For three I came to our house, first thing they asked us where dad was and so we told
him where he was.
He was at a Japanese poetry club meeting.
By 11 a.m. he was arrested and they put him in a retention and the cell that he was put
in was just just upstairs from his office and then from there he was sent to New Mexico
to Lord's work internment camp.
My parents are from Japan and my father was from a small village when he became aged about
17 he decided he didn't want to be a farmer so he came to the States and he didn't know
any English. He just landed in San Francisco and then after graduate from high school he
went to Stanford University and my dad got a job immediately with the U.S. Immigration
Office as a Japanese interpreter and he had that job until December 7th, 1941.
I think my childhood really was nothing unusual and I don't think that I came across any kind
of discrimination during that time because we usually were American citizens you know
so we obviously thought that we were pretty safe but it wasn't so.
Yesterday December 7th, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America
was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
December 7th, 1941 I was a freshman at the U.S. University but it was kind of a shock
so I didn't even go back to take any of the exams and I dropped out of school completely
so I got incomplete in all my courses.
After December 7th you know we were all anxious because we didn't know what's going to happen.
I was pretty sure that we won't be evacuated to be Japanese American, American being American
citizens.
Finally when we were finally interned it was someone that was relieved knowing that that's
what was going to happen to us then.
We first went to what they call the assembly center which is in Piala Fairground.
We were there about five or six months while they were building the permanent camp in
Menedoka, Idaho.
The assembly center in Piala says I was a pre-med and let me work in the hospital.
In the beginning we all know the men that worked there worked as a what do they call
them?
All male attendants and actually we were bedpan pushers.
They divided the camp into blocks and I think I had up to 39 blocks I think.
All the doctors, the nurses, the impersonal that worked in the hospital all lived in one
area block 4.
Block 4 was close enough to the hospital to go walk there.
We had special privilege because we had better food in the hospital cafeteria.
They had a common missile for internees.
There must have been about 10,000 Japanese internees living in that camp.
At that time they planned to organize an all Japanese-American unit.
At that time I felt very negative about that.
I thought that if I was going to volunteer I would be assimilated into the regular armed
forces but because having a separate unit like that I just didn't think that would be
a good idea.
But hindsight I think worked out very well because the 4-4 second combat unit became
very well known and it was a good PR for the Japanese-Americans I think in general.
In 1943 we went to Mineroka and I volunteered for the Army there.
At the beginning I decided that I didn't want to volunteer because my dad was so interned
and my folks would still be in the internment camp.
Last day of recruiting I decided maybe if I do volunteer it might help dad get out earlier.
When I volunteered I had to go take a physical and I weighed 106 pounds I think.
And then so during the physical the sergeant said, you're too light, I told him, jeez four
pounds I can gain four pounds eating that delicious army food in within a month or two.
And then he passed me.
What I left camp when I volunteered for the Army was June 30th, 1943 and then from there
I went to Camp Shelby, Mississippi which I call a half-lord of Werno Werno.
It was a terrible place.
Summertime it was hot, wintertime it was cold and they had these little insects that
they call chiggers and they like the little mosquitoes and they get bitten all over and
you get all itchy and it was terrible.
That was my introduction to the basic training.
We now joined the Fort Worth second down this camp Shelby.
Our ship went overseas.
I thought oh my I'm gonna have to see, I'm gonna have to die with us in New York City.
So I promised myself I'd go to New York City when I got back, if I got back and that's
what I meant here.
