Interviews
Volunteering to serve for the U.S. military in Japan
Well I had good grades and Japanese was easy because that time I could memorize. Japanese language is memory, that’s all. You memorize words and characters so it was very easy for me. I taught Japanese until the end of the war. The war ended in forty-five, and I was hoping to get back to school. But I wanted to visit my relatives in Japan having heard from my mother about them all the years I was in Kona. So I decided to volunteer to serve in Japan, and the requirement for us was to be commissioned as Second Lieutenant to go over to Japan. To become an officer, I had to go through basic training for three months in Fort McClellan, Alabama. And after that I was commissioned and went to Japan in 1946.
Date: May 29, 2006
Location: Hawai`i, US
Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Writing Letters
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Grandfather raised in the hotel business
(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii
Respecting the will of a five-year-old daughter (Japanese)
(b. 1925) War bride
Playing basketball in the army
(b. 1938) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
Joining the army
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Working as a typist in the army
(b. 1938) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
Animosity between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Being scared during combat
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Never feared that he wouldn’t come back home
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
On saving the Lost Battalion
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Adjustment to American life
(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor
Immersed in Japanese culture and language
(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
Acculturation
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Teaching at the military language school during World War II
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i