1 100 6 https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/ca192184db06a392497be28b559f1810.xml bca1c94630907ddb740f7a590e491a57 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, April 20, 2002 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/268-Kunihiro-Mits-5.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1918 Jul 07 Location of Birth Los Angeles, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Mits Location of Basic Training Camp Roberts, California Camp Blanding, Florida Camp Shelby, Mississippi Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine Rescue of the Lost Battalion Index indicates an oral history item with an XML file indexed in OHMS. Yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, part 5 of 5, April 20, 2002 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kunihiro, Mitsuo: narrator Nakamatsu, Karen: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2002OH0268_05_Kunihiro Description An account of the resource Kunihiro discusses his post-war life. He talks about returning home to his wife, raising his children, and his career. He also talks about his participation in veteran organizations. Subject The topic of the resource Identity and values--Family Industry and employment--Agriculture World War II--Military service--Discharge World War II--Veterans Post World War II--Travel, leisure Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 0:25:48 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 April 20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California children family concerns G.I Bill grandchildren legacy Nisei veterans post-war life veteran organizations https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/97ea62187e3ba29880c690df31d62007.xml 0265cd7264f172401ccd1eae83a39300 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, April 20, 2002 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/268-Kunihiro-Mits-4.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1918 Jul 07 Location of Birth Los Angeles, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Mits Location of Basic Training Camp Roberts, California Camp Blanding, Florida Camp Shelby, Mississippi Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine Rescue of the Lost Battalion Index indicates an oral history item with an XML file indexed in OHMS. Yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, part 4 of 5, April 20, 2002 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kunihiro, Mitsuo: narrator Nakamatsu, Karen: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2002OH0268_04_Kunihiro Description An account of the resource Kunihiro talks about his experiences in combat and how he had to be reassigned due to Bronchitis. He shares anecdotes about sight seeing he did in Europe; his experience supervising German and Italian POWs laborers; and his being hospitalized. He also talks about returning to the U.S. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--European Theater World War II--Hospitals World War II--Medical care World War II--Military service--Travel, leisure Social activities Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 0:26:56 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 April 20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California combat experiences hospitalization illness POW Quartermaster Corps sightseeing traveling https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/66b259afad48b7e5ee40dd42d5f165be.xml a7a3df1f1a694561c3d0f8d159ee9a5b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, April 20, 2002 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/268-Kunihiro-Mits-3.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1918 Jul 07 Location of Birth Los Angeles, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Mits Location of Basic Training Camp Roberts, California Camp Blanding, Florida Camp Shelby, Mississippi Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine Rescue of the Lost Battalion Index indicates an oral history item with an XML file indexed in OHMS. Yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, part 3 of 5, April 20, 2002 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kunihiro, Mitsuo: narrator Nakamatsu, Karen: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2002OH0268_03_Kunihiro Description An account of the resource Kunihiro discusses his experiences in Europe during World War 2. He talks about how illness with Bronchitis affected him. He shares anecdotes regarding: when he got married, his experiences with Hawaiian Niseis, and battle scenes he witnessed. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Casualties World War II--European Theater World War II--Military service--Travel World War II--Hospitals World War II--Medical care Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 0:27:34 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 April 20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California casualties France Hawaiian Nisei Hawaiian Pidgin hospitalization illness Italy marriage https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/911dad6bd1aeff676cdaf1f12963ba14.xml ae90b30420f661d8cc2ab04763e210c5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, April 20, 2002 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/268-Kunihiro-Mits-2.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1918 Jul 07 Location of Birth Los Angeles, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Mits Location of Basic Training Camp Roberts, California Camp Blanding, Florida Camp Shelby, Mississippi Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine Rescue of the Lost Battalion Index indicates an oral history item with an XML file indexed in OHMS. Yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, part 2 of 5, April 20, 2002 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kunihiro, Mitsuo: narrator Nakamatsu, Karen: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2002OH0268_02_Kunihiro Description An account of the resource Kunihiro discusses his youth working and attending school in Southern California. He also talks about getting drafted before the Pearl Harbor attack and how the attack impacted his family. He also discusses the different basic training camps he attended in California. Subject The topic of the resource Education--Primary education Industry and employment--Agriculture World War II--Military service--Military Intelligence Language School World War II--Military service--Basic training World War II--Pearl Harbor and aftermath Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 0:27:49 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 April 20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California basic training Camp Roberts Drafted flat feet Fort Ord high school Pearl Harbor and aftermath https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/840e58de1bb6e7a247d8fa748c5b44f5.xml ef4ad1e125f7debf4e941b90c4b624ec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, April 20, 2002 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/268-Kunihiro-Mits-1.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1918 Jul 07 Location of Birth Los Angeles, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Mits Location of Basic Training Camp Roberts, California Camp Blanding, Florida Camp Shelby, Mississippi Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine Rescue of the Lost Battalion Index indicates an oral history item with an XML file indexed in OHMS. Yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, part 1 of 5, April 20, 2002 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kunihiro, Mitsuo: narrator Nakamatsu, Karen: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2002OH0268_01_Kunihiro Description An account of the resource Kunihiro discusses his early years growing up in southern California: Imperial Valley and Sierra Madre. He also talks about his father's immigration to the U.S. and how he became established in farming. Kunihiro shares anecdotes regarding: childhood during Great Depression; a lawsuit his father filed; his family's background. Subject The topic of the resource Identity and values--Parents Immigration and citizenship--Arrival Industry and employment--Agriculture Race--Discrimination Identity and values--Nisei Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 0:26:18 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 April 20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California childhood activities childhood employment discrimination in the work force Farming Great Depression Issei parents lawsuit Southern California https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/5036015fb4a57d604a2cf66c0a7e886c.pdf dfc5e333ef3a607b13d8bab2f4de97e2 PDF Text Text Go For Broke National Education Center Oral History Project Oral History Interview with Mitsuo Kunihiro, April 20, 2002, Torrance, California 268-Kunihiro-Mits-1 INTERVIEWER: [00:00] It’s April 20th, 2002, and we’re in Torrance, California, with Mitsuo “Mits” Kunihiro. KUNIHIRO: Right. INTERVIEWER: Thank you for being with us today, Mr. Kunihiro. On camera is Bobby Okinaka, cataloging is John Aguirre and interviewing is Karen Nakamatsu Vargas. Thank you very much. Can you please start off with giving us your full name? KUNIHIRO: My full name is Mitsuo S. Kunihiro. “S” stands for “Sam,” but I seldom ever use it. INTERVIEWER: Is that a name that your parents gave to you, Sam? KUNIHIRO: No, I acquired that. It’s just to make it legal, you know, for a middle name. INTERVIEWER: When were you born? KUNIHIRO: I was born in 1918, July 7th, 1918. I was actually born in Los Angeles, when my mother came up here from the valley that we lived. That’s where our home was, in Westmoreland, Imperial Valley. And during the summertime, it gets real hot, so all the wives, they go out to cooler places, such as LA. But I heard it was real hot that day, the day I was born. Tight after I was born, we were sent back to---my dad came and took us back to the valley again, but I don’t remember the hot days. [Laughs] INTERVIEWER: Where were you born at? KUNIHIRO: Oh, it was on Stanford Street, near 3rd Street in Los Angeles, [02:00] according to my birth certificate. INTERVIEWER: Was it a hospital or--KUNIHIRO: No, no. It was, like, an apartment. She was renting an apartment there. And what do they call that, midwives, Sanbasan, or something like that. