1 100 5 https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/6d8cdcb696ed7873d1077abe822b55dc.pdf ad4064a7bbf0fd3e899391a488ac933e PDF Text Text Go For Broke National Education Center Oral History Project Oral History Interview with John Sakamoto, June 7, 1999, Las Vegas, Nevada INTERVIEWER: Okay. We're here on June 7th Monday in Las Vegas with John Sakamoto. I'm Stephanie Tanaka interviewing, Craig Yahata is behind the camera, Peggy Kamon is cataloguing, and Ron Azuma is doing the audio. Okay Mr. Sakamoto, could you please state your full name please. SAKAMOTO: John Minoru Sakamoto. INTERVIEWER: Okay, did you have any nicknames while you were in the ... SAKAMOTO: Not really, some when I was going to a grammar school, somebody called me Monk. INTERVIEWER: Monk? Why did they call you Monk? SAKAMOTO: Well there was a famous football player by that name, Monk Mile Square, in Santa Clara. So it didn't stick with me---I mean it was just that one and oh there were few other people who called me but really I never did because most of when I was growing up they call me "Min" because my Japanese name was Minoru. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: Other than that not really. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Could you please tell us where you live and your date of birth and your place of birth. SAKAMOTO: Where I was born---Vernalis, California which is south um just a few miles south of Tracy and that's where I was born, Tracy, California. INTERVEWER: And what was your highest level of education. SAKAMOTO: High school. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 1 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: High school. Okay. And what unit were you with---what unit were you with---the 442nd, 100th? What did you enter the army and what group. SAKAMOTO: 442nd. INTERVIEWER: Yeah, you were in the 442nd. SAKAMOTO: Oh well mainly I was with the regimental band. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And how did you---what was your platoon level and ... SAKAMOTO: What was that? INTERVIEWER: Your platoon level. SAKAMOTO: I really don't know. INTERVIEWER: You don't know? SAKAMOTO: No, I---you know I didn't really know that I was in even in E Company to tell you the truth until ah in 95 they started sending me some things that telling me that I was in E Company. So that's when I first heard about it. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Could you tell me the name of your father and your mother and any siblings you had. SAKAMOTO: Yeah, my father's name was Joseph Yu---Yuichi Sakamoto and mother's name was Hisa Sakamoto. INTERVIEWER: Okay and did you have any siblings and brothers---did you have any brothers or sisters. SAKAMOTO: Yeah I had ah I've got two brothers and three sisters. There were six of us in the family. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 2 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: And where do you fall in the order of the six. SAKAMOTO: Ah, number two. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: There was ah---sister. INTERVIEWER: Okay, so you're first born son---Okay. Where did you live prior to World War II. SAKAMOTO: In San Martin, California. INTERVIEWER: Okay, and what did your family do their? SAKAMOTO: Farming. INTERVIEWER: Farming, what kinda ... SAKAMOTO: Mainly growing strawberries. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And did your mother also work on the farm as well? SAKAMOTO: Yeah, they all worked in ... INTERVIEWER: Okay. What high school did you attend. SAKAMOTO: Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill---California. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Were you involved in any activities like ... sports … SAKAMOTO: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 3 of 30 �Sports. Basketball and baseball and also played in a band and orchestra. INTERVIEWER: Okay, and what instrument did you play? SAKAMOTO: Clarinet. INTERVIEWER: Clarinet. SAKAMOTO: Also on the side I play---saxophone. INTERVIEWER: Wow very talented. What kind of positions did you play in basketball and baseball. SAKAMOTO: Of course I wasn't as tall as so I just played guard or forward, guard mostly. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: Cause most most are hakujin members were much taller than I am so. INTERVIEWER: So your area that you lived in was a pretty mixed neighborhood had a lot of Caucasian people as well as Japanese and others. Okay. So did you go to Japanese school. SAKAMOTO: Yeah. And while I was going to ah grade school that was in San Martin, and grade school there was a little building over there that had a Japanese school right after school. So we went there, but didn't learning anything though. INTERVIEWER: How come you didn't learn anything. SAKAMOTO: Because, it goes from one ear to the other. And, I wish I paid more attention because--- whenever people come from Japan they try to converse with me and you know, I'm not very good at it. All I could speak was just you know family family Japanese and that was about it. INTERVIEWER: Did your parents only speak Japanese then? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 4 of 30 �SAKAMOTO: Yeah. My mother went to school in Japan. So she was pretty good at that. And then my dad was born in Hawaii so he in fact he knew more than my mother did. Really. You know you know he went to school in Hawaii and Japanese school and then and of course he went to Heald's College too so he was very in fact everybody tells me he was a very distinguished person you know. And he spoke a lot. You know---he spoke several places you know and and we kind of respect him. In fact he was very strict at home. Girls were ah they always have to look up to him you know. And so you were kind of afraid to date my sisters. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did your family practice any sort of religion. SAKAMOTO: Ah what? INTERVIEWER: A religion. Did you practice ... SAKAMOTO: Yeah, Buddhist. INTERVIEWER: Buddhism. Okay, great. And when you're in San Martin---did you experience any discrimination from any of the Caucasian families or any of the other families. SAKAMOTO: Some. When I came back why---Morgan Hill was my school that I went to and---the American Legion didn't accept Japanese at that time. So that's one of the thing and we had a good neighbor that lived in the same street. In fact they were German descent and they---know you know they they didn't like the Japanese so they moved out. [Laughs.] INTERVIEWER: Goodness. SAKAMOTO: Yeah, they moved out. INTERVIEWER: Wow. So did your parents practice any of the Japanese customs or anything at home other than the Buddhist religion. SAKAMOTO: No, that's about it. INTERVIEWER: No. Did you have any sort of festivals or anything with the Japanese community up there. