Densho Digital Archive - Isao Kameshige Interview (denshovh-kisao

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IK: And then in 1944, in late November, I was inducted into the army, and I was inducted at Fort Douglas, Utah, and was shipped to Camp Blanding, Florida, where I took basic training. I was in the army there, and we took basic training for sixteen weeks. And while I was in basic, the war in Germany ended, and so when we got done with basic training, they took us to Fort Mead and from there they said that we were going to go the other way. We were supposed to go to Italy, but we were rerouted to Fort Snelling and we were asked a bunch of questions and we had to talk in Nihongo so that they could evaluate how good we were in the language.

And I was sent to Fort Snelling, and I was put in Company H. And we started classes, I went to class, and the material they gave us was pretty tough for me. I could speak it, but I couldn't read or write it. And so I told them I couldn't hack it. So me and another fellow, we decided to re-up for the regular army. We were in the army of the United States, that's the enlisted army, and then we re-upped and joined the regular army. Because they said if we re-upped, we could get out in another year. So we joined the regular army and they evaluated us again, and they put me into the CIC corps. And I had to go to school in Holabird in Baltimore, Oregon -- I mean, Baltimore, Maryland, and we spent, must be about eight weeks, about a couple months there going to school, FBI school. And then I went to New York and had harbor patrol, and then I spent a month there. And then after we graduated from there, they sent us by troop train to Fort Lewis. And I guess I was supposed to be an agent by then.

From Fort Lewis we took on a victory ship and we went to Tokyo, to Zama. Well, we went to Yokohama first, that's where we landed, in Yokohama. And then we went to that... there was a camp called Zama, that's where we were encamped. And then from there I was shipped to Shikoku Island as an agent, as a CIC agent. What we were supposed to do as an agent was go to all these Japanese meetings, school meetings and city meetings, council meetings, and listen to what they presented because they were concerned about Communism coming into the country there. And so that's what we kept tabs on was Communism. But I couldn't understand all of what they were saying, so there was a lieutenant there that was a Kibei, and he understood Japanese pretty well. So I told him, "Well, you write down all the notes and I'll do all the typing, clerk work for you." And so that's how I stayed there and worked for the CIC as a clerk, and typed all his reports. I was there for six months.

But one of those months I had to go to Norton Hall in Tokyo to the school there where I didn't learn nothing and I didn't go to school. They sent me there and I stayed there at Norton Hall and just fooled around in Tokyo for a month. But I don't know what they wanted me to do, but they didn't say nothing to me. They just gave me a room and they'll let us know what to expect. So they didn't say nothing, so I just drove around. They gave me a jeep and told me I can do whatever I wanted, so I just rode around. But then I had to go report back to Shikoku, and then from there, when I got a raise, my shipment to go home came at the same time so I came home. They said if you wanted to stay, they'd give me a raise, but I said no, I'd rather go home. So I came home on a general class ship, and that was a lot better than a victory ship, I'll tell you that. [Laughs]