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 1 of 26 �INTERVIEWER: What were your parents’ names? KUNIHIRO: My father’s name is Sanmatsu George Kunihiro, and my mother’s name is Tokio Kunihiro. INTERVIEWER: How did your dad get the name “George"? KUNIHIRO: Well, you know, when you come to---go to a foreign country, I mean, when they came over here, I guess people, they’re not used to the Japanese names, so he adopted that George. I guess he picked it up when he was going to mission school in Riverside. I was surprised that he learned quite a bit of English, reading and writing. But his speech is like any other Issei, very broken. INTERVIEWER: What made your dad come to the United States, and where did he come from? KUNIHIRO: He came from Iwakuni, and that’s Yamaguchi. And there’s a place that he used to always play, is at that Kintai Bridge. And so when we went over there, I went to see that Kintai Bridge, [04:00] and it’s quite a bridge. It’s hard to walk on. It goes up and down. INTERVIEWER: Does it go over a river? Or what does it bridge? KUNIHIRO: Oh, it goes over a wide river, and they say it’s supposed to be famous. I guess it’s the way it was built. Then my mother is from Yanai, and that’s just a little ways down from the coast of Iwakuni, I mean, Yamaguchi. INTERVIEWER: Do you know what made your parents come to America? KUNIHIRO: I really don’t know, but a lot of them came here at about the same time. My dad came here around 1900, and he was looking for a job. About the only job he could find was picking citrus around Riverside. And while he was there, he thought, well---oh, there was a mission school there, and he stayed at the mission school while he was there. Those who wanted to learn the language, you know, reading and writing, they went over there. He learned a little bit, I guess. And then he went back towards the coast, and he thought he’d try fishing, and that was not too good. So he went back to the mission school. From there, he had a friend with him, and they said, “Let’s go duck [06:00] hunting.” They heard that duck hunting was real good down towards the Imperial Valley. I guess that’s when the valley was all flooded, and during that flood there was a lot of ducks down there. So they purchased the camping gear, and a shotgun, and things, and they went down the valley. And it was hot. He said it was awfully hot down there, but there was---at nighttime, they couldn’t sleep This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 2 of 26 �because of these ducks quacking away. So they used to shoot towards the sound, you know, when they were flying around. And then in the morning when they woke up, they said there was duck everywhere! Ooh, I about knocked that water over. And then he went around to the merchants and asked them if they wanted these ducks. And this fella at the feed and fuel store, he says, “Yeah, I’ll take a few.” So he gave them a few. And he says, “By the way, do you know how to farm or grow things?” He said, “Well, I’ll try.” And my dad says he’ll try. So he had a bunch of watermelon seed. He gave him some watermelon seed, and he went out there, and he planted the watermelon. And geez, they said, my dad was saying, boy, they had a lot of melons, so they shipped them to the LA market. And the market was real good on it, so he thought, oh, this farming business is pretty good. So he hung around that valley there. And now the Japanese from the wholesale started coming down to the valley, and they started growing watermelon. [08:00] But the fella at the feed store said, “No, you don’t plant watermelon this time." He says, “Grow cantaloupes.” So he grew cantaloupe. And he did very well that year with the cantaloupe. And so it was sort of a game with this feed and fuel, this salesman. And he says, “Well, next year, put lettuce in.” And they kept alternating crops this way, and he’d done very well. So one year, well, he used to bank at West Moreland where he was farming, and a woman went over to the banker, and she wanted to borrow some money. It was a Caucasian woman. And he said, “Well, what kind of collateral do you have?” She says, “Well, I’ll put my home on.” He says, “I don’t think I could loan you any money.” But he says, “Down the street, there’s a Jap farmer down there, he might loan you some money." So they went down to see my dad, and my dad says, okay. He made an agreement that he’d loan her some money for that property. And she never paid it back. In the meantime, this was around 1914, before then, when these farmers were shipping their things out, by that time there was a lot of Japanese farmers that was farming down there. It was about, oh, after seven, eight years that lapsed from the first time he was there. And [10:00] they were sharecropping with other people. And for some reason, when they shipped it out, they got a red tag on these shipment, and he said, "Well, what does a red tag mean?” He says, “Well, they spoiled en route.” And so we lost it all. And this kept going on, well, sometime it went through, sometime it didn’t. And so, my dad, you know, after about three years of this, he thought something was wrong, so he hired a detective to follow these, the train that went out. And well, when it went out, when it went to Phoenix, it dropped some off there, and then en route, by New Orleans, they would drop some more off, and by the time they got to New York, there was nothing left. And so, for that trip, he got a red tag. Oh, that made my dad mad, so he took it to court. And you know, you don’t fight a railroad company, or anybody big like that, especially when you’re a small alien farmer, you know. But he took it to court, and he lost it. But he brought it up again with a lawyer, and sued them for $5 million, and he took it from the small court to the Supreme Court. And in the meantime, my dad was looking [12:00] for some other place to farm. He went to Ohio and looked around over there. And, oh, there’s pictures that he had, the cabbage were huge things, you know. The crops were good, and all. He thought, well, they said you could only have one season over there, whereas the valley you could have two or three seasons, crops, in one year. And he says, well, no use farming back there, it would be hard to make a living. So he came back, and he thought, well, I’m going to quit farming. He was just disgusted with farming. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 3 of 26 �But in the meantime, he had to go to court, you know, keep fighting this. But the worse part of it, his court deal was, he couldn’t understand everything that was going on, and the lawyer didn’t give a dang about that, you know. Anyhow, he moved up to the house that this woman put up as collateral, and we moved in there. That was around 1923. Then one day, while we was having dinner, the phone rang, and my dad answered the phone. He sat down. After he hung up, he sat down, and he was really bewildered. So my mom said, “What happened?” He says, “Oh, they just said I lost the case.” And my mom, she flared. She was all against this lawsuit, and my dad dumped every money he had to fight this thing. [14:00] And one day, after the war, I was working in the market, and I was putting up some melon. A guy comes by. He’s always sticking around the market there, and wearing coveralls, sort of a shaggy looking old man. And he says, “Hey, that’s a nice looking melon. Where did that come from?” And I says, “Brawley.” And he says, “Oh, Brawley, I knew a lot of Japs down there.” And he says, “Do you know that one that sued that railroad company?” And I said, “Yeah.” “Oh, is he still around?” I said, “Oh, yeah.” And he says, “Where?” I said, “Up in Sierra Madre.” And he says, “Geez, they sure took him for a ride, didn’t they?” I said, “What do you mean, ‘took him for a ride’?” He says, “Well, the railroad, the lawyer, the packing house, and everybody. They all went in cahoots to really take this old man.” And I says, “Oh, they did?” And he says, “Yeah, they really took him to the cleaner.” And he says, “You know him, huh?” I says, “Yeah, that’s my dad!” So I never told my dad about that, but I asked him one day, I says, “If you had won that case,” I says, “what would it have been like?" He says, “Oh, it would have been great,” you know. But he says, “I’m glad I lost the case.” I say, “Why?” He says, “Well, I got three sons, and I would have had three spoiled brats if we had that kind of money.” And I said, “Oh, okay.” [16:00] That’s the story of my dad and I, you know. But he lived to be 94, a very religious man. INTERVIEWER: How did your father meet your mother? KUNIHIRO: Oh, I don’t know. He went back there in 1916, and he---I guess it was sort of, more or less, a picture bride. But instead of having her come out, he went back there to meet her, and then they, I guess they got married and came out here. And it was 1917, when they had their first baby. That was my older brother, Matt. Then the following year, I was born. The following year after, my other brother, Shiz was born. And several years later, in ’27, I had a sister. INTERVIEWER: Tell me what growing up in the Imperial Valley was like for you and your brothers and your sister. KUNIHIRO: Well, my sister wasn’t there, but for us, I remember most it was hot. It wasn’t a good place. During the wintertime, it was icy cold, and summertime it was awfully hot, so instead of staying in the valley, we used to come out, and [18:00] we stayed at Newport one year, and San Diego the following year. But they did have a good time. The Issei people, I remember, they used to have a picnic, and they used to go out in the desert, and they had all these games, sack races. They'd tie the three-legged race. And I thought, well, we learned that from our parents, but you know, I guess they’ve been doing those kind of things for a long time, out here. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 4 of 26 �But Isseis, they seem to get along real good. I know when they built that church, ME [Methodist Episcopal] Church, my dad was all for that, and I think he put up quite a bit to see that that church was built. But since we moved out here, we came out in 1923, I don’t remember too much about the valley. I more or less grew up in Sierra Madre, and that’s a small, little town up there, and there’s a few Japanese family was there. And we all grew up together. INTERVIEWER: What was it like going to school and living in a community like Sierra Madre, that didn’t have a lot of Japanese Americans? KUNIHIRO: At that time, it was easy to make friends, so as school kids, we did make a lot of friends. I think my boyhood days, I enjoyed it a lot. I remember we used to play sandlot football, and baseball [20:00] and things, playing against the Catholic kids, or the east end of town the west end of town guys used to have teams, and we used to play each other. And it was a good time. One thing is, you know, this streetcar used to come up there, and right in town, right a block away from town, and that’s where we lived, and just at the end of the car line. And every weekend, we could hear these people come in for a hiking weekend, and they’d be singing, making a lot of noise going up the hill, you know, up the mountain. I remember when I was about seven years old, I hiked up to Mount Wilson. It was during the summertime, so to do something I hiked up there, all by myself, you know. And it took about four hours to get up there, but it was easy coming back. It took me about an hour to come back. There’s fishing up there, so we used to go to that dam and catch these little perch, you know, whereas my neighbor was a chief of police in town---no, he was a judge, and he used to go out with the chief of police. And they had a boat they used to have in that dam. I used to see them catch, oh, beautiful trout like this, you know, when they hook up. You could see them really leap. I thought, gosh, it would be nice to catch one of those! But we didn’t know how to make these fishing lines to [22:00] catch it. All we caught was a bunch of little bluegills, you know. But it was still a lot of fun. And, well, as a kid, there was plenty to do. There was a lot of things that we done. When I was about 12 years old, my neighbor down the street, he had a date processing place, and he had one of these state trucks. So he asked me to go down to the freight yard, which was down in Alameda, here in LA. So I went down there with him, and he says, “Oh, you’ve got to help me load this truck up,” so one by one, we stacked them up and loaded the truck, and oh, that was quite a job, and then came back and unload the thing. So he processed them by steaming them, and they made it sticky and real tasty, you know. So we packaged those in different kind of--from one pound package up to ten pound, and then in the flats, and then they would take me out to where they made the order, and we used to deliver those. Well, all this, you know, the next time, he would say, “Will you deliver for me?” And he gave me the map and he showed me where to go. And I was only 12 years old, you know. He says, “Take the truck.” I don’t even have a driver’s license, you know. So I---but anyhow, I used to deliver the things. I used to go into Pasadena and towards Glendale, and then back again towards Highland Park and Alahambra, and Arcadia and Monrovia, and then [24:00] back again. It took me all day to deliver that, you know. And then after the stock was going down, so he says, “Remember that railroad freight yard that we picked the things up at?” And I says, “I kind of remember.” And he drew a map and he showed me over This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 5 of 26 �again. And he says, “Take the truck and bring the load back.” I says, “Well, who’s going to go with me?” He said, “Oh, you’ve got to go yourself.” So, you know, for a kid, I thought well, so. Well, before that, you know, I learned how to drive. My neighbor, who was going to go to Japan, and she had an egg route, and she had one of these old Chevrolet touring car, and it had what you call a cone clutch. And every time you put it in, take your foot off the clutch, it used to leap, you know. It would jar and then go forward. So she gave me that whole route, you know, to sell all these eggs and everything. So I had a good, busy life, learning how to drive when I was about 10 years old, you know, and being more or less on my own. But that was during the Depression, so everything I earned, you know, I used to give it to my parents, so we could survive. INTERVIEWER: What did your parents say about you driving around and delivering things all over? KUNIHIRO: Oh, they more or less accepted. They thought, well, let’s see, it was 1927. We took a trip down the valley, [26:00] And this fellow, this kid over there, he was a young kid, I think about nine years old, he was in a Model T Ford. [26:18] END OF AUDIO FILE 1 BEGINNING OF TAPE TWO 268-Kunihiro-Mits-2 INTERVIEWER: [00:00] So you were telling us that when you were about 10 or 11, you were driving around the county and delivering fruits. What were the other children in your neighborhood doing? KUNIHIRO: Oh, it seems like everybody, all the kids knew how to drive. We used to go out to see our friends out in the valley, I mean, in the next town, you know, Monrovia. There was a family that had about five kids, three girls and two boys, and the girls was loading up the truck, and watching them load up these big old cabbage that they were loading, stacking up and loading. And each crate used to, I remember, you know, they were around 110 pounds or so, and these girls would take them and stack them up about five high. I don’t see how they ever did it, but they were strong. And then, after it’s all tied down and everything, the brother and one of the sister, I guess, would go out there, go to the LA, the wholesale market, and unload the thing. That was quite a chore. But the Niseis, you know, they all took it for granted that they had to do these things, and they did it willingly, or unwillingly, they had still done it. That farming life was a hard life. INTERVIEWER: So the children worked very hard on the farms, and you played, you had a lot of fun playing and fishing. What was school like? Oh, school was, it was all right. It was like a---well, I don’t know, like myself, I had to do a lot of other things [02:00] than just try to study. And now, looking back, I wish I had studied. Yeah. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 6 of 26 �That’s what I tell my grandkids today, you have to study and come out with good grades, or try to go to college and better yourself, because it’s a tough world. INTERVIEWER: Did you have to go to Japanese language school, too? KUNIHIRO: Oh, that we did, and I think every town had a Japanese school. But when recess time, you know, we forget to go back into class again. We used to play baseball, and, oh, wait. See, they would ring that bell and try to get us in. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, you know. We had to finish our game before we were back in class. But later on, I thought, gee, we should have studied a little more. I know I did, because when I was at Camp Roberts, we were taking our basic up there, and they called all the Niseis in, and you know these folding chairs, they had the whole gym lined up with folding chairs. I bet there was over a thousand, it looked like there was about a thousand there. And when the Niseis started coming in, they filled that whole gym up. The reason why I say we should learn Japanese, Camp Roberts was a hellhole. It was hot during the summertime, when we was there, the temperature went up to about, I would say, around 115 or 120. [04:00] Oh, it was cooking hot, you know. Then this Colonel came and talked to us, and there was a Japanese guy that talked to us, too, whether that was John Aiso or not, I don’t remember. But anyhow, he was saying, they gave us a board and a sheet of paper, and one side is written in English, and they said to translate that English into Japanese, turn it over, and it’s written in Japanese, and they say translate that into English. And so, you know, we all sit there to do the best we can to get out of this Infantry training that we’re doing. I thought, gee, it would be nice if we could get into this MIS, for you to sit down where it’s nice, you know. But as time went on, very few were called in, especially when the war broke out. The Army's back east, all the guys who did well in Japanese went to the MIS, and the rest of us, you know, they gave us other work to do. INTERVIEWER: Did your parents speak Japanese at home or--KUNIHIRO: Yeah. But the Japanese we spoke and the Japanese from Japan are two different kind of Japanese. INTERVIEWER: What were some of the things that your parents told you over and over again when you were growing up? What kind of lessons did they try to teach you? [06:00] KUNIHIRO: Oh, to get a good education, and then especially learn to behave ourself at all times, don’t bring no shame. Yeah. I think we did real good on that. INTERVIEWER: So you continued on in school in Sierra Madre. You went to grade school and high school. What was high school like for you? KUNIHIRO: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 7 of 26 �Well, it was---high school, it was all right, but I had to do a lot of work. My parents had a florist, and they had lot of acre ground. They were raising flowers and plants and stuff. And so I used to go down to the flower market with my dad, and gosh, he would leave about, get up about three o'clock to go down to market. In the meantime, he’s shaking me to get up and go, too. So we went down there three or four times a week. And then after school, we used to go back and help out over there. And so I didn’t do too much studying, which I’m very sorry that I didn’t study. INTERVIEWER: When you were done with school, did you continue to help your father with his flowers and the farming? KUNIHIRO: Yeah, well, no, no. [08:00] I was working in the market then. It was kind of slow, working in the flower shop. I worked at the farmer’s market in Pasadena and used to work until the closing, then catch a streetcar and go home. But, gee, it seems like we are always busy running around working, running around, you know, trying to get home or . . . INTERVIEWER: What did you do for fun on the weekends when you weren’t working? KUNIHIRO: Oh, we would go out. We’d go down to the beach, and then there used to be there rollerskating, and all the Nisei used to like to play around, go skating, or doing something so we could all be together. INTERVIEWER: At what point were you drafted into the Army? What were you doing at the time you were drafted? KUNIHIRO: In 1940, I mean, when the draft started, you know, everybody was wondering, gee, they’re going to take the oldest guys first, you know, because if you was 26, they didn't want you. So I guess starting from 25 on down, and my turn came when my birthday was on July the---the draft came on [10:00] July the 9th, and my birthday is on July the 7th. And so I heard that I was going to be drafted, the notice came. So being the first one to be drafted in Sierra Madre, they gave me a good soubetsukai, a farewell party, and they gave me all kinds of gifts and everything. I remember going down to Monrovia, and all the guys that was being drafted from that area, they all got on the streetcar, and we all went into downtown LA and went into this big building. And they had us strip down to nothing, to our birthday clothes, and we had to walk this whole big square room, you know, and there was a doctor at each station, and they was checking us. And the last one was they checked our feet. And the guy looked at my foot, and he says, “Do you have trouble walking?” I said, “No.” “When you wear your shoes, does it ever bother you?” I said, “No.” “What about flat feet, I mean, when you’re barefooted?” I says, “No, it doesn’t bother me.” I says, “Why, what’s the matter?” He says, “Gee, you’ve got a bad degree of flat feet,” you know. Yeah, I mean, it’s flat. In