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HH: Did you spend any time in one of the concentration camps?

ME: Yes. In April of 1942, most of us in San Francisco were moved to Tanforan Assembly Center. And in fall of that same year, we went to Topaz relocation center near Delta, Utah.

HH: And how long were you there?

ME: I was the last to move from Tanforan to Topaz. They closed up Tanforan, I think it was in late September 1942. And in December, in early December, a team of recruiters came from the language school in Savage, Minnesota, to recruit personnel for the army language school in Savage. So I enlisted at that time, and I was one of a group of six that enlisted at that time.

HH: What rank did you have when you entered the service?

ME: Of course I was a private. When I went in, I had no previous military training. And I went through the school from, that was in December of '42, and I was in the army language school until June of 1943.

HH: Roughly how much time would you say you spent in Tanforan and Topaz all told?

ME: Just from end of April until the first of December '42.

HH: Okay, less than a year.

ME: Less than a year.

HH: And from there, you spent your time in the army, it sounds like.

ME: Yes.

HH: And is it correct for me to assume that from there you became a civilian with the occupation of Japan?

ME: Yes. I was in the army until 1948, then I became a War Department civilian.

HH: When you moved from Topaz to the army in Minnesota, do you ever remember being homesick?

ME: I don't think so. I knew that my wife would eventually join me in Minnesota where we were, so I don't think I was really homesick.

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