Interviews

1. Nickname

2. Kibei schoolchildren in Hiroshima, Japan

3. Feelings of loyalty to America while in Japan

4. Treatment of Kibei after return to United States

5. Keian employment agencies

6. Difficulties understanding different Japanese dialects

7. Mixed emotions after declaration of war on Japan

8. Finding work in the assembly center

9. Living conditions in the Santa Anita Assembly Center

10. Train ride to Jerome Relocation Center

11. Atmosphere in his Merrill’s Marauders unit when surrounded by Japanese soldiers

12. Finding his relative among Japanese prisoners

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

Feelings of loyalty to America while in Japan

My mother is really understandable. That is, not my grandmother -- mother. And she understand that, You are American and born there. So then says, Loyal, too, she didn't tell other, from other people because they don't want, telling the Japanese to be loyal to American. Later on, war broke out, you cannot say that, but anyway, she know the way my, she hear about it, what my grandmother treated me. So my mother knows that... but being mother-in-law, she cannot say anything, but she told me that, You're an American. If you want to go back, do it, but you gotta be loyal, too. That's my, my thing. So even though I got Japanese education and you say that, Oh, Japanese be loyal to Emperor, and things like that. But to me, still, I was young, but I'm an American. See, that came in, well, bear the fruits, to speak what I've done.

identity patriotism

Date: December 17 & 18, 2003

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Alice Ito, Tom Ikeda

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Hiroshi Roy Matsumoto was born on May 1, 1913 in Laguna, CA, a rural area on the outskirts of Los Angeles. His family was from the Hiroshima prefecture in Japan. As a young child, he went to Japan to live with his grandparents where he attended elementary and middle school.

Upon his return to the United States, he worked a variety of jobs, while also graduating from Long Beach Polytechnic High School. During World War II, he was sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center. From there, he was sent to the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas where he stayed for six months before volunteering for the Military Intelligence Service.

Mr. Matsumoto was in the first MIS class at Camp Savage. For his heroism as a member of Merrill's Marauders, he was later awarded the Legion of Merit and inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame. (December 18, 2003)

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