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HH: When, with the start of the Second World War, a number of changes took place. What would be a series of events that you experienced following the declaration of war to World War II?

WM: Well, I was enrolled at the University of Washington at the time, and in my freshman year, I was ejected from that course and had to go to camp. And from there, I think the story is probably the same as many other Nisei at that period of time of my age.

HH: I see. Did you go to an assembly center and to a camp?

WM: I went to Pinedale in California outside of Fresno, and then was moved up to Tule Lake where I spent about two, two and a half months, and then I got out of there to go back to school in the fall of 1942.

HH: So you got out in fall of...

WM: '42.

HH: '42.

WM: Yes.

HH: To go to school.

WM: Right.

HH: Where did you go?

WM: I went to Dakota Wesleyan University, a Methodist college in South Dakota.

HH: I see. This is in, wouldn't be in the town of Mitchell, South Dakota, would it?

WM: It is, actually. Corn palace capital of the world.

HH: Yeah, I think I've seen that. [Laughs] And when you're finished with that particular college, where did you go, what did you do after that?

WM: Well, I had volunteered for the U.S. Navy in '43, in the spring of '43, and was rejected because I was deemed an alien, classified C-4. So I did what I could and I went back to continue with my studies. And in 1944 I was drafted and trained in the infantry.

HH: I see. And so what was your experience like in the army?

WM: Well, I trained with a bunch of fellows who came up from Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, southern boys, so to speak. And there was nothing particularly significant about that except I remember on one fifty-mile march, they were going to try to make me wear my legs off, and I wouldn't be able to stay up with all the long-legged fellows. Well, they were wrong.

HH: So you were not with a Japanese American outfit?

WM: I was not.

HH: I see. And in the remainder of your career or in your time in the military, what did you do?

WM: Well, in 1944, was it? Ah, yes, it must have been '44, my entire company that I trained with went to fight in the Battle of the Bulge. I was scheduled to go, but I had an appointment down to Fort Benning, Officer Candidate School, which I had to work very hard for, by the way, while training. So instead of going to OCS at Fort Benning, I was shipped up to Fort Snelling up in Minnesota. And Major Rush at that time in Fort Snelling, apparently combed the records and deemed that I was eligible to enter Fort Snelling. Whether that was true or not, I went there, I was shipped up there.

HH: So that was the language school. Did you have a very strong background in the Japanese language prior to that?

WM: Absolutely not.

HH: So you were not literate?

WM: I was not totally illiterate in Japanese, but close to it.

HH: So the Japanese that you learned then was mostly through the military?

WM: Correct. Especially reading, writing.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.