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LG: Do you know much about how your father joined the military?

MR: He was in the ROTC, I think, I guess in his college age or whatever, he was in his earlier age, and he was demobilized in 1942 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And then they must have done something, and they formed the 442nd Regiment, and he joined up with that, which is when he got into that.

LR: He volunteered?

MR: I guess. Is that a volunteer thing? I guess it's a volunteer thing. Well, he had been in the reserves, so he switched over somehow. He had to do some maneuvering, I think, but finally he was allowed to serve.

LG: And so your parents were in Hawaii during Pearl Harbor?

MR: Yes, I think I remember stories of how I guess he was, they heard it on the radio, they heard it. She heard it, I guess. And one of his students, I think, was helping out at the house or something, and he turned on the radio and they were listening.

LG: Did your mother ever talk about what that was like?

MR: No, I don't think so, about Pearl Harbor? I don't recall.

LG: Do you know if it impacted other members of your family? Your parents, your grandparents?

MR: My grandpa, of course, was arrested, and he was sent to prison. I don't believe... I think my grandpa on my mom's side had his bags packed just in case, but they never took him. [Laughs] They didn't take him, they didn't take people because, as I said, in Hawaii, there were so many Japanese Americans, and they did all the work, so they only took a few people. I think Grandpa Maehara had been, would visit, would welcome visitors from Japan, go down to the boat and welcome visitors from Japan, so the FBI had him on their list, so that may be why. Or maybe because he was the... yeah, or because he ran a Japanese language school.

LG: So Saburo went to training in Mississippi.

MR: Yes.

LG: Did Louise tell you much about what happened to him or did you find that out in other ways? Did she talk about how he died and his time in the war?

MR: I don't think so, I don't think so, I don't remember. What I remember is the letters, that she would read these letters from Saburo. I don't remember her talking too much about him.

LG: I've seen these letters, but what were these letters like?

MR: They're lovely letters, they were little stories about the things he saw. It was for a little kid, a little child about the, how he was sleeping in a tent, and it was kind of cold, and they had a little rabbit and they were taking care of the rabbit. He would draw little pictures about all these things, what they were seeing and doing. And then I believe, the funny thing was, if you look at these little... have you seen the letters? Okay, someone has traced all around, someone has traced on the back, and I have a feeling it was me. That I drew, at some point, was drawing on the back, because these letters were very important to me, I guess, and also to my mom.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.