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HH: So you were in Poston, and you eventually got out. Where did you end up after evacuation?

GI: We ended, my brother and I left Poston in June of 1944 and came directly to the Philadelphia area.

HH: How did you choose Philadelphia?

GI: How did I choose Philadelphia? Actually, it was chosen for us. A lady by the name of Esther Rhodes visited our camp. And my brother Mitsuo, who had just completed his eleventh year in school, had a pretty good scholastic record, which Esther Rhodes thought would be better served, he would be better served attending a school in the east. And since she was a Quaker lady, she arranged to have him attend a Friends school in the Philadelphia area. Since he was only seventeen years old, my parents were a little apprehensive about letting him come out to the east alone. And I was champing at the bit to get out anyway, so when they suggested that I leave camp with him, I didn't hesitate at all. And of course, at that time, I was draft age, so I had to ask for a draft classification change and I became 1-A and was given immediate release from camp to come out to Pennsylvania.

HH: What kind of employment did you find when you arrived in Pennsylvania?

GI: Well, it was rather difficult. What kind of employment did I find here in Pennsylvania? It was rather difficult to find employment. When they asked your draft status, you automatically said, "I'm 1-A." So I finally ended up with a job in a sweatshop, machine shop, doing pretty heavy manual work for a company that did defense work primarily on the Russian Lend Lease program. In fact, the owner of the company was a White Russian, Mr. Bermistov.

HH: All right, so you were able to find employment and does that mean that you more or less supported yourself and your brother during this time?

GI: Yes. I had to work to give Mitsuo some spending money, but he stayed with a professor's family in Haverford College, and from there he attended Friends Central School.

HH: You were 1-A. Does that mean that you were eventually drafted?

GI: Yes. Because of my 1-A status I was called for a physical around the end of 1944 and I only weighed 107 pounds and was skin and bone, thanks to camp life. That they said, "We have to classify you 1-A limited." I had primarily volunteered for the 442nd as a replacement, but then when they said 1-A limited, I also had been interviewed by Colonel Rasmussen for the MIS school at, I think it was Camp Savage in Minnesota. So I asked for that, but then I was told that in the end of 1944, they had more than enough Nisei interpreters and the way the war was going, they didn't think they would be recruiting anymore. So I was sent home and said, "When they're scraping the bottom of the barrel, they might call you."

HH: [Laughs] So you didn't have to serve after all.

GI: No.

HH: Okay. So now that your draft classification was changed somewhat, did that help you find different kind of employment?

GI: Yes. 1-A limited, and it was a joke, really, as they said, when they scrape the bottom of the barrel, they take the 1-A limited. It was essentially 4-F with no physical ailments. [Laughs] And through the company I was working for, that is Vibration Specialty, I got to know people at YORK Corporation, where I did some of their balancing work for their machinery. I was able to get a job with YORK Corporation, a refrigeration company. And it was a little bit of an upgrade in job opportunity.

HH: How long did you stay with that company?

GI: I stayed with YORK Corporation for about thirteen years. And in the meantime, I took a leave of absence to get my mechanical engineering degree. I actually wanted to become a civil engineer before the war, but I found refrigeration very interesting and I wanted to pursue that field, so I changed to mechanical engineering and finally got my degree at Rutgers University.

HH: Were you a full time student?

GI: I ended up a full time student because some of the earlier studies at Drexel in the evening was taking too long.

HH: And so all told, how long did it take you to earn your degree?

GI: Twelve years between evacuation and degree.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.