fact, you know, where the arch of it is? Instead of having an arch, it sticks out inside. So he says, “Well, you don’t have to go in.” He says, “I think your feet are [12:00] so bad, your flat feet are so bad that you don’t have to go into the service.” “Oh,” I says, “Oh, I want to go in,” you know, thinking all this soubetsukai, they gave me money and This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 8 of 26 �they gave me all kinds of gifts and stuff. And I said, “I can’t return that.” That’s what you call haji, you know, not being accepted to go into the service because of flat feet. But I wanted to go in anyhow. And so I went in. I went to Fort MacArthur, and then from there we went to Camp Roberts. And when we was up at Camp Roberts, there was quite a few Japanese guys there. And we was out there every day going out for basic training, and it was hot and dusty and everything. But then we have so much period of---they explained what a rifle is like, and what a hand grenade is like, and a machine gun. There’s a BAR, a Browning automatic, and so on. They would try to explain it to us, and they’d show us the thing. But they said, "What we need is a chart," you know, to show all the parts. So they said, “Anybody knows how to do any drawing?” And so those who took drafting, you know, there was about six Japanese kids, you know, that took drafting. They called us together, and they put us in the dayroom and gave us a big sheet of paper, you know, like [14:00] the size of this thing, this light here. And they draw out the automatic rifle, the water-cooled rifle, I mean, the machine gun, the hand grenades and all that. So we did all these drawings there. And then, looking outside, gosh, we'd see these guys sweating and doing the basic training, we said, oh poor---you know, we kind of felt sorry for them. But it was hot in that day room, we were sweating. We had the towel around and wiping our sweat off, so it wouldn’t get on the drawing board. But all in all, I think we had a good time doing that. Then from there, we went to Fort Ord. And one thing about Fort Ord, we went out training, and there’s a lot of oak trees out there. If you go up the coast and you see a lot of these oak trees, and in one section of that Fort Ord is just covered with oak trees, and we used to go out there and do a lot of training. But the mornings were cold. This was in November, you know. It was kind of icy cold, so we had guys from back East, Illinois, and South, from Alabama and Ozark, and all over, and they said, “Gee, it’s cold out here.” “Why, you guys all had snow and everything,” I say, “What’s the difference?” He says, “Oh, that cold is different from this cold. This is a penetrating cold [16:00], you know, out here on the West Coast.” And so they'd start building fires, they broke the limbs and the deadwoods and the leaves, and they gathered it all and they built this fire. And when we went in that night, gosh, I began to scratch all over, and they sent me to the hospital. I look over there, and there's Akio Imori, you know, from the same company, A-Company that we were in, he’s in there, too, you know, two Japanese guys. So mine was real bad, so they put me in the kitchen when I got back. I was in the hospital for about three weeks with that. Then, soon after that, Pearl Harbor came. I mean, that Sunday, I was all dressed up and ready to go to church, and I was going to go to Monterey. I put my civvies on, you know, suit, and I was all ready to go out. Then over the radio in the barrack, you hear this news, “The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor!” So everybody was saying, “Where in the hell is Pearl Harbor?” And one sergeant says, “Oh, I was stationed over there, Hickam Field. It’s in Hawaii.” Oh, Hawaii, well, we thought, now that’s a little island, you know, that’ll be over soon. But anyhow, we was put on alert, and they told us to make a full field, and that evening we pulled out. The next place [18:00] was down by a little below Morro Bay, a place called Avila. There’s a mountain, and on the other side of the mountain is the beach, you know. And so we was on the back side of the mountain, bivouacked in the area there. They put me on guard, and I was walking up and down that beach. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 9 of 26 �And then I went into the warehouse right at the end of the peer, and inside the warehouse was these good-sized test tube, you know, about so big, and so big around. And on it it said, certain certain mother, you know, and all written in Japanese, mother. It took so many barrels of oil out of here. And there’s a whole bunch of them all lined up on the shelf, and I thought, oh, that’s why we’re here. But anyhow, the following day, boy, I began to scratch. I was back in the hospital again with poison oak. And who do I see next to me, is this Akio Imori. You’ve got it, too? And we was in there for about two or three weeks. Then when we came back, the company commander says, “You know, that poison oak, the oak trees around here is a good defense if the Japs ever invade the West Coast.” Yeah, we was in there for quite a while. And then February, about ’42, they send us all back to the interior. INTERVIEWER: [20:00] When you were drafted into the Army, it was before the US entered the war, it was before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And so you actually served in a non-segregated unit. You were in basic training with other ethnicities. What was that like for you? KUNIHIRO: Yeah. Oh, it was good. I enjoyed it, made a lot of friends, you know. Got along real good with everybody else. Only one incident. For me it was at that bivouac area in Avila, this guy from, I think he was from Alabama or Tennessee somewhere, he was one of the cooks. And everybody was all on guard. And he comes up to me, and he points a M1, and he said, “You goddamned little Jap,” he says, “How come you started this war?” I said, “I had nothing to do with it.” And I says, “God damnit, if you don’t put that down, I’m sure coming after you!” And just then, out of nowhere, came the CO, the company commander. And he yelled at this guy, “Put that damned thing down!” And well, I didn’t blame him. I went up to him, and I says, “Well, I had nothing to do with it, damnit.” So the CO was standing right there. He made us shake hands, and that was the end of that. But that’s the only incident I ever had. But this Imiro, you know, he got a pass to go into town, to San Luis Obispo. And the next morning--- that was a Sunday he went [22:00] on the pass to San Luis. Monday morning, you know, when they had roll call, gee, I see the sergeant that’s all---got a black eye, face cut, you know, and found out that this Imori beat the hell out of him! He called him a “damned dirty Jap,” or something, and he really tore into him. That’s the only incident I ever seen. INTERVIEWER: What was going through your mind when you found out that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor? Did you even think that it might affect you? KUNIHIRO: Oh, I couldn’t believe it. I thought, it can’t be. A little country like Japan trying to fight a big strong country like US, I thought, no, that’s not possible. INTERVIEWER: Were you able to speak with your family at all, after Pearl Harbor was bombed? KUNIHIRO: Yeah, I called them on the phone. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 10 of 26 �And how were they doing? KUNIHIRO: Oh, they said business went down to nothing, and they said they were on curfew. That really hurt my brother, because he used to go into Pasadena to see all his friends and things. He was like a socialite, he liked to go visiting everywhere. But, well, in a way, when I heard they were going to evacuate, I was real glad of that. A lot of people opposed it, but gee, that was about the only protection they could get. He said there [24:00] was a lot of name calling and all that. Yeah, even when I came back from overseas and went to church, I knew everybody in town. I knew the preacher real well, and his whole family, and the deacons, and everybody in church. So I was married at that time. I was in my civilian clothes and all, and went in the church, nobody even said boo to us! Yes. I says, “Hi, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Boot,” and these people I knew real well, and they just nod their head a little bit, and that’s it. And so I never went back to that church again. INTERVIEWER: It must have made you very angry. KUNIHIRO: Well, I thought, gee, just because we’re Japanese, that they hate us. INTERVIEWER: Let’s go back to when you were about to ship out of Fort Ord, and you were going to be moving onto your next training, correct? KUNIHIRO: Oh, from Fort Ord, well, we was at the Fort---oh, from Fort Ord, we went on this train. They were all lined up. There was a good many of us, I would say around 500 or 600 of us being shipped out of the West Coast. And they would drop off a bunch here and a bunch there, as we was going towards back east. Then when we went to Illinois, [26:00] oh, a good many were dropped off at Illinois. And the last group of about 200 of us were shipped to Fort Custer, Michigan. And at Michigan, it was nice there. The guys used to go in town, had a good time, you know. And that’s where I got married, that was May the 5th. Gee, May the 5th is coming up. That will be our 59th anniversary. INTERVIEWER: Wow. KUNIHIRO: Anyhow, while we was there, we heard that they were going to form this combat team of all Niseis, and we said, “Hey, let’s all go as cadres,” you know. “Go and help form this.” And then our commanding officer says, “No, you guys are going to stay here. You’re doing a real good job, so you’re going to stay here for the duration.” And there was a few of us that got married, and we thought, hey, that’s nice, so a couple of them bought a home there, you know. I thought, well, gee, maybe I’ll buy a place, and then they said, “No, you guys are going to go to Camp Blanding and take your second basic." “Second basic, we don’t need no second basic!” But anyhow, they sent us to Blanding, and we had our second basic. [27:49] This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 11 of 26 �END OF AUDIO FILE 2 BEGINNING OF TAPE THREE 268-Kunihiro-Mits-3 INTERVIEWER: [00:00] Okay. Can you tell us how you met your wife? KUNIHIRO: My brother was always talking to somebody over the telephone, and he used to like to talk to girls. He always went out, and I didn’t care to bother with the girls or anything, at that time. But anyhow, he says, “Oh, there’s six sisters in that family.” And I said, “Oh, is that so?” And I forgot all about that. And one day there was this girl working on the other side, at the farmer’s market. The farmer’s market was in stalls, you know, the fruit and vegetable section, it had about five stalls on Lake Avenue side, and on Walnut side, there was this one big one. A person named Matsui used to own it. And he had this Japanese girl working over there. And so, at lunchtime, I went up to that Japanese girl and I started talking to her. The next thing I knew, we was running around together. I went in the service, and we used to correspond. And I asked her, “Come on, let’s get married.” Nothing else to do out there. So a couple of fellas said that they were going to go to Manzanar on the furlough to see their parents. And I asked her if she could come out, you know, "Would [02:00] you like to come out and get married?" And so she did, and we’ve been married for about 59 years this coming May. Yeah, she’s a wonderful kid, you know. INTERVIEWER: So you got married--CREW MEMBER: Sorry. Can you get her name, please? INTERVIEWER: Oh, thank you! KUNIHIRO: Oh, Marjorie. INTERVIEWER: What was her maiden name? Marjorie--KUNIHIRO: Kawahara. She was born and raised in Orange County, a place called Stanton. And she went to the school around that area, Huntington High School, or something. Huntington Beach High School. INTERVIEWER: So you and Marjorie got married right before you were sent to Blanding? KUNIHIRO: Yeah. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 12 of 26 �INTERVIEWER: And where did Marjorie go when you shipped off to Blanding? KUNIHIRO: Oh, when we got a furlough, I thought I’d better go see my parents and went to Gila, in Arizona. We dropped over there, and then she was going to stay with her sister in Colorado, Denver, Colorado. So I took her over to Denver, and from there, she stayed there for the duration. Just before I came back, she came out to stay with her sister in LA. And then that’s when we joined together and moved back to Sierra Madre again. INTERVIEWER: So Marjorie’s gone on to Colorado, and you go on to Blanding. Tell us a little bit about that. KUNIHIRO: Oh, [04:00] oh, from---no, I went to Camp---we didn’t go back to Blanding. We went to Camp Shelby. And when I went to Camp Shelby, that’s the first time I met these Hawaiian boys. And the lingo that they spoke was sort of a nightmare to us. Then on that weekend, on a Sunday, when everybody went out, they went to town, and they were on a pass. There was a few of us that was left, you know, we stayed at the camp there. And we could hear guys going through these tents, and they’re yelling, and they’re fighting, and they’re going from one tent to another. Finally when they came to ours, our tent, gee, I was sitting on the upper bunk, and Frank Morimoto, you know, from Monrovia, is in the bunk below me, and here comes this gang of Hawaiian guys. “You damn kotonks,” and they started bellowing at us, and somehow I talked them out of this scrap that’s---oh, they were really beating these guys up. I talked them all out of it, and they walked out. I don’t know what I said to them, to stop them from picking on us. That’s one incident I had with meeting these fellas. But after [06:00] getting to know them, they’re regular guys. INTERVIEWER: How did you start to get to know them better and start to get along with each other? KUNIHIRO: Well, going overseas, you know, we stuck together with guys we knew well and played cards, and sat there on the deck, talking to each other. But I was seasick all the way from Virginia to Naples, Italy. Oh, I only had about two meals, I think, throughout the whole trip, 21 days. But as soon as we got off the ship, I felt real good. INTERVIEWER: Before you shipped off, were you able to speak with your wife or your family before you left Shelby to go to Virginia to go overseas? KUNIHIRO: No, no. I called her on the phone one time from Virginia, saying, “Well, see you when I get back,” and corresponded with letters, then. INTERVIEWER: Was that a tough phone call for you and your wife to have to make? KUNIHIRO: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 13 of 26 �Oh, it was. Yeah, because when we was living in Battle Creek, she stayed at a home, and we had a room together. And so I used to go home every night. And so we’d go out, we’d go in town and have dinner, and meet these other Nisei [08:00] couple, they had a little son and all. So it was like just being back and living here in the States, you know. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember what your wife said to you before you shipped off? KUNIHIRO: Oh, she was kind of sad. And I don’t know, maybe she was kind of glad. But no, I think she was kind of sad that we was parting and I wasn’t sure whether we would get back or not. But as I always thought to myself, “I’m going to make it back home.” Speaking about that, you know, when we went with E Company and we was in Marseilles, I met this kid that I knew very well in Pasadena. They had a florist, and he used to hang around the market there a lot, and he was still a young kid and having a good time. When we went overseas, I tried to look him up. But he came over to the little pup tent that were over there in Marseilles. And he was talking, and he says, “You know,” he says, “I had a scary one.” He says, “Artillery came over, and it landed right by [10:00] me.” He says, “I just laid flat on that ground, and I waited and waited for the thing to go off, and it didn’t go off.” But he says, “You know, the next scary thing is the next one is going to get me!” I said, “Oh, come on, Henry, don’t talk that way.” And up in the Bruyeres I was at the CP, you know, and it was lunchtime, so I was having lunch at the kitchen there. And all the cooks came back, and they said, “Hey, this Kondo guy got killed. Hank got killed.” And I thought, oh, my God, he said the next one was going to get him. So, you know, he got it. Then I was bunking with one fella, and we was under a tank, under a German tank that was knocked out. What we was real scared was this artillery fire that they were throwing over, and when they burst, the shrapnel would come down like rain. And that’s what was getting most of the fellas. And so, we was under that tank, being real comfortable, you know. And this George Masumoto from Fresno says, “You know, I have a feeling that”---before that, he says, “When this is all over with, the first thing I’m going to do when I get back to the States is go to New York and have me a good chop suey dinner,” and he says, “Oh, I look forward to that.” But he says, “The craziest thing that I feel inside of me is that I [12:00] don’t think I’m going to make it.” I said, “Don’t talk that way!” He says, “Well, really, I don’t think I’m going to ever get back.” And then that night, I heard the guy holler, “Medics! Medics!” And I could hear him way out there in the draw, you know, there was a mountain road that went down. He was yelling, “Help!” It was too dark to go out to help anybody. And then next morning, when I got up and I looked around, the jeep brought up about five bodies, and I thought, “Gee, that looks like George.” He was face down, and there was a little blood mark on the back. So I turned him over, and it was George. That shrapnel just tore him open. So I thought, gee, when you say you’re not going to make it, and I guess believe in it, it turns out that way. I thought, oh, the poor soul. Yeah, it made me feel bad. INTERVIEWER: When you first got to the European campaign, you landed and went to Naples, Italy. What did you think when you first got there? It’s your first experience, being in a war. KUNIHIRO: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 14 of 26 �Well, it’s like anyplace. You see a nice looking city, all the buildings there. Naples wasn’t damaged like a lot of other places; the city was in good order. And so we walked around, and [14:00] it was nice. And the thing that really made an impression on me was, you know, we heard somebody say, hey, I heard some of these hakujin guys say, “Hey, there’s those Japs!” And the next thing I knew, the poor kid was on the bottom, being beat up! And I thought, “Oh, no, why?” As Niseis from the stateside, we take it for granted that they like to say Jap because it’s easier to say that than Japanese. But like I say, the lingos that they used, to me, is something like a nightmare, until you got used to it, and then it didn’t bother you so much. But a lot of Niseis tried to copy them, you know, and some of them did so well, you couldn’t tell if they were from the island or from the States. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever pick up some of the pidgin English? KUNIHIRO: It’s kind of hard to. I didn’t stick around too much, that is, most of them was these fellas from the States that I was running around with. INTERVIEWER: So now that you’re in Italy, what was your first assignment? KUNIHIRO: Oh, we didn’t have---we weren’t assigned to anything until later on, at a repo depot, they put us into different companies, you know. And then from there, they shipped us to [16:00] France, and went to Marseilles. I thought that Marseilles was a beautiful place; they had these sidewalk cafes, and it was a pretty place. I walked around the shop, and they had a lot of these perfume shops, so I thought I’d get some, and I sent it to my wife. INTERVIEWER: How did the people react to you, the French people and the Italians when you were in Naples? How did they react when they saw a Japanese face in an American uniform? KUNIHIRO: I don’t know how they felt, but they seemed real nice, they don’t have any---I felt equal with them. INTERVIEWER: After Marseilles, you went off to Bruyeres and Biffontaine. Can you tell us about that? KUNIHIRO: Oh, going up that Rome---was it Rhine or Rome River? There’s a troop that went ahead of us, and there was a lot of them that was killed on the way. And oh, what a smell! The smell of the dead, I thought, oh, well, that’s awful. And you know, they'd bury them, and I guess later on they’d get the bodies and they’d send them home or something, but anyway---or put them at the regular gravesite. But [18:00] the only thing I remember is, when we got up there, and got up, and we was on the road going into battle, it was early in the morning, and we was going up this dirt road. And we could see the valley and then the forest on the other side, and the forest on this side. But the valley and everything was all clear. And I guess they could see us walking up there. And so when we got near the trees, then I could---when they hit that tree, we could hear This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 15 of 26 �those shrapnels flying all over. And they said, “Dig in!” Gosh, I thought, what’s the use digging in if it’s going to hit the trees? And so I looked behind me, and the guy that was digging right behind me, he got it right in the neck, and I guess that really killed him. And I thought, oh my gosh, to live your life, just like that, I thought, that’s awful. But