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 5 of 30 �SAKAMOTO: Ah yeah---In fact we had we are myself and my sister we were involved in this young Buddhist organization. Yeah, YBA they call it. INTERVIEWER: Oh okay, what type of activities did you do in your YBA. SAKAMOTO: Aw---Can't remember what it did but we had different conferences in different cities you know. And cause YBA also had a baseball team. So we played you know various cities like Monterey, Fresno, and San Jose, Santa Clara. And all up and down the coast. INTERVIEWER: Oh so YBA was more of a social or ... SAKAMOTO: It was kind of---Well I don't know I guess it's a social club I guess, I don't know. I really don't know. Although they you know they had made money for the different organization you know. So it was kind of a helpful organization. INTERVIEWER: That's great---Okay, was there anything else you wanted to discuss about your early childhood. Any stories you can remember. Or anything that you wanted to tell. SAKAMOTO: In what one respect? INTERVIEWER: Um, just any fun memories that you remember about you know living growing up in your household. SAKAMOTO: Well I don't know. [Chuckles.] You know the thing is I can't you know like a lot of people I can't remember a lot of things when I was a kid---although as I was growing up my dad was a great boxing fan so when I was around maybe um oh second or third grade I guess he used to pick me up every Friday we would go to the San Francisco and Seals Stadium and go see boxing. INTERVIEWER: Wow. SAKAMOTO: He would pick me up and I'd change my clothes in the back of the car and he was great you know. We'll listen to the radio and listen to the you know ah watch the boxing, and that was his uh thing, and um oh other than that I don't know. I suppose um you know what I'll show you would say. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 6 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Oh that's fine. Um, well let's see. [10:38] What did you plan to do with your life when you were in high school and when you knew you were going to graduate, what did you plan to do after graduation. SAKAMOTO: Well I really didn't have ah all although I always thought I'd become a big farmer. But. Right after the war I um hurt my back. And so from then I said well I don't think I better work in the farm anymore so I moved to San Jose from San Martin and worked in San Jose for a while. And then that's when I went to the school district to work as a custodian for 20 years and retired and uh when I retired why they gave me a good send off---they ah I remember that they had a big party and they gave me a fly rod and full of cash and fishing net. And the board of trustee gave me a certificate of appreciation from the board and a letter of accommodation you know. So I would really appreciate it from school district. INTERVIEWER: It's wonderful. SAKAMOTO: And then then in 81, I moved to Oregon for retirement. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: So I, and I of course my wife was with me till 1995 and she passed away then---then ever since then why um the E Company have been sending me letters with this many reunions why I've been coming here ever since. Every year and this will be the fifth year there will be another one in October. INTERVIEWER: That's great. Well how did you hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. SAKAMOTO: Ah we were listening on the radio and that's when we ah you know when we were farming we we heard about it and we were really shocked. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: And your your, even your mother was shocked even though she was schooled from Japan. SAKAMOTO: Yeah, we were really shocked, yeah. INTERVIEWER: So what did you think about Japan after they had done this. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 7 of 30 �SAKAMOTO: Well I---I suppose we were really disappointed for what they did. You know and and of course at the time there were two representatives from Japan that was here in Washington. So---kinda ironic that that happened and so and so I told my dad I wanted to volunteer but he didn't let me. He wanted me to stay farming but I couldn't stay very long because I only got about three months before---so I got in just anyway. INTERVIEWER: So you were drafted. SAKAMOTO: So I was drafted in 1942 February. INTERVIEWER: Wow. Were any of your other siblings drafted into the war as well. SAKAMOTO: What was that? INTERVIEWER: Were any of your other siblings, brothers or sisters drafted into the war as well. SAKAMOTO: No. INTERVIEWER: They were too young? SAKAMOTO: I couldn't hear what you said. INTERVIEWER: Oh I'm sorry. Were any of your other brothers drafted? SAKAMOTO: Oh, yeah. My younger brother that lives in Victorville. He was in a Korean War. Other than that. That's that's it. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: Yeah. The younger one was too young to get in. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 8 of 30 �Wow, okay. So can you tell me what happened after you heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor what happened to your family and where did you go. SAKAMOTO: Oh well, you know why of course they were evacuated---instead of staying locally, they moved up to where my sister-in-law died, so they went into with that group and landed in Tule Lake. And my dad and my brother instead of staying at Tule Lake camp, they went out on their own to Utah. So they worked you know I don't I can't remember what they worked what they were out of the camp and so the rest of the family were still in Tule Lake and while I was in Camp Grant I went to visit them. Most of the time I spent time in a train because it took so long to get there. So I stayed went to visit them while they were in Tule Lake. And then when they had this segregation, people wanted to go to Japan. And so from there they got moved to Rohwer and I guess was that Arkansas I guess. And so they stayed there. But my dad wanted to get out again so he he wanted me to find out while I was in Camp Grant, he wanted me to go see this farm in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. So, I went to see the fella that owned property and so they eventually moved to Elkhorn, Wisconsin. My my folks and my sister's family, and there was another family call us---my sister's family was called Ike and then the other family was Shoji and three family was farming in Elkhorn, Wisconsin til the end of the war. INTERVIEWER: So they let the families out---they let the families out of camp. They released them? SAKAMOTO: Yeah, they they they came from Rohwer and moved moved over there. