<Begin Segment 13>

TR: So here you were recently married, and your husband soon after you were married went off to war in Europe. What went through your mind having a soldier overseas? What was it like to be a new bride with your husband overseas?

AN: Huh, well, there were a lot of uncertainties, aren't there? You just didn't know what to expect. But he wasn't there in the front lines. He was in service equipment, so that that was helpful. But he did, when they were in Rome, they went around and around and around and around. All night, the whole 442 went around and around, and every time, the roads are made that way, I guess. And so they ended up, every time, they end up right in front of Saint Peter's Dome, the church, took them all night to get out of Rome. And then they had another time that they, the group, what did they do? Oh, the general, Colonel Pence and General Ryder and a number of the, Tom was one of them and I think Mike Masaoka and oh, there were quite a number of men took off, and there was a snafu in the army where they forgot to tell the general and the colonel that they had not taken, they weren't to take off that early. They were, but they didn't know. They just took off and went and Tom was with this group, and the girls were throwing flowers at them so grateful for them, for their presence. Well, they didn't know it, but they were in enemy territory because they had taken off too early and they hadn't been told, even the general. Yeah, the boot guns, they started to shoot at them, and so they dove for the ditches, and they got one person to go and go for help, so they got out of that predicament that time.

TR: And these were not necessarily soldiers who had combat experience?

AN: Well, I know Tom, this is their first time. This is the first time they'd been shot at too, so it was quite a --

TR: Were you able to communicate with him when he was overseas?

AN: Oh, just letters, but he wasn't telling me very much.

TR: And were the letters censored?

AN: Oh, not that I know of. I don't know. If they were, I didn't know.

TR: So while, you said during the wartime before he went overseas, he tried to go to see his family in Minidoka?

AN: Yes, uh-huh.

TR: And wasn't able to get in?

AN: No.

TR: Were you there?

AN: No, huh-uh.

TR: And you said because he was a soldier, he couldn't go inside the camp?

AN: In, into the camp, uh-huh, so they went out. The family went out of camp, and they met someplace in Twin Falls, strange isn't it?

TR: Because it almost seems since he's serving his country, he would be more likely to be able to get into camp?

AN: Uh-huh. You would think so. But then you wouldn't think that the people, they would let the people out, but that's what happened.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.