the time went on, we kept going, going, and the weather was getting cold, rainy and cold. And this bronchitis started getting me. INTERVIEWER: Before--KUNIHIRO: I stayed until just---we was going to go out for a rest period, you know, just to get cleaned up, and then we got called back, saying that there’s a troop, [20:00] a bunch that got trapped, and that we’d have to go after them. So, on the way up, I’ll never forget that one. This bronchitis started working on me, and I began to cough. The guy in the back says, “Who is that coughing up there?” And so I thought, well, I could hold it, and when he got right next to me, I couldn’t hold it any longer, then I started coughing. And then he sent me, you know, he says, “You got to drop out. You go to the evac hospital.” So I dropped out, went to the evac hospital. And that night, gee, the ambulances started coming in and they were shouting, “Hey, we got to get him into the”---there’s, like, a tent city, you know, all tents, and they were trying to find an empty tent, so I says, “Oh, somebody could have my bed," and I gave them my bed and stayed up all night. And so they said, “There’s no room for you here. There's all these guys are getting hit.” This is the bunch, our bunch from that Lost Battalion. And so they said, “Well, there’s only one place that’s open,” and they sent me to a hot spring. And that was nice. It was a beautiful---it had a, oh, like a real big marble building, you know. You walk inside, and it’s beautiful thing. And it had quarters where [22:00] you stayed. That was a hotel part, and then the other building was a hot spring. It looked just like---the building looks alike, but you walked in there, and they had these rooms that were good-sized, and they had these marble tubs. And when you turned the faucet on, it just poured in there. You could get it as hot as you want, you know, real hot. And so I stayed in that hot bath for as often as I could, you know, to try to get well. And after the fifth day, you know, every day you had to go see the doctor. Well, for myself, I had to go see him twice a day, because they used to give me shots. And I mean 100% shots, it was strong. But it warmed my chest up and everything, and I'd say, “Hey, that works pretty good,” so on the fifth day I said, “I want to go back to the outfit.” And so I went back, and they say, “You have to see the regimental doctor first.” So I went to the regimental doctor, and they sent me--he said, “Oh, you’re no good,” he says, “You got to go back to the evac hospital.” I went back to the evac hospital, and they said, “Oh, there’s no room here.” So they put me on a plane and flew me to England. [Laughs] That was nice. Although I got airsick all the way over to England. But I stayed there for about a week. So they let me go on a pass, so I went to see London. I went to see all the [24:00]---everywhere around London and talked to the people there. It was nice. INTERVIEWER: Can you explain to us why it was that because you had that cough, it was so important for you to get out from the front line? KUNIHIRO: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 16 of 26 �When I was in Michigan, during this cold wintertime, you know, when it was about 25 below zero, you suck in this air, and it’s cold. And right down to your chest, your lung, you can feel that cold going down. And there’s one old man that had it, in this officer’s club, where I was a cook over there. And he had bronchitis. And he says, “Cover yourself, so you don’t breathe in too much of this cold air, otherwise you’re going to get like me,” you know. He was always coughing and coughing and coughing, and his eyes as red as everything. So, yeah, but I felt I was young yet. He was around 50 or 60 years old. Oh, I could take it, no matter how cold it is, I could take it, you know. And that was this coal dust and everything, and they’re always bringing coal over there, there’s no gas, it’s all coal. When you’re cooking, it’s a coal-burning stove, and you choke with that. And I guess I got pretty [26:00]---you know, I got this lung problem, respiratory problem from all of that. Then when I went overseas, when wintertime came and it got cold, this cough came up, and you can’t control it, you know. And then I thought, oh, no, not again. But then I thought, well, maybe it was meant--So anyhow, I went to England and saw that country, and it was real nice. Coming back, we landed in Le Havre and looking---that was on Thanksgiving Day. And looking down, you know, into the ocean there, you could see all the ship that was all sunk, and you thought, oh, my God, the guys try to fight to get up to the fort there to knock them out. Oh, you know, it was---but I guess that part wasn’t too bad, because these guys who really came up on those landing ships landed, and then they looked down on them, and shooting machine gun and artillery at them. [27:34] END OF AUDIO FILE 3 BEGINNING OF TAPE FOUR 268-Kunihiro-Mits-4 INTERVIEWER: [00:00] Can you describe for us what the Vosges Forest was like in the Bruyeres area? KUNIHIRO: The forest was a beautiful looking forest, nice and green and tall trees. When we started walking through there, and the artillery fire started coming over, that was the scariest part. It would hit the trees and come down on us like rain, and a lot of the fellows got really wounded badly during that period. And when we, oh, the time we went to get the Lost Battalion, mine was all set to get cleaned up and everything. But going back up there again, we had to go through the same thing over, and this is where I think we lost a lot of the men. And this coughing business, I think somebody up above was looking after me saying, well, you’re not going to make it through there with that coughing and everything. I kind of thanked God that, you know, he was looking after me. But I sure missed being with the fellas, because when I heard that they went through there and came back with just a few men, that really hurt, to think that, gee, maybe I could have done a little, give them a little boost and helped, [02:00] but I wasn’t there to help them. Then I was sent to England, to the hospital over there. And when I came back, I was at Le Havre, and from Le Havre, I went to a beautiful palace, right below Paris. And every day we get checked, and those who could go back to their outfit went back, and I was hoping I could get back. I heard our outfit was in need, so I says, “Gee, I’m well enough to go back.” And just about that time, the Battle of The Bulge came up. And this is where they took all the able guys and This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 17 of 26 �they sent them up to the Battle of The Bulge. And the weather up there was terrible, it was really snowing, and it’s cold. And the doc says, “Your outfit is down in Nice, and I think if you get back to your outfit, the climate would be much nicer down there.” So I says, “Yeah, I’d sure like to get back.” And so it took about, well, I remember Christmas coming by, and we had a train heading to one place, near a place called Nancy, and then from there we started heading down. And when we hit Nancy, that was New Year’s, and I remember sleeping in a big old warehouse, and it was cold in there, icy cold. There was snow outside and the floor was cement and slab, all we had was a sleeping bag and one blanket. [04:00] And so I was glad to get on that train heading south. When I got down to Nice, gee, the climate was real nice and everything. But then I had this awful cold, cough again, and next thing I knew, they put me in the hospital. And when I was in the hospital, I said, “Gee, it’s hot in here. Let’s open those French doors. It’s awfully hot.” And they said, “It’s snowing out there! It’s cold! Close that damned door!” And so the guy took my temperature, and he said, “Hey, you’ve got a temperature of 106.” So they put me in bed and they gave me the intravenous, and he says, “You stay in there.” So I was in there for about four or five days, then I went up to Sospel and found the guys up there, way up in the Alps. The weather was nice up there. And then from there, they was splitting everybody up. We're going back to Italy again. They checked me over again, and he says, “No, you’re not fit to go back.” He says, “You’re going to be reclassified, and you’ll be sent to quartermaster up north. So . . . INTERVIEWER: And because you kept having that coughing problem, it was important for you not to go back to the front lines, because coughing would give away whatever position your unit [06:00] was at? KUNIHIRO: Yeah. Even though I wanted to stay, they said, “No, you’ll give the position away, and not only yourself, it’s the other guys around you.” So that’s one of the main reasons why they say I couldn’t go back with them. To this day, this bronchitis, this respiratory problem has been bothering me. Other than that, I think I’ve done pretty good, as far as health is concerned. INTERVIEWER: You were reattached to the quartermaster, and tell us about that, what your duties were with the quartermaster. KUNIHIRO: Oh, they were taking all these clothing off from the GIs and sending it to the laundry, and then resizing it, and they bale it up, and they ship it back to the different repo depots so the guys could have clean uniforms again. And all that work was done by the POWs. When we first got there, they showed us every section of that quartermaster depot, and one sergeant says, “Now, watch this,” so he was walking by, and he says, “You’ll see a big difference between the Germans and the Italian POWs.” So when we went to the shoe shop, it was all these Italian guys, oh, they’re singing away, yelling away, having a good time. But the Germans are, you know, real quiet and busy doing their work. And I thought [08:00] what a contrast between the two. INTERVIEWER: Did you have a chance to speak to any of the Italians or Germans? