Trip to Japan as a Boy Scout

Memories of the ship heading to the U.S. Thunder in Crystal City Kids activities in Crystal City Having a house at camp Having nowhere to go postwar Feeling of foreigness Art helped him to feel less foreign in school First Boy Scouts troop in San Francisco Trip to Japan as a Boy Scout Playing basketball in the army Working as a typist in the army Painting murals and signs in the army

Transcripts available in the following languages:

As a Boy Scout, we went to Japan, our troop went to Japan. We got this special deal with the government to let us on a military ship, for us to travel with the soldiers. We were like movie stars, people were waiting for us, and they wanted to see us, you know, I guess they'd never seen a Japanese American Boy Scout, it's the first time, it was a big deal. Went to the hotel, big party, you know, Lion's Club of Japan or whatever, they were there, big party, and then we would travel to different cities, and we would go on a train. And when we got to our destination, my god, we got out of the train, there were people waiting for us. And all these girls would come out and they got flowers, all lined up, said, "Wow," we didn't know what's going on. Yeah, that was fantastic.

So soon after all this we went to Osaka, which was our sister city. Then they had a big deal there, too, wow, big field and people all around there, and a big show, taiko and everything, fire burning and everything, and that's where we came out, drum and bugle corps, marched in. At least we did that for them, right, they were showing us all their things, and we had nothing. So the drum and bugle corps was great.

Date: September 20, 2019
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda and Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum and Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

boy scouts japan travel