<Begin Segment 27>

SG: What did you do after you left the army?

BO: After I left the army, Camp McCoy, I went to unemployment. I signed in and read the GI Bill, and my sister tell me, "As soon as you get out of service, be sure and go see your folks." And I tell them why, just eats up my saving. You know transportation, it eats up my saving. But you got to go and see them. I said, "Okay." So I, my wife and I, we took a trip to Eastern Oregon to see my folks. We went back and we got a job. She took a job in laundry, job in that. I went to, Yoshioka found a job at a Daimler-Chrysler agent, so I worked there for a while. And they always give me, since I'm a GI Bill, I'm supposed to be cheap labor, but I get paid the same with them. When the boss was in Mexico vacation, I walked out. He said, "Where are you going?" I'm quitting. I got another job. Where are you going? I don't know. I walked out very bitter. Then when the boss came back, wondered what happened to me. Well then, I quit. He turned right around and fired that guy, right now, can't play favoritism or nothing like that, can't give him a comeback of somebody else who had commission and give it to him and work for nothing. He has to do all the comeback of his own. That was the mistake that he was doing. I didn't say anything about racial or anything, but I just happened to walk out, and I told him there. I went to their American agent company of [inaudible]. I went to there, [inaudible], Illinois, went to there and then came back. A telephone call came, and it is George Ono, Minneapolis. He called me up on the phone, said, "What are you doing? I got a job for you." Where? Hudson. Whoever heard of Hudson? I went over there. They brought brand new equipment, and they said that the [inaudible] and fix it up, but it wasn't done right, so I fix it. I almost got canned by noon, but I told them, "You're not going to fire anybody after this. You want to fire me, go ahead and fire me, but let me finish this job once." So I went and finish the job. And when he had that tune-up man, the boss's buddy, and his car went under, so I went and fix that up the best I can. And when he took the car out, he says, "Damn good." That two words, he said. And from thereon, I stayed. He didn't fire me.

SG: What city was Hudson located in? Where was Hudson located?

BO: Almost downtown Minneapolis, near Lone Pine. And then Chevrolet garage was what tore it down. I tried to go to every school that I can get a hold of. I want to know all I can because it's going to be competition with all the soldiers are coming home from war and being just a load of a bunch of men looking for work. So to be competition, I got to have it in my head. So that's the reason why I went to everything I can get a hold of. And I kept telling my wife, I says, "I have to take a chance or risk and sacrifice our kids and do it." Was it worth it? Every night, school. And they told me, "you're the most educated guy here." That's the way they point the finger at me. So they says, we checked this, we checked that. I said, "I don't know nothing about that." Well, come on, we'll go for a ride. I look around, and I told them, all your electrical book tells you never use an acid core solder. We don't use acid course solder. Oh, that's fine. You look at that switch right there. Use an acid core solder, there's a green and green. When the rain goes, gets wet, it has a run and goes to the other terminal, so it shortens that. Electricity shorting across the two terminal. That's why is doesn't shift. Oh boy, all right. This thing, don't worry. Right, fine. Give me a pencil or pen. Watch me, I put a line through the two terminals, just a streak of line. Now we will test. Here's your pencil back. So we go test. Every day, it's just perfect. I'll be darned. That's the friction I'm always having in civilian life. But you got to win. You can't let guys take a walk all over you. You got to fight them. Nope. Oh, I know now you could fight.

SG: So what school did you finally --

BO: Huh?

SG: What school did you finally decide to go to? You said you were looking hard to find a school to go to after the war and which one did you --

BO: Well, Dunwoody Institute was easy to get in and you got a GI Bill, that I could go to any school I could get a hold of which I did. And then I tried to get into all the factory schools because there was not many guys out in the field who can do this, and it's right at the horsepower race. So you got the single carburetor, but you have a dual carburetor or you got a three carburetor or you have a dual and dual or four carburetor and four carburetor, horsepower race. So you had to synchronize it and make sure it works. Well, that's the time that this is all happening and you have to know, so I went to the carburetor school and all that. So they sent me 472 to buy a [inaudible]. They go up there. They got one way up there that nobody seems to understand what this is, so they send me over there. I says, "Okay." I went over there, two V-6 engine, gas engine. Gas engine was quick, a real quick flexible engine, but they got two of them hooked together. They work together, two of them. Okay, what's wrong with that thing? Gasoline, one carburetor open, but the other one don't open yet. See one of them working like mad, the other one just lazy, follow, so I made it so that both opened together. I just make sure they're working together, then I didn't do anything else, then I left. Boy, that thing is just a flexible engine. Anything you want, you could really flex it, operate real fast instead like diesel engine you got wait because it takes a little time to, heavy ply wheel and all takes time. But I didn't get no credit for that, but I enjoyed it. All these new ideas are coming out.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.