the stuff we used to eat.

SG: Did you ever get packages from your family?

BO: Family? Oh, yeah. Whatever they could find out in the country, Japanese stores out there, they buy them and then package them up and ship them to us. They got it a lot of time. But you know, they had a hard enough time, gas ration. They can't travel too much.

SG: What would they send you in the packages?

BO: Oh, you're coming up with a good one now. I don't remember all the stuff they used to send us, but whatever they send us, it don't last long. The moment you open it up and nose around, oh, I want some of that. Pretty soon all gone, nothing for yourself. That's camp life, boy.

SG: You said earlier that you thought that the Japanese, the Nisei soldiers had a big impact. How big of an impact do you think that the Nisei soldiers had in terms of winning the war with Japan from your experience?

BO: Come again now?

SG: You said the Nisei soldiers were the secret weapon for the United States.

BO: Yeah, that's what they call them afterward.

SG: From your perspective, how important was the Nisei soldier to winning the war against Japan?

BO: Well like I explained, different ones, what the individuals did and, or the unit that's out there. They figured out what's, what this guy said and you're going in call the booby trap. They told them that you got to believe what the Nisei said because he is raised in the family, and they know exactly what kind of feeling they have and when they're telling a lie and all that, so don't get caught. So what they did, they got prepared. And sure enough, here they come. They wiped them out. Makes sense? They walked in; they wiped them out because they came.

SG: What were your feelings toward Japan at this time?

BO: Japan that time?

SG: Your personal feelings toward Japan?

BO: Well, you serve that we lost our home. We're fighting with our home. Only home we have is GI clothes. Right? No? Same with all the rest of them. We got to protect that uniform.

SG: So wasn't difficult?

BO: Oh, no. They want to get even. They asked for it. It's too bad they had to be that way, but that's how they weigh it. They were a rough outfit, but they weren't prepared deep enough. It could have been worse. All the people was killed on the battleship Arizona, they weren't killed. They were burnt under oil fire. That's the latest I hear, what the guys that survived is coming back and saying.

SG: USS Arizona in Hawaii?

BO: Arizona, that ship, it tipped over and caught on fire and all that. They said those guys weren't killed. They were caught on the oil fire that the, that's why they died. Yeah. I had a guy truck driving. He come by our place too. He was a welder. He was welding up all the small holes that let the air out from the Arizona.

SG: Did you lose any friends in the --

BO: Huh?

SG: Did you lose any friends in the war?

BO: Me? Oh, I suppose I have, but I didn't stop and think. But I did, that's a good question too. They go out so fast, so many, oh, so and so went, but I never get a report if they come back or not.

SG: You don't know if you're, if they died or if they survived?

BO: I don't know that either, just that I look at the roster, oh, he's living in Colorado and stuff like that. That's the only way you can tell. There's no way of telling. They were looking for me too now, you know. What happened to that sergeant?

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.