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LT: After you'd been in camp for two years, you volunteered for the United States Army. Can you talk about your thoughts about that, and then about your induction and your service?

SA: Oh, I figured like my folks used to tell me before the war, before Pearl Harbor, said, "If anything happens, just remember you're American citizen, so you do what your country asks of you." And that's the way I felt, so I decided to volunteer. Besides, I was getting tired of camp life.

LT: And when did you volunteer, and where did you go for basic?

SA: I went to Fort McClellan, Alabama. Anyway, I was inducted in Ogden, no, Salt Lake, Utah. Took basic in Fort McClellan, Alabama, and then after that, went to MIS school in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Fort Snelling.

LT: And so in the Military Intelligence Service, you were preparing to be a linguist, to translate... what would your role have been in the MIS?

SA: What was...

LT: So what were you preparing to do as part of the MIS?

SA: Oh, with my ability in the language, the Japanese language, I was more or less a helper when they come across some difficult Japanese character, kanji, we'd look it up in the dictionary and help. 'Cause we had quite a few Hawaiian fellows who were really adept in Japanese language, you know. So we would more or less go for that, go for this.

LT: So is this where that Japanese language school helped?

SA: Well, they taught you how to find certain things, you know.

LT: And I was thinking about your going to Japanese language school when you were a kid. Did that help?

SA: Oh, probably helped some.

LT: So did you serve with the Military Intelligence Service?

SA: No. Actually, what happened was... oh, let's see. I was with the CIC, Counterintelligence Corps, in Manasquan, New Jersey. Incidentally, that got wiped out with last year's storm, (Sandy). Anyway, we had a detachment, 429 Signal Detachment, about thirty of us Niseis, and we were supposed to make a secretive landing on the, off coast of Japan. That's what we were being trained for. By then the war was over in '45, so they were disbanded. Then I came back to Snelling again and went to CIC school. So I never did see active action or go, you can go overseas.

LT: It's interesting that you were selected to do intelligence work, though, when your family was in camp and your father had been in a Department of Justice camp. Did you have any thoughts about that?

SA: No, never did.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.