<Begin Segment 6>

PS: As the war progressed, let's see, I guess I was, March 1945, I was, draft board says, "Well, there's guys coming back, so you need to go serve." So had to report to Fort Douglas in Utah, May or June of '45, I can't remember. Anyway, then I went to, took my basic in Camp Fanin, Texas. That's where I got introduced to chiggers out there in the sand. That was quite an experience. But went through basic, then I went through, sent over to Camp Pickett, Virginia, we were supposed to go over to Europe.

And got there and thought they needed more, some of us second generation guys to, Japanese second generation guys to go to language school. So they sent us over to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and things were changing pretty rapidly then, and so, let's see, that was in the fall. Then Intelligence went over, come to Fort Snelling and wanted some people to, GIs to go into intelligence school, counterintelligence school. So a bunch of us signed up for that, and ended up an intelligence school there in Baltimore, Maryland, it was out there in the industrial section so you'd never know that there was a school there. It was where we took our counterintelligence training. I think it was sixteen weeks, that was really an interesting time. I think we spent some time, we went over to Indianapolis at the naval academy... no, it's not Indianapolis. Anyway, the naval...

Off camera: Annapolis.

PS: Annapolis, okay. And I remember going on to... I was taking training there, went to Fort Meade, Maryland, to get some special training there. One of the things I was introduced to was to drive a duck, one of those six-wheel amphibious rigs. And why I was chosen to learn how to drive that, I'll never know. But anyway, it was a fun experience. And things we... really an interesting time, the things we were taught and the things we were exposed to. But anyway, one of the things we ended up doing was part of our test to see how good we were at surveillance, they turned us loose in Baltimore, and we were supposed to practice surveillance. Anyway, Baltimore at that time at a place called the Block, I guess it was, they had more bars on that one block than any other block in the United States. Turned out to be kind of a fun day, to say the least.

Anyway, so that was... finished that training in May, I think, and we were sent over to Japan for the occupation over there. Started out in Tokyo and then went to Kyoto, and then I ended up in Kumamoto and did some interrogation. Of course, we studied some Japanese language, but I had to have an interpreter when I wanted to question anybody. It wasn't too long after I got there, the captain there, he says he wanted me to question somebody, I can't remember what it was now. I told him I didn't know the language, and he looked at me and then he said, "Okay." [Laughs] Kind of an embarrassing thing, but then I didn't get kicked out of there, so I guess it was all right. Anyway, I remember part of my duty there, I made a couple of courier runs, one from Kumamoto to Nagasaki, I don't remember how far I was now, and jump in the jeep by yourself with a .45 strapped to your side. And I remember taking a, making a run up to Fukuoka, that was a little distance.

Then from there, oh, stayed there in Kumamoto for... got there in July, in July, I think it was. And then went to, I was there for about... July, August, September, and October I think I went over to, sent over to Sasebo, the port city of Sasebo. I may be off on my months there. But anyway, I was there for a couple of months. Some of the kids, the fellows that I went through, intelligence school, why, we'd get together. One of the guys came down from... I don't remember where he was stationed now, but we got together one weekend there in Kumamoto. He was from Denver, fellow by the name of Larry Goto from Denver, and he's passed on several years ago. Then Takasumi, he was a CIC agent also, but he was in Kagoshima. I can't remember, but I think I got together with him one weekend. But anyway, at Sasebo, we were out running around one day, and we wanted to eat some, see these dried persimmons and wanted to get some because we liked them. And we were riding around and we saw this one store, I guess, had some displayed on the window there. One of the guys says, "Let's stop and get some." I don't remember the conversation, anyway, I don't remember how much we paid for 'em or anything, just gave him some money. I don't remember if we gave 'em yen or dollars. Anyway, we got probably three or four. But that's about the only thing I remember. We had that urge to try some of those dried persimmons, and we found some. So we were able to get 'em, and I don't know whether we paid a fair price or not. But anyway, things were really tough for the Japanese people at that time. I think that particular incident, I think we gave 'em enough money to cover the price of those dried persimmons. If a person has never had a chance to eat dried persimmons, I think they're missing something. They're so tasty to my way of thinking.

Anyway, let's see... I think I was there 'til probably the middle of December, maybe early part of December. And then my time was up, so I left Sasebo. But the darndest thing, my relatives in Fukushima-ken, Fukushima city, had heard that, I guess my folks had told them that I was stationed in Japan, and so they traveled down from Fukushima city, down to Sasebo to meet me. And when they got down there, I had left the day before to come back home. I had the option of signing over to become a warrant officer if I signed over, but I thought I'd rather get home rather than stay in the military any longer. Anyway, so I headed back home and went to, got back up to Zama, what was it, the army camp there near Tokyo. And I can't remember what the deal was. Anyway, a bunch of us rented, got a jeep to go in the town or something, into Tokyo. But anyway, it was December, so it was wet and damp and cold. We had some blankets with us. But anyway, going back to camp, the army camp... anyway, we stopped to get something to eat or something, I can't remember now, but got back out to the jeep and the blankets were gone. Didn't matter much, as we remember, because those folks didn't have a whole lot. The Japanese people back then were really suffering, so we says, "Oh, well, they probably need it worse than we do."

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.