Interviews
Wasn’t told he was being trained for kamikaze bombing
At that time, I wasn’t, we weren’t told that we were going to be kamikaze or live…living bomb or whatever we [were] just going to be a special group of youngster that we’re gonna goes training and then they selected and then they’ll get a pretty higher…I mean - promotion-wise it was very favored, yeah. After you graduate, you get one rank and normally when you go drafted, you take six months, one year to get a ranking, yeah you know where you go through this tokko training, in six months, maybe sometimes you get two stars, ranking, yeah.
Well that’s, maybe something to do with ?, a lot of people mention that and it’s maybe true, but that, I don’t know what you call it, motivated? It’s one of those things that really…you know, it’s really…it was told that you guys gonna to be trained to be individual, individual bomb, torpedo boat…I don’t know, you know, it’s not…different thing. But we weren’t told that way. And then by the time we get in the army, then they will train you, they train you, everyday – yup, you going to be, you going to be good soldiers, yeah and then they keep saying we’re going to win this war. Well, it’s amazing thing, they could do a lot of things to individual and well, sixteen or seventeen years old, I don’t know any better, well…my…that’s…well it was convincing that, you know, among all the people that were in training, they thought they were going to win the war, yes, yes, yes.
Date: June 17, 2008
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Janice Tanaka
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
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