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: And um they were still there when I came back home. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: But my postwar home when I when I came home but I didn't know that they were home. INTERVIEWER: And home was where at? SAKAMOTO: San Martin. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Were you actually ever in the internment camp? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 9 of 30 �SAKAMOTO: No I never did. I was in service before that. INTERVIEWER: Before that, okay. SAKAMOTO: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: And, how did you feel when your family had to be uprooted and taken to these internment camp? SAKAMOTO: Oh, I was kind of devastated because you know you know that I didn't think they would do such a thing you know. So you know I didn't feel very good about it yeah. INTERVIEWER: Were you upset with the United States for doing this to your family. SAKAMOTO: Well in a way. But you don't despise them or anything you know. Suppose you take it for granted that that what they had to do you know so. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Well going back a little. I just wanted to find out why you wanted to go and fight in the war. SAKAMOTO: Well I don't know I suppose that was the thing to for me to do I suppose. Being that um I don't know I guess---well being in this country and all you want be loyal to you know American being Japanese American, you know. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you ever visit your family in the camps. SAKAMOTO: What was that? INTERVIEWER: Did you visit your family while they were in the internment camps. SAKAMOTO: Yeah. I went while there were in Tule Lake. That was said while I was in Camp Grant, I went to visit them just once. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 10 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: And can you describe for us what the camp looked like and what the conditions were. SAKAMOTO: Well I don't know. It it sure seemed like um it wasn't a place where I would like to live. You know, it it seemed kind of sad you know because they were confined to this place with barbed wires and all that you know and it sure seems strange. Yeah. Well I guess that's the way they have to be I suppose you know. INTERVIEWER: Do you know how your family felt were they scared to go to the camps and how how did they feel about the camps themselves. SAKAMOTO: Well I'm not sure about that. I never heard any complaint or anything. So so I take it that they took it as good as they can get. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Were many of your childhood friends drafted into the war like yourself? SAKAMOTO: Pardon? INTERVIEWER: Were any of your childhood friends drafted into the war? SAKAMOTO: A friend? INTERVIEWER: Yeah. SAKAMOTO: Oh yeah. INTERVIEWER: So you went with a group of friends ... SAKAMOTO: Yeah I went with a group of fellows yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: They were drafted the same time. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 11 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Okay. And then so where were you taken to when you got drafted? SAKAMOTO: We were from from Monterey---we stopped at a Los Angeles, in fact who were we were like almost VIP. We stayed in this Wilshire Boulevard, one of the nice hotel you know and they fed us good and swimming pool and all that. And then from there we went to Camp Robinson. INTERVIEWER: And? SAKAMOTO: And I don't know how long we train but that was in 42 so. And then I guess it was 43 or 44 I guess. Well from there we went to Camp Grant. That was a medical camp. And I can't remember how long we stayed but everybody was assigned to a hospital work and and now some of us went to the officers mess and and so we stayed over there there again I don't know how long. And then they wanted to send us as a repla---first replacement. So we went to a train at Camp Blanding Florida, and I guess we were there quite a long time and then we were reassembled in Shelby, Mississippi where the rest of the bunch was. And from there we went from West Virginia where that Camp Patrick Henry is and it was sent from there to overseas and we landed over there in Italy. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Can you describe for us your training at Camp Grant. What did you do there. SAKAMOTO: We worked in the officers mess and we lived above the cooks and baker's school and so various people outside was assigned---someone were worked as a waiter and I worked in the K.P. department and I was kinda in charge of that. So in fact we ate better than the officers did. [Laughs.] In fact I got paid a three different times so I for a private I was getting as much as a staff sergeant was. So I kind of felt guilty about that. Although I felt good. INTERVIEWER: So when you first got to Camp Grant, what was your reaction to see this place. SAKAMOTO: Well I I really don't know. INTERVIEWER: You don't remember? SAKAMOTO: No I---although it felt strange you know I why we were there. And I guess we spend the winter there and I remember you know it was pretty cold there and and we used to go to Chicago from there because it was about 90 miles to Chicago and we took our liberty up there. And and I guess like I said I don't know how long we stayed but they all told us and I guess some of them didn't This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 12 of 30 �go to Camp Blanding they went to different camps. I I found out later. And then the people that I was with in Camp Grant I never I never saw them again. It's funny that, although I saw some fellows from back home you know in different outfit and ours is um---band is concerned there were several other fellows that I know the fellow that I was discharged. He was one of the replacement that he played the trombone and he was assigned at the L company I think. So different company would represented you know from when when as a replacement. Some from Seattle and half of them was from Hawaii you know as far as band was concerned. BEGINNING OF TAPE TWO INTERVIEWER: Okay Mr. Sakamoto. Going back to Camp Grant. Can you describe for me what your basic training was like. SAKAMOTO: Over there we didn't train. We were all what they called that now. I can't remember what they called that but, we were