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 18 of 26 �KUNIHIRO: Oh, yeah. INTERVIEWER: And what was that like? KUNIHIRO: Well, I was on the day shift with the guys, and this one sergeant from Denver was yelling, he was an old quartermaster guy, and he says, “Come on, you sons of bitches, get your work done,” and they go out there like they were slaves and really tried to make them work. And then this Lieutenant, he put me on night shift. And he says, “You’re going to take care of this night shift all by yourself,” and I said, “Oh, okay” So, you know, he said, “The lead man is Veland here,” he says, “and you work with Veland.” So him and I, you know, we was talking all the time in a friendly way. Then when the GIs were coming, he said, “Hey, how about getting a field jacket or something, and bring me a case of beer?” You know, a 24-pack. And then so, "Here, Veland, have one" and I took one. And I says, “Take the rest of them and give it to the men.” And you know, I got more production out of these guys. They were saying each machine should put out 10 bales, or something, you know, they put a quota on them. And [10:00] so, during the daytime, they'd have a hard time trying to get 10 bales. Well, I was getting 10 bales without any problem. And everything was going along real smooth. And then when the beer came, you know, the first time the beer came and I passed it around, gee, they got their work done in no time. And thereafter, you know, guys would come in and they’d bring something, so I’d split with them. They would get it done in a half a day, half the time. And the rest of the time, they would go back to sleep, you know. [Laughs] So they all wanted to get on night shift. And the Lieutenant came and said, “Hey, what’s going on here?” He says, “Gosh, where’s all the men?” I said, “Hey, Veland, call your men. They’re all sound asleep.” But that night shift was a good bunch, you know. And I got along real good with this German POW, you know, the one that was head of it. And he was a young fellow, about a couple of years younger than I was. And he told me about his life, you know, in Germany. He was being real good, and they called all these guys in, the soldiers. He says, “We didn’t know how to fight. They didn’t train us, they gave us a rifle, and they told us to go out and fight.” But I think I saw something real nice, and what life is really like for a lot of people. [12:00] You treat people right, and I think in return they’ll thank you for it. INTERVIEWER: In addition to having a lot of contact with German and Italian POWs, because you were with the quartermaster, you also had the opportunity to do some traveling throughout Europe. Can you tell us a little bit about that? KUNIHIRO: Well, from there, we went into Germany. And the guys were going home on points. They took us off, they said, “We want to get these guys who are going to stay here into the regular outfit, like the quartermaster, and all you fellas are going to go home. We’ll have to find you another quarter.” So they said, “There’s a lot of opening in Germany that you could just float around, go here and there.” So we went into Germany, a place called Bamberg. And there was a goodsized house, you know, and it had a big basement. So everybody would chip in, I think they put in a quarter, and there was about 25 of us. And that was enough to buy two barrels of 25 gallons This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 19 of 26 �of beer. So every day they'd go out and get two barrels of beer. And the die-hards would sit there all night, drinking the second barrel of beer. And then having nothing to do, they said, “Well, who wants to travel? We’ve got a load going down [14:00] to the Maritime Alps, this place called Burgess Garden,” so a bunch of us went on that trip. And we went through Nuremberg and Munich and up to Burgess Garden. And it’s a pretty valley, all that---the whole trip, you look at the place, and it looked real nice, especially in the Alps. There’s a nice valley down there, and they have cattle grazing there. And it looked peaceful and everything, it doesn’t look like there was ever war there. And then we went to Burgess Garden, and they entertained us there at a tavern, we had a good time there. And the following day, they took us up to Hitler’s hideout, the Eagle’s Nest? And there you could see the whole valley, you know, all over. But the place was pretty well bombed out, and today, they said after we left, they cleaned it all up and made a restaurant out of it. But looking down on the other side of the valley, you know, looking below, there was a lake there, called Konigsee, beautiful looking lake. It wasn’t a big lake, it was a nice, small lake, and they had this electric motor boat going around. So we got on that, and on the far end there was a chapel. It was dated back into the---what was it, [16:00] 1400 or 1500? I forgot what it was. But it’s been sitting there for a long time. And so, we walked in, and they had a---it was just like a church, they had these bench seating all the way down to the front, with a podium in the center. It looked like a nice---I thought, gee, how do people get to church? I guess they go on the boat and, you know, go to that chapel. Then we went to that name of that place, Burgess Garden, yeah. There was a shop there. And they had a miniature house, you know, it looked like made out of sticks. Oh, it was about a foot and a half long, and sit up so high, two-story house. Well-built and it looked real nice. And I was only getting $5 as a paycheck, you know, every month, but when I went to the PX, I went and bought a carton of cigarettes, and I saved all the carton of cigarettes, that was money in the bank for me, because I couldn’t---you know, $5, it goes so fast, by the time you buy your soap and everything else, you know, toiletry and whatever you want from the PX. Five dollars doesn’t go very far. But a carton of cigarettes was only 50 cents, so, you know, I saved that. The money value on a carton of cigarettes was [18:00] $100. And so I had enough to buy two of those, you know, but I thought, how am I going to ship it home? So I decided not to buy it. But I did want to buy a Leica camera. But the guy wanted three cartons of cigarettes for the Leica camera. INTERVIEWER: Hold on one second. Should we wait for just one minute, until they’re done loading up? They’re loading something outside, and it’s going to pick up on your . . . Do you want to . . . CREW MEMBER: We can just stop it. INTERVIEWER: Yeah, we’ll just let them load up whatever they’re loading up. Can you tell us a little bit about Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest when you went there, what it looked like, where it was situated? KUNIHIRO: Well, you could drive up there. We went on a truck, and then they let us off, and we had to walk the rest of the way up, which wasn’t very far. There was about half a dozen of us, and I took some picture up there with the guys. I have it someplace. I was going to bring it, but I forgot to This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 20 of 26 �bring it down. The---it was bombed, but the structure wasn’t bombed that bad, because it could be fixed up very easily. But they didn’t let us go inside. We just walked around the outside of it. And then they showed us where they had a elevator that went down to Burgess Garden, it goes straight [20:00] down, and then come out. But that wasn’t working at that time, so we came down. Oh, and then they had something like a pill box, or a round thing with a little slit, you know, where they put a guard or somebody in there with a machine gun or something, to try to protect the place. There was a couple of them there. INTERVIEWER: Was that an odd feeling to be there, where Hitler had planned so many of his--KUNIHIRO: Well, I think he went over there to have a good time. This was a vacation place. It’s a beautiful place and laid out real nice, you could see the whole valley, and everything. And then that village down there, Burgess Garden, was a nice place. And so it was a small, little village. INTERVIEWER: You also had the chance to go to Nuremberg, where ultimately the Nuremberg trials for the Nazi war criminals were held. KUNIHIRO: Well, on the way back, we went down to Austria way and went by Salzburg. And on top of the hill there at Salzburg, they said, “Oh, that building is made out of gold,” you know, it was shining like gold, you know. And then we went to Munich, and looking at Munich, they didn’t hurt Munich very much. They hit the cathedral there on top, you know, and I thought that was a shame, because it’s a beautiful building. But I think they could restore that, now whether they have or not, I don’t know. And then we went to Nuremberg, back to Nuremberg, [22:00] where we were stationed, right out of Nuremberg. They set us up in the tent area. Looking at Nuremberg, they have what they call a mold, you know, that goes all the way around, and then bridges to go in. It’s like a square, you know? I guess that’s where they had that Nuremberg trial. But we didn’t stay there very long, and then we was heading for home, and glad to get home. INTERVIEWER: So you find out that you’re going to be able to come back stateside, and tell us about that. KUNIHIRO: Well, that part was leaving Germany and heading towards Marseilles, everything was so fast that, you know, it’s hard to try to remember all of these things. Most of the time you’re tired, and you’re half awake, and all you’re thinking about is, let’s get the hell out of here and get home, you know. And the only thing about coming home was they said we hit a storm. And the ship was---the bow end went straight down, and that was heading down the bottom of this big old wave, and they thought we was a goner, but I was sound asleep then, so I didn’t worry about that. But we made it home. INTERVIEWER: Where did you land when you first came back to the United States? KUNIHIRO: [24:00] Well, I saw New York. And I think we landed someplace in New Jersey. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 21 of 26 �INTERVIEWER: What was it like to see the Statue of Liberty, coming back? KUNIHIRO: Oh, it was great. Oh, that was the best thing to see. Everybody wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, so we leaned on the other side, and so the boat leaned with us. And when we got off, this fellow from Pasadena, I met this fellow, Shig Takayama from Pasadena, and we went around. We went to the RKO Building, saw some radio program, some movies, and ice skating there in the front. It was about Christmastime. It was November, so, you know, they had the Christmas tree up and lit and everything. My sister was there, so I looked her up. And I called, I forgot who I called to get her number. Then I called her on the phone, and she gave me the address, so I went there in the taxi. It was nice to see her and her little family. INTERVIEWER: What was the mood of the New Yorkers like when you got back, now that the war was over? What was it like to be back in the States? KUNIHIRO: Oh, all the GIs that I saw, there was a lot of them walking around the street, and they were real happy to be back, and the people, I think, felt the same way towards us, too, that [26:00] they thought we were glad to get back, so they felt good, too. And they greeted us nice. INTERVIEWER: So you went to your sister’s, and what was that like to see your sister for the first time again, in a few years? KUNIHIRO: Oh, it was, yeah, several years. It was almost five years since I’d seen her. I was in the service for four and a half years. And her and her husband---that’s the first time I met her husband, because she wasn’t married until much later. But it was nice. [26:56] END OF AUDIO FILE 4 BEGINNING OF TAPE FIVE 268-Kunihiro-Mits-5 INTERVIEWER: [00:00] What was it like when you first saw your wife again, when you were back in the States? KUNIHIRO: Well, there’s, first of all, to get home there was a good feeling. And getting on that plane and traveling out towards the West, you know, we see this flat ground in the Midwest, it was a beautiful sight. And then I had to catch a---when I came home, we landed in Long Beach. So I caught the street car there, and my wife was staying at her sister’s place. So I looked up her sister’s place and went over there, and oh, it was a good feeling to see her again. And it took a little while before I got my discharge. My actual discharge came in February, 1956, I mean, ’46. