<Begin Segment 19>

AC: After you were stationed in Japan and you were at Kurimoto...

PS: That's Kumamoto.

AC: Kumamoto, I'm sorry. And you had a reunion of all the classmates in the counterintelligence.

PS: It wasn't a reunion, just kind of, I think I got together with a couple of my friends on different weekends. I think most of the guys were stationed in and around Tokyo and Kyoto. But a few of us guys were sent out to the country, so we were able to get together. I think when I was stationed over there, my brother-in-law was probably in Japan somewhere at the same time. Doctor Gus, he was probably over there someplace, too, at the same time. I had a friend who was one of the Hashitanis, ran into him. He was a civil servant, I ran into him in Tokyo. And so after I got out of that school, we kind of went our separate ways. I wasn't able to see the guys much after that, but Isao Kameshige, he and I went through the same training there at Baltimore. I remember before we graduated there, why, we had a little, everybody contributed a little to the pot. So after graduation they had a drawing to see who won the pot. I remember Kameshige won that little pot. [Laughs] It wasn't much, but it was kind of a fun thing. I don't think he remembers it, even.

Yeah, several years ago, some of the guys that were, went through Holabird, why, we got together. Kameshige was one of 'em. Several of the other people, one came up from L.A., and then there was a couple of guys around here. There's a Mizuta, he was in, I think, Counterintelligence. Couple others that already passed away. Some of the guys that I'd like to have gotten in touch with are gone already. I've got one friend down in California, he's one of them that signed over and married a Japanese lady and has five sons, I think, has done very well down there in the strawberry country south of San Jose, can't even put a name to the area, but you probably know of it. Anyway, there's a few of the guys still left, but I haven't been able to catch up with many of 'em.

AC: Well, in your time in Japan you had mentioned a couple incidences, one which you wanted to buy dry persimmons. You didn't know what the price was, so you just gave the guy lots of money and said, "Here, thank you." The other time when you had driven a jeep, had blankets in there, and then when you came back, the jeep and blankets were gone. You just felt that the people here in Japan at the time were really, this was a really difficult time for them.

SP: Yes.

AC: And here you were, you know, you looked like them, can speak some of the language, and yet this huge disparity. How did that make you feel?

SP: Oh, I don't know. The war was over, so I guess it just didn't... felt bad for the people there, 'cause they were struggling so much. One of the first things you observed when you went there is that the little gardens they had scattered around, even along the railroad tracks had little gardens wherever they could grow some things. Of course, I went to Nagasaki as a career, business. But one of the things I observed there at Nagasaki is the destruction of some of the metal buildings that were still standing, probably ammunition manufacturing facilities, but a metal structure, and they were all leaning away from the center of the blast. They were still standing, but they were leaning away, away from the center of the blast. And then, of course, traveled through Hiroshima by train, I didn't stop. But you could observe all of the damage and the few structures that were still standing. In Kumamoto there was quite a bit of damage, I think, from fires, and Nagasaki also. There's a castle there in Kumamoto that was damaged, but then I think it's been rebuilt. It's been so long ago now, I have a time trying to remember them. But there was the... to me, the impressive parks that they had in Japan, different places. There was one there in Kumamoto, I remember that because I was in through there so much, in and around it. Such a pretty park. But that was, they had 'em all over, I think, Japan, if you wanted to find 'em.

In Sasebo I didn't get a chance to drive around much there, that was a seaport, I remember we got acquainted with some navy people, and there was a chief there that gave me what they call a navy pea jacket, and had my initial on it. I brought that back with me. Had it for a long time around the place and, heck, somebody else wanted it worse than I did. But it was, went to a place, one of the people working for our detachment, he was repatriated, and so he could speak Japanese and English, but he had a friend or family that he was acquainted with, lived out in the country. But somehow or another, got a gallon of shoyu, I was going to take it out to these folks. Had relatives from Portland, and I can't remember now. But anyway, he and I were driving out to this family out in the country there. Of course, back then, everybody was walking, and they had people alongside the road. My friend who was a repatriate was driving and going downhill there, and don't remember what happened, but anyway, he had to swerve keep from hitting somebody. Anyway, we finally got stopped all right, but the jeep was laying on its side. Here I had this gallon of shoyu between my legs, and fortunately I didn't even break it. But anyway, we got to where we wanted to go, and I think whatever little damage we had done, we got it straightened up. One of those hairy little incidences you can get into. Of course, those jeeps were so easy to turn over anyway, but fortunately, we didn't run into big problems. My friend was saying, "God, you even saved that gallon of shoyu without breaking it." Good little things happen sometimes. [Laughs]

AC: How did you feel after seeing the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What were you feeling seeing all that?

PS: Well, I guess you just, the reaction is it's a part of war. During wartime you heard about it and saw it on movie newsreels and all that kind of stuff, so you're kind of conditioned to it. You heard about the devastation of the atomic bombs, and you saw pictures of it. And so when you actually got there, why, you just kind of accepted it. There's nothing you could do about it, the firebombing that went on, there's nothing, it was part of the war, and glad it was over with and trying to help get things back to normal, whatever that is, and did what you could, did what you were ordered to do. I think that was about all we could do, just do what our job was and hopefully it contributed to some good. Yeah, 'cause we were born in this country, educated in this country, and when you go into the service, your allegiances to this country and the oath you take when you go into the military, and that's just the way things were. If you couldn't accept it, why, you didn't go into the military. That's just the way things were, shikata ga nai, you know. If you didn't like it, you had to suck it up and go on. But I think at that point in my military, I was kind of eager to get out and see the world and see the good and the bad.

AC: You had mentioned almost toward the very end of your time in Japan, that some relatives from Fukushima city heard that you were there and they made this incredible journey to come down and see you, and they missed you by a day. Did you ever go back and see them or talk to them?

PS: No, I didn't. After I got home I explained to my parents I was, my time was up and I wanted to get back. And everybody felt bad that that's the way it ended up. I had no way of knowing that they were coming down. Just one of the unfortunate things that happened. I still haven't had a chance to go back even though I've been to Japan as a member of the export committee, but I never had an opportunity to go look up any relatives.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.