kind of settled in might say and I thought we was going to be there for a long time you know, but I didn't know there were 442nd existed at that time. And, until we were lifted from port, oh from Camp Grant that we knew that we were gonna be a replacement and send to Camp Blanding. INTERVIEWER: Okay. So at Camp Grant, what was the mix of nationalities there. It was not a just a Japanese group that was there... SAKAMOTO: Well, ah as far as I know when I was in the officers mess, of course the most of the workers were Japanese but the cooks that was there was hakujin you know. And naturally all the officers were hakujins too. At that time there were hardly any Japanese officers at the time. So and then one of my friend was also a cook. I don't know how he got that position but. And then various people had different jobs to do. And like I said there were waiters and then these were all Japanese. And and we worked as KP, that was a mixture too. There were no Japanese either. There was some hakujin mixed with it. And I would ah they had me make a roster for them you know. And there was a fellow that---fellow from Los Angeles his name was Arthur Ito and he was a head waiter. And then there was a fellow that another fellow from L.A. did all the buying for the commissary. And each person had different jobs to do. And we all lived in upstairs on the cooks and bakers school. And other than that we didn't do that was it. And then also, we used to go to officer's club and we worked over there too. So we got paid extra for that. And then like I said we got paid for the regular arm ah regular army pay plus also mess pay so we had we got three different pay. So I guess we were kind of lucky that way you know compared to the other people. INTERVIEWER: Did you experience any prejudice from your Caucasian officers in the camp---At Camp Blanding. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 13 of 30 �SAKAMOTO: No, not really. INTERVIEWER: So they treated you ... SAKAMOTO: You know we all we had pretty good relation yeah and there was nobody that you know was against our because we were Japanese you know we were treated pretty good. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And then from Camp Grant you went to Camp Blanding. SAKAMOTO: Yeah, Camp Blanding. INTERVIEWER: And is that where you received your boot camp training? SAKAMOTO: Yeah. In other words we have to learn just about everything to replace the ... They were all volunteers or so we had to learn just about everything so we could you know fit into you know each one would be assigned to different outfit you know. So everybody was kind of spread out. And so naturally when we went as a replacement, we hardly saw each other after that. I don't know who went where and I only found that out after we came home you know where they were because some of them didn't go to Camp Blanding from my camp ground. I think they went to Camp Sheridan or some other camp so and also they never did see when we went to Camp Blanding, we was reassembled at Camp Shelby. But some of them didn't even go to Camp Shelby. They went straight, they went to some other camp which I don't remember. And they went from there and we all we all got shipped from West Virginia, Patrick Henry so that part was you know we all got together there and ship. So we went on that those ship for all the Madisonian line that carried troop ship. So they were nice. Nice ships. INTERVIEWER: Well during your boot camp training, how did that make you feel. Were you scared that you knew you were gonna be going into war soon. SAKAMOTO: No I never. No I never was scared. No. I don't know I took everything in stride. And um no I never once was scared of being in service. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever think that you might not come back? SAKAMOTO: Yeah I thought about it but it didn't, it didn't set me back. You know. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 14 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Well what was one of your most vivid memories of boot camp, or one of your worst or best moments. SAKAMOTO: Well, I don't know. It's kind of up in the air. I hadn't, I really don't remember anything like that. So. INTERVIEWER: What did you do on your first leave from boot camp. Did you get to go on rest or relaxation prior to going to Camp Shelby. SAKAMOTO: Prior to camp ... Well there there was what they call delayed in route I guess after we finished training at Camp Blanding, we were able to go visit our folks and before we went to Camp Shel--and back to Camp Shelby so they gave us, I can't remember how many days but, we were able to go see our folks at that time. I think they were up there in Elkhorn, Wisconsin at the time, so I went to visit them. So that was nice. Everybody got in other words, after they got off Camp Blanding everybody got what they call delayed in route. And then after they everybody visit their folks. We were all assembled at Camp Shelby. That's where they ah most of the 442nd were trained. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Well when you went to visit your family in Wisconsin, were they sad that you were going to be going to war. What were their feelings. SAKAMOTO: Well, not really. They told me to be careful and that's about it. INTERVIEWER: Okay. So you say that you're assembled then at Camp Shelby. What other training did you receive at Camp Shelby. Did you receive any ... SAKAMOTO: No, we didn't do anymore. We just assembled there. And while I was over there, I had a had a kind of funny because they because I did little artwork that I made signs for them you know like latrine and stuff like that. So I made a sign for them. And um, that's about it. INTERVIEWER: What did. I'm sorry. SAKAMOTO: We didn't stay very long there though you know, and I can't remember how long we were there either. