Densho Digital Archive - Isao Kameshige Interview (denshovh-kisao

<Begin Segment 17>

AC: So you said you landed in Yokohama and then you want to Camp Zima?

IK: Zama.

AC: Zama, in Tokyo. How was it like going back to going to Japan?

IK: Well, to tell you the truth, it was kind of discouraging because downheartedness is what I felt. Because when we had our textbook in Japanese school, we read about all these children that have, dress alike, and they're singing songs and going to school and all that, didn't see any of that. The kids I seen were all beggars. They were, it was just right after the war was over, see, we were the occupational forces. And these kids were begging for "chocoretos" or "cigarettos," they wanted. Because the parents wanted the cigarettes. And it really affected me because I didn't think they'd be that, it got that bad. I felt sorry for them. And we used to walk down on Ginza there, and that's in Tokyo. We smoked a lot them days, and so we'd smoke, and people would follow us, throw our stubs away. They got a stick with a nail on the end of it, or a needle or something, and then they, what you'd throw away, they'd pick up, and they douse the flame right away. Or either that or we'd step on it or something, anyway. They put it in little cans, and rip the paper off, and take the tobacco and put it in little cans, and they'd collect that stuff from behind us. And then we used to, from Zama, we used to go in to Tokyo in these trains, commuter trains, they were, they were small. And we used to ride those into town, and the children used to chase after us begging for chocolates. And it's a lot different now. I went back in 1980, and boy, it's completely changed. It's more like Japan. At that time, I guess they were suffering. I felt sorry for them.

AC: Did you hear about the atomic bombs being dropped?

IK: Yes, we did.

AC: How did that make you feel?

IK: Well, I went to see it afterwards.

AC: How was that?

IK: Well, it was rebuilt already. By 1980 it was rebuilt. And the town was rebuilt, but they had a museum there. And if you ever go through that thing, it'll make you sick, just about. The way the people, the skin melting on their faces and hands and all that. It's just devastating to me. But I couldn't imagine what it was like until I seen that museum.

AC: So you didn't go there while you were stationed in Japan?

IK: No. Like I say, I had relatives in Hiroshima, so I was trying to get there. But I was only in Japan for six months, and during that time I applied for my furlough to visit my folks' relatives up there in Hiroshima. And three things come in all at one day. My furlough came through, I could go, and my raise in pay came in, and... well, I know three things came in at one time, and then the captain asked me, "What you want to do?" I says, "I want to go home." So I nullified everything except my orders to go home, and I took that and went home. I never did get to go see Hiroshima.

AC: So while you were there, you just attended meetings and tried to listen in to see whether they were leaning toward...

IK: That's how I started, but I quit going, because I couldn't understand it anyway, I told them. His name was Warrant Officer Kikuchi, and I was under him. And we used to go together, and I said, I told him that, "It's no use me coming with you. You want me to be a bodyguard?" Because I was carry a .45 all the time. I said, "I'd just as well stay home and type what you send in." He said, "That's all right. You'll have to ask Captain Jackson." He said, "That's fine." We had quite a few agents there, anyway. But Kikuchi's the only one that really understood Nihongo. The other ones were Caucasians and they, I don't know, they were there as agents, too, but they didn't go to these meetings like we did.

AC: So did people know that you were Americans when you're sitting there in the back?

IK: Uh-huh. I used to go out to the, well, see, I had jeep of my own then, too, so I used to go out in the countryside. And I could converse with those country people, but the city people, they talked too fast. But the country people talked like my dad and mom, so I could converse with them and that'd be surprised. "You're from America?" I had a lot of fun talking with them.

AC: How was that like?

IK: It was nice. They were real friendly, so it was nice. But I understood that there was a lot of Niseis that were... not Nisei, but some of these people that were just like the Niseis, our group, because we were from America, and they felt that we were going against Japan, I guess. So I heard that some of those people didn't care for Niseis. But the people I met over there, well, Shikoku is an island, see, and it's a little bit off the way. You have to get there on the ferryboat. They got a bridge now, I understand, all the way from Okayama to Takamatsu, and that's a pretty long bridge.

AC: So these farmers, people out in the countryside, because they were on farms, did they fare any better than people who were in the cities during the war or after the war?

IK: I really don't know. I would think they were fed better. [Laughs] Because there was a lot of vegetables out there. And the vegetables looked good. In the cities, they looked awful. So I don't know. I never asked.

AC: I guess you had been stationed at Norton Hall.

IK: Yeah, I spent a month there. I was supposed to go to some sort of school, they never told me what it was, but that's the army for you. They say to go there, well, you go there. And they gave me a room in Norton Hall, and I didn't do a thing. [Laughs] I'd go visit some of my friends that lived in Tokyo there, they were MPs or they were in the Second Cavalry, I remember. Like some of the Fillmore people that live here, I've seen 'em up there. I could go up to their room and visit. But Norton Hall was, I couldn't understand that one. And then they shipped me right back to Shikoku.

AC: So what was your favorite memory of the time that you spent there in Japan after the war?

IK: Well, there was a couple of Caucasian fellows that I used to run around with on Shikoku there, and we used to go out to the bay and shoot our .45s into the bay there. You see something floating out there, and then we'd try to hit that. And we used to chum around together quite a bit. And that one kid is from Philadelphia. And he said, "When you get to the East Coast, make sure to look me up." And I did. When my sister died in New Jersey, I went and visited... well, I went and visited her before she died a couple times, and I stayed in Philadelphia that one time, and so I went to look him up. His name was Tindel, and there was a couple of Tindels in there, but they didn't know the Tindel I knew. So I never did get to find him. And then I was in Washington, D.C., so I went to Holabird in Baltimore to see what my old school looked like, and that was no more. They were all transferred over to... what was that camp that the President goes to?

AC: Camp David?

IK: No, it's a school. I can't think of it now, but I heard they transferred over there now.