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 22 of 26 �INTERVIEWER: Did she know you were coming home? KUNIHIRO: Yeah. I called her from New York and told her I was coming home. And so then we moved back up to my parents’ place, stayed with my parents, and had our first child November of ’46. And then, where did we go? Oh, yeah, we moved into a garage apartment. She, I had a son then, you know, when we were staying at the garage apartment, at this hakujin’s [02:00] place. Then a third one was ready to come, so I thought, oh, gosh, we’re going to have to have a house. So I went around, found the contract. He says, I says, “Could you have it ready”---this was in October, and I says, “Could you have it ready by Christmas?” He says, “Yeah.” So he built it for us, and then we moved in on Christmas Day. That was in 1950. And most of the time, you know, I kept working, working, just like the rest of the Niseis. And I think the Niseis done great coming back and getting back to the civilian life again. INTERVIEWER: What did you do for a living? KUNIHIRO: Oh, first of all, I went on the GI bill and used the educational part of it. And I was doing barbering while I was in the service, you know. And I thought, well, I’ll go to barber college. And after I got in and I started---it was right after I got into the class, I thought, oh, what a mistake. I don’t want to go into this. But gee, they gave me all the clippers and, you know, all the equipment and everything. It didn’t cost me nothing, so I accepted it. I thought, oh, I’ll finish it up. And there was 15 of us, all ex-GIs. And I had to---me being married, and I had one child, I had to [04:00] work. So in the morning I used to do gardening, and then go to school in the afternoon at one o'clock, until nine o'clock at night. INTERVIEWER: Wow. KUNIHIRO: And I did that until I graduated out of there, took a state test, and out of the 15 guys, only two of us passed the state test. And after I got my license, I thought, I don’t want to cut hair for a living. So I went to work in the market, and I stayed there until I retired, you know. So I worked for Vons Grocery Company and retired with Albertson’s. INTERVIEWER: And how many children did you have, and what are their names? KUNIHIRO: I had four. The first one’s Janice, and today she’s a teacher. In a few more years she’ll retire. I have a son, the second one is a son, Melvin. When he was young, still going to school, he had a friend up north doing ceramic work, and he says, “Ooh, that’s what I want to do,” so he went up there. And I said, “Oh, before you go,” I says, “Get back and finish your college.” And he says, “Yeah, yeah, okay, dad, but I want to go up there first and see what it’s like.” And to this day he’s still there. And then the next one is a daughter, Lorraine, and it took her a long time to get through college. She went to Humboldt State and got her degrees up there and came back. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 23 of 26 �[06:00] And she married a hakujin fellow, a real nice guy. They have two kids. Oh, Melvin has three kids. And that’s five there. Then comes Linda. She’s a jolly one, always liked to socialize and everything. And she married, and I disapprove of her marriage. But after they got married, I says, "Well, I hope you kids get along real good," and so on. And finally, after she had four kids, she separated. He went on drugs, he’s an Italian guy. So we thought, gee, what are we going to do? What’s she going to do? And she was looking for a place to stay, and I says, “Well, you might as well move in with us.” And my wife was real glad of that, so she could watch over these kids. And I said, “Well, they’re old enough to move out. One of them is old enough to move out,” and I says, “It won’t be long before the rest of them.” She says, “No, I want them to stay here.” So I got to watch over them until they graduate from college. So, you know, all three of them---there’s three of them that’s going to private school at the present time, and the oldest one is going to, actually, in the high school. Oh, and then this year, this coming year, this coming year, he’s going into college. And he got a [08:00] job now. And I says, “Well, do you think you could make it to college?” He says, “I’ll sure try like heck.” I says, “Oh, that’s fine.” And then the youngest one, Alice, she has two children, and they go to the same school. And the oldest one is in college right now, doing very well. And that’s--INTERVIEWER: Twelve grandchildren. KUNIHIRO: ---my whole family. INTERVIEWER: Have you spoken with your family at all about your experiences growing up, during the--KUNIHIRO: No, no. I haven’t. I don’t ever mention about myself. INTERVIEWER: Never talk about the war or anything? KUNIHIRO: No. INTERVIEWER: It sounds like your dad talked to you a lot about what he went through. You know a lot about what your dad went through. KUNIHIRO: No, my dad, he was on the quiet side. A very religious man. All I did was just watch him. But he never had much to say. Went about his own business. INTERVIEWER: What things have you stayed active in since getting out of the war, working, retiring? Have you kept in touch with your fellow veteran buddies? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 24 of 26 �KUNIHIRO: Well, when they came out, and the kids I went to school with, they said, “Oh, let’s join the VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars].” You know? The commander [10:00] was Roy Pickett. He had a service station. We used to go there every Sunday to look at the funny paper before going to Sunday school across the street, you know. And he’s a real nice guy. So this was back in 1946 or ’47, I joined the VFW. And then in ’50 I got this house. And I had to keep busy, you know, making payments and all that, and trying to bring up a family, and I didn’t have time to go to the VFW meetings, and so I quit. And then one day, I got the phone call from my brother. He was living in Monterey Park. Oh, my parents lived right next door, and I built this house right next door to them. And then so he calls me up, and he says, “Hey, I got some stuff for Mom.” You know, we had no Japanese store. It was at Monterey Park, there was this huge market that sold lots of Japanese goods. So he picked up a few stuff over there, and he says, “I’ll be at a meeting at the American Legion Hall in the Monterey Park, right by the City Hall there. I think you’ll find it’ll be easy for you to find,” so I went down there, and I barged in the room, and they said, “Oh, no, you can’t come in yet.” The guard says, “You’ve got to wait in the bar.” So I sat there and waited in the bar, and he said, “Oh, you could”---and after about 15 minutes, he says, “You can come in now.” So I went [12:00] in, and he comes around from the podium, and comes to where this little table is, with the flag and the Bible open. He says, “Raise your right hand and place your hand on the flag, and repeat after me.” I says, “You go to hell.” I says, “I didn’t come down to join this VFW. I’ve been a member of it before.” I says, “If you want to reinstate me, you might be able to do that. But I have to sign before you could get me in.” “Oh, I’m going to put you through this ritual,” he says, “You never went through it yet.” So after refusing a few times, I felt sorry for him, so he did it. And he had it all memorized, it’s a long thing, you know. And he did an outstanding job, as installing commander. That’s how I got back into it. And I said, “Well, when I join,” I says, “I’m not going to do nothing. I’m just a paid up member. I’ll pay my dues, and that’s it.” And, oh, before I knew it, I was a chaplain, and I became a commander. And next thing I knew I was district commander. And I go up to the state convention, and they give me a cap. It’s a white cap, and that’s, they say, they called it, “All state commander,” which is the highest you could get for, you know, just being a commander. I kind of felt proud of myself. [Laughs] INTERVIEWER: [14:00] You should! KUNIHIRO: Because I never wanted to get up in front of the people to say anything, you know. I was no speaker or anything. Just to say a few words, I used to get so nervous, I never wanted to say anything. But going through all this, it finally broke me, where I was able to go through it. INTERVIEWER: When you look back on your life and all the things that you’ve been through and all the things that you’ve achieved, what words of wisdom, or words of advice, would you give to your grandchildren and to future generations of Americans? KUNIHIRO: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 25 of 26 �Well, I think to try to be a good citizen. And being young, you get all the education you can. Don’t be afraid to go here or there. But keep your nose clean. INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much. And we’re done. CREW MEMBER: Is there anything else he would . . . INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Is there something that you wanted to add, that you wanted to say that I didn’t ask you? KUNIHIRO: No, I have a hunch that---I don’t know how I got roped into this, but I have a hunch who it was. She called me up and she says, “Be sure and go down there. You will go down?” “No, I won’t be able to do this.” INTERVIEWER: And she’ll pay the price for roping you in, huh? Okay. Thank you. [15:48] END OF AUDIO FILE 5 This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 26 of 26 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview, April 20, 2002 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mitsuo Kunihiro oral history interview transcript [full interview], April 20, 2002 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kunihiro, Mitsuo: narrator Nakamatsu Vargas, Karen: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Transcriptions Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Extent The size or duration of the resource. 26 pages, typescript Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002-04-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2002OH0268_T_Kunihiro