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 15 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Did you happen to visit I guess the officers club or any type of club for enlisted men on the site at Camp Shelby? SAKAMOTO: No, we did have a chance to go into town and you know see the town. And um, other than that I can't remember too much. INTERVIEWER: Did you experience any prejudice when you went into town from the townspeople? SAKAMOTO: No, not really. No. I did---while we were I was visiting my folks while I was when they were in Tule Lake, you could see that there were a lot of signs that they didn't want any you know Japanese around you you could see there were a lot of prejudice showing. INTERVIEWER: How did that make you feel seeing all of these prejudiced signs against Japanese? SAKAMOTO: Well I didn't feel very good of course. No, but like all Japanese I guess they just took it as you know as good as they can get. INTERVIEWER: So, what did you do for your when you had free time when you didn't have to go to I guess mess hall or any other type of other ceremonial things in the Army. Did you listen to music. Did you go dancing or anything like that. SAKAMOTO: What's that. INTERVIEWER: For your free time. What did you do in your free time. SAKAMOTO: Well I was in um getting back to that while I was in overseas where there was a fellow that he was Walter Murray's one of the students from Walter Murray and he taught us how to dance. So everybody started learning dance from him. That's that's one of the things we did I guess overseas and ... INTERVIEWER: What type of dances did you learn to do? SAKAMOTO: Ballroom dancing. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 16 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Ballroom dancing. SAKAMOTO: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay. What type of music did you listen to when you were in the army? SAKAMOTO: What do you mean what kind of music? INTERVIEWER: What type of bands, what type of artists, the names of them. SAKAMOTO: Oh, well it was strictly you know military band music. And like I said, there was this dance band which I wasn't involved in and they already had their own. And I guess I wasn't quite good enough anyway. [Laughs.] INTERVIEWER: So you continued to play your clarinet and saxophone after high school then? SAKAMOTO: Oh yeah. I still play once in a while and I also learning how to play shakuhachi which is very very difficult. And whenever every chance I get I like to go listen to them you know. In fact there was one one fellow that played while I was in San Jose there was this organization called Aya ah Aukai or something it's a Japanese organization and they there were they had some thing for the 442nd members. And while during that time we did some offering and they had this ah 1000 crane colored crane that while we were doing the offering this fellow from Stockton who was a Korean Vet played this flute, jack ah shakuhachi while he you know the offering was been performed. So I enjoyed that. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Well, from Camp Shelby after everyone was reorganized back there, where did you go? SAKAMOTO: When was this? INTERVIEWER: When you were at Camp Shelby. SAKAMOTO: Ah hum. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 17 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Where did you go after Camp Shelby? SAKAMOTO: We were assembled over there at West Virginia, Patrick Henry Camp---from there we were sent overseas. INTERVIEWER: Did you feel any anxiety by going overseas? SAKAMOTO: Yeah I did yeah. In fact you know you're kind of curious what would be ah ahead of you, you know. And so there were anticipation. INTERVIEWER: Were you sent overseas with some of the boys that you went to high school with? SAKAMOTO: Um, some of them. I did come across some friends but you know with all that many people there you don't you don't really come across too many. No I. In fact one of the fellows that I went in with, I never while he was with me in Camp Grant. But after that, I don't know where he went. I never saw him and um 442nd or I don't know whether he was in there or where he went to this day although he's he's back home now. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Could you describe to me what your journey was like from Camp Patrick Henry to overseas. SAKAMOTO: Well you mean that during that trip you mean or ... INTERVIEWER: How did you get overseas? SAKAMOTO: Yeah. Well we went there you know like I said---Madisonian airline and I guess it took about two weeks all total and I know some of them I got so sick they stayed in bed all all two weeks. Yeah. And I wasn't feeling too good either. You know I get pretty seasick. I know back home right in Oregon whenever I go to a fishing charter, I'll take a Dramamine or something like that so I won't get seasick. INTERVIEWER: So where did you end up when you ended up in Italy? SAKAMOTO: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 18 of 30 �Um, can't think of the name. Southern southern part of Italy. I can't even, names don't come to me that easy. Anyways it was in the southern part of Italy. INTERVIEWER: Can you describe for me how you felt and what you saw when you first arrived? SAKAMOTO: Um, it was strange. You know you they weren't really that friendly you know. I guess the people didn't you know like the American troops, I guess. And, I mean every place you go because the Americans were bombing all over Italy and you know and the boy the women would come out and shake their fists you know because we're bombing their town just like they do right now oversees. And of course they didn't they didn't like that very well. INTERVIEWER: Do you know what theater you were going to go to battle you were going to be going into in Italy? SAKAMOTO: Yeah, well I wrote in that you might you might see that in that letter, I mean questionnaire. I can't remember now. It's a right rightlan Po Valley and Africa and Europe here and. Campaign. INTERVIEWER: So how long were you in Italy for at after you first arrived. SAKAMOTO: We stayed in Italy till like I said we got sicker. I was transferred to the band and then we stayed in Italy for a while and then we got transferred on a boat ship to France Marseilles, France. We got off there and we stayed and while we were there, we were in different places and one of the places was Nice, France which is you know kind of a resort place. And I guess it must have been a picnic for us really. We played for the various outfit you know dance band and we were stationed at one of the one of the men used to be a macaroni factory. And so you know we were you know it was no hotel Hilton or anything like that you know but it was a home for us and we would from there. It was an outskirt of Nice. Nice. And we would go into a Nice town and would perform the dance band for the various outfit you know for our troops. So that was one of our duties. INTERVIEWER: Can you describe for us how you actually got transferred into the band in the first place. SAKAMOTO: Yeah, well while I was in the E Company which I didn't know I went to inquire because I heard there was a band. So, I didn't think anything of it till a couple of fellows came and asked me if I wanted to join. And naturally I said yes. And during the assembly, company E’s assembly, they announced my name and said that I was gonna be transferred to 268G band and of course This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 19 of 30 �naturally the fellows that I was talking to at night you know we would be talking and while we were bunched up like you know and the campfire they would tell us all the activity they went through like a night patrol and all that they would tell me all that story of their previous encounter. And and so when they heard that I was gonna get transferred they told me not to say you better not go you better stay with us. But I was already committed to go so and the next day come we broke camp. In fact we were in what they call a half sack and each person got half of the tent. They called a half sack and then we broke 10. It was just muddy as you could get outside. The only place dry spot was where we you know where the tent was we broke and there were going up in the front. And I was going towards the fourth the regimental band from there you know I guess from there I guess we went from there to France from immediately. INTERVIEWER: So are you considered part of the original regimental band then, or ... SAKAMOTO: No, no I went I went we went as a replacement so the band was already formed. INTERVIEWER: Okay. SAKAMOTO: The original. INTERVIEWER: And ... SAKAMOTO: The original there were all volunteers so, some of those fellows was much younger than I was like Senator Inouye and I think quite a few were only 17 years old. And I know Senator Inouye went in when they were 17. But most of us that was drafted was already 21 years old you know. So. INTERVIEWER: So what other duties did you have being part of the regimental band. Did you just play music and play dance music for the troops? SAKAMOTO: No that's basically what we did. During the when we went from place to place, when the band played why I was kind of a assistant to this fellow from Seattle and him and I would set up a P.A. system so that you know they could hear it was set up wherever we went to perform. That was part of our duty. BEGINNING OF TAPE THREE INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 20 of 30 �Okay Mr. Sakamoto. Going back to your band days, what sort of music did the regimental band play. SAKAMOTO: We played mainly Glenn Miller. You know and that was the main thing of course we mix with the being that most of them was from Hawaii, we played Hawaiian music too. And there was a fella that would dance you know and he would dance as Hiro Haddy and there were a lot of Hawaiian music because there were a lot of Hawaiian people in the band you know so and the band master was from Idaho or was`that capitol ... what's the name of the capitol in Idaho? INTERVIEWER: Boise? SAKAMOTO: Boise, yeah. He was from Boise and he was a master sergeant. And but he didn't he didn't conduct the dance band. There was some other fella that did that. But like I said I can't remember most of the names but when after the war why they formed a dance band of their own back in Hawaii. And this fellow by the name of Archie Okamoto played the trombone send me a photo of the band which I have at home. And to this day, I was talking to a fellow from Maui and I heard he's moved from Honolulu to Maui so I told him see if we could find find him over there. I'll give you my address and tell him that Archie Okamoto the trombone player wanted to see if he is still living yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay. What other duties were you required to do being part of the regimental band? SAKAMOTO: Well mostly like I said as far as dance band was concerned, they were to perform for various troops and then the other thing was to we were performing different military marching. You know when they have kind of citation or like the most memorable one would be and ah when when they had that big casualty, we would perform during this was during the winter time it was snowing and it was cold and we were performing for memorial service where the folk was sick and I remember the whole regiment was a size of a size of a company and then you could imagine how small it was and because I was talking to this one of my roommate from this same E company, he said he wasn't at the memorial service because they were all in the hospital you know either hospital or got was killed. And I was listening to all the names that was a person that was killed. And some of them just got married went overseas and they were gone. That was the most memorable one I could remember and it was really sad to hear that. And one of our trumpet player played most of the taps for the you know most of the ceremonies that they performed. In fact one of the flute player, his last name was Kanae I think and he played this, oh it was so beautiful. He played this Lord's Prayer at the 50th anniversary. And I was wanted to go see him but by the time I was way on the other end and I guess there must of been over 2000 people in that banquet. And by the time I went to the front, why he was gone. So anyway I called him, I called him up later and then on this July big veterans reunion why I met him I finally met him because like I say you know they all changed. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 21 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Just to give us an idea, can you tell me how many men are considered a company? SAKAMOTO: What was that? INTERVIEWER: In a company, how many men are there in there? SAKAMOTO: Oh, gee, I I really don't know. INTERVIEWER: Do you think it's between 20 to 50 or 50 to 100? SAKAMOTO: Oh. See, a companies consist of platoons and squads so that number I you know I should know but I don't, although it there's 4 company to a battalion. And of course we had 3 battalions and I was in the second battalion which E, E would be under second battalion, the 100 would be A B C D and E would be in the second battalion and then there are also 3rd battalion so there's in other words there's 4 8 well 12 companies in a battalion because that's only part of it. The rest would be 522 field artillery and and then you got the engineering and so all combined, there's quite a few men served with all of them. INTERVIEWER: As being part of the regimental band, did you were you attached only to the 442nd or did you play for any of the others ... troops. SAKAMOTO: Yeah, we were always attached to 442nd, yeah. INTERVIEWER: So when you set up camp at your different locations, you were always with the rest of the 442nd. SAKAMOTO: Yeah, we were always with this like I said with the service company. And then there was couple times that we were in a different like a division we were with the 5th army we were 442nd was attached to the 5th army and then we also was attached to the 36th Texas division. There the one that was lost and you know there the one that we rescued. INTERVIEWER: Wow. Were you there when the lost battalion was rescued? SAKAMOTO: No. I like I say you know we we were with the service company so you know it was after the This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 22 of 30 �memorial service that we knew that they lost a lot of men. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay. You said that there were a lot of Hawaii boys that were in the regimental band. Did the Japanese mainland boys get along with the Hawaii boys? SAKAMOTO: Yeah. I would say about half and half because there were a lot of fellow from the mainland. I don't know if they were originals or not. I imagine some were originals. And like I say we were the replacements so. Like my my friend from Loomis who was discharged with me was in the L company and there was quite a few in our band that was in fact there was one fellow that was from back home from San Jose and there were fellows from all different places. There were quite a few from Seattle and one from San Diego and Santa Cruz and there were quite a few mainland. So I'd say about half and half was made up into a 442nd band. INTERVIEWER: Okay. How did you feel being part of the band and not being on the frontline with the men that you trained with in camp? Did you feel different from them or you know ... SAKAMOTO: Well, how do you mean? INTERVIEWER: Did you feel that you were contributing any less to the war effort. SAKAMOTO: Oh yeah. We we were you know, we felt that we were part of the rest of the fellows you know. So. I guess you know we were contributing our part. INTERVIEWER: That's great. Do, can you recall any stories that some of the men on the frontline told you around your camp fires? SAKAMOTO: Yeah, like I said when I was with the E company which I didn't know, they told me a lot of the stories previous to before we met they told us all the you know the [night big back] and hiking and all that they told us a lot of scary stories you know. And I suppose in a way I was kind of lucky like I said to be in a band. And like I say maybe if I was with the E company maybe I wouldn't have been here. INTERVIEWER: So you feel you're fortunate to have been in the band? SAKAMOTO: Yeah I suppose so. Yeah. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 23 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: So what did you do and how long were you in the band for? SAKAMOTO: Until until we got discharged. INTERVIEWER: And ... SAKAMOTO: Well no I take it back. Just before the war broke out why we all disband and we were stationed near...I can't remember the name of the town so we were all assembled there before coming back. So we were already this you know disband. INTERVIEWER: So you already knew that when you were gonna leave back home you already knew that the war was over, or is that when you found out ... SAKAMOTO: Yeah ah huh, yeah we heard it was over. INTERVIEWER: How did you feel about the outcome? SAKAMOTO: Oh feel great, yeah oh yeah, especially you know you wanted to get home and of course I was there for almost 4 years just shy of a few months and so it's quite a long time. And you know you wanted to go home as quickly as you can like my master sergeant he was if he stayed he would have been promoted to ah...I can't remember that next rank that he would have had. In fact, he was he was in the regular army almost 10 years prior to the war started. So he had a lot of service. And and so he didn't he didn't care for the promotion. He just wanted to get out you know so he went back home. INTERVIEWER: So when you were discharged, what level where you at at that point in time? SAKAMOTO: I think just before I got out I think PFC was the only top. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Great. SAKAMOTO: Top rank ... INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 24 of 30 �And so when you were finally discharged where did you go? SAKAMOTO: Where did I go where? INTERVIEWER: After you were discharged. SAKAMOTO: After I got discharged like I said on that questionnaire that you gave me, I went I wanted to go see my folks which I thought they were still in Wisconsin. So I proceeded to go and I knew that one of my oldest sister was in Utah, so I stopped over there and that's when I found out that they were home already. And in fact in fact the time that we got into Beale Camp Beale the plane that came after us...it was really foggy and the plane crashed right in the mountains and killed all the--some of the fellow never got a scratch and the whole plane crashed in the mountain and killed everybody. And I suppose my folks heard that and seen that I was coming home at that time. I guess they were worried and so I didn't. I still didn't know they were home. So, I proceeded to go see my sister in Ogden and that's when I found out they were home. But even then, I knew they were home I went to see my sister in Wisconsin and then then I came home. INTERVIEWER: Wow. And home was back in California again? SAKAMOTO: Yeah, in San Martin where we had a farm you know so. INTERVIEWER: Okay. When did you meet your wife? SAKAMOTO: In fact in fact I had 2 wife. INTERVIEWER: Oh, okay. SAKAMOTO: Ah, first one was through some friend’s acquaintances and I got married but it wasn't a very good marriage. So it was Japanese, she was Japanese but I got divorced from her and through the through that she we adopted a girl a Japanese girl. And so that's the only daughter I've got, the one adopted daughter that married to a hakujin fella and she doesn't have family. So there again I don't have grandkids of my own to say. So rest of them was all under my second wife which was a hakujin gal and through her I got all these grandkids. And so I am the only grandpa they know now. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 25 of 30 �When you married your Caucasian wife, did you experience any backlash from anybody around, how did your parents feel about it. SAKAMOTO: Ah, no my my my folks were really happy about it because she didn't like this other gal. It was a bad marriage, and so they were happy for me. Yeah really. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: So how many grandchildren do you have? SAKAMOTO: Well through marriage, I've got 10 grandkids and 15 great grandkids and 2 great great grandkids. So then you know that's through marriage and not mine, but they still call me grandpa so I'm the only grandpa they know. INTERVIEWER: That's great. Just going back a little bit, when you came back home after the war was over, did everybody welcome you with open arms or did you experience any bad feelings from anybody ... SAKAMOTO: Yeah like I said, I you know where I went to school in Morgan Hill, this American Legion didn't accept any Japanese as a member. And so from then on why I never did join any organization even though while I was in [INAUDIBLE] they asked me to join but I don't know why I just didn't want to join anymore. INTERVIEWER: Did you feel that you were being unfairly treated by them especially after you risked your life going to war for America? SAKAMOTO: Yeah. Well, ah you know there was getting back to that---there was a fellow that I ah right after I got out of the high school I went to get a private clarinet lesson in Gilroy. And he was Italian descent and he was corresponding right along. All of a sudden, he got some backlash from some other people so he stopped writing to me---of course it was up to him to you know and ah so although I well I came home I saw him so and everything was all right. INTERVIEWER: Well, nowadays do you ever see an internment type of situation ever happening again in the United States? SAKAMOTO: Well, I don't, I don't think so. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 26 of 30 �Okay. And have you ever told any of your children, your child or your grandchildren about your experiences during the war. SAKAMOTO: Ah, very little. They never asked so. I'm not the type to say too much anyway so. INTERVIEWER: Well, I mean didn't you ever want---don't you want them just to know what ... SAKAMOTO: Well I would think, I would think they should know though. In fact I think the 442nd's got a sons and daughter organization I guess you know that. And I was thinking maybe I could talk to my adopted daughter about it and maybe she might be interested in to join this---I was talking to this fellow one of our leaders, E company leader and his son is involved in it. And at that veterans meeting in last July they had a special meeting for sons and daughters and they said there's about 30 or so in the group. So I don't know, maybe I'll talk to my daughter and she would be interested or not you know. INTERVIEWER: That's great. Do you have any type of message that you'd like to send to you know the Sansei, Yonsei and Gosei generations about what you did and what other Nisei soldiers went through during the war. SAKAMOTO: Um ... Well I never thought about it but thinking about it, I would say that you know they they should know what we went through. I I've got to say I guess you might have seen this videotape behind barbed wire. You've seen that and I've shown this to my relatives and some of the some of the Sansei and Yonsei people was inquiring if I if they you know where they could get it. And I'm trying to see if they like to you know purchase one of those videotapes. So it shows that they're interested you know. INTERVIEWER: And did your did your wife know about what you went through during the war as well ... SAKAMOTO: Oh yeah, sure yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Well do you have any other thoughts or anything else that I might have missed that you want to let us know about about your experiences? SAKAMOTO: I really don't know what I could say anymore. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 27 of 30 �Okay. Well we just want to thank you for your time. Sure. Yeah---[24:20] Okay. Just kind of going back to Camp Beale when you returned back. Could you tell us any other information you know about the plane that crashed after your plane arrived? SAKAMOTO: Um, how do you mean? INTERVIEWER: Who was on board ... ? SAKAMOTO: I really don't know because these were not only the fellows from 442nd. It was a mixture of people. There was a lot of hakujin in that plane like like our plane was the same way. In fact we flew back from New Jersey and now we made about a couple of stops, once once in Texas and once in in in ah California, gee where was it now---what's that what's that resort---I can't remember the name of that---it's in a desert. What is that. INTERVIEWER: Palm Springs? Palm Springs? SAKAMOTO: Hah? INTERVIEWER: Palm Springs? SAKAMOTO: Palm Springs, yeah. That was our last two nights that we stopped and then we flew back to Beale during the time that there was a fellow that lived in Bakersfield. So the pilot said I would go right on top of your where you live. So we went right over the Bakersfield town and then landed in Beale. INTERVIEWER: And then how far after that did the crash occur. SAKAMOTO: It was after we landed and we were in the barracks and were listening to the radio and I imagine oh I guess several hours after the crash occurred. So ... INTERVIEWER: So you didn't actually see it, you just heard about it on on your radio was when you were in the barracks. SAKAMOTO: Yeah. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 28 of 30 �INTERVIEWER: Okay. And you attended the unveiling of the civil liberties monument in Japanese town this past weekend as well? SAKAMOTO: What's that? INTERVIEWER: Did you attend the ceremony, unveiling ceremony in Japanese town on Saturday. SAKAMOTO: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: How did that make you feel? SAKAMOTO: Oh great. It really made me feel great. INTERVIEWER: And when you first saw it. How did---did you just get a rush of emotion ... SAKAMOTO: Yeah. Well you know I I've seen the plumber area---they sent us a picture of it so I knew what they were going to look like already. It's not like I've seen it for the first time you know. But it was it was much much larger than I I visualized and or it was beautiful, yeah. INTERVIEWER: And do you feel that it's right, being a veteran who had come back. Did you feel it was right to have both the living and the ones who were killed in action on that monument? SAKAMOTO: What was that? INTERVIEWER: Well. You know how most monuments are considered war memorials. And this is an actual civil liberties monument. Did you feel that it was right to be---everyone should be included on that. SAKAMOTO: I think so. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay ... Other, other, actually, what was the band's duties ... This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 29 of 30 �SAKAMOTO: What's where, where I was or ... INTERVIEWER: Yeah. What was what was the job of the band members when during[INAUDIBLE]. SAKAMOTO: In a way of you know like the fellows in the front. Like I said there was at one time we almost went as a little barriers and I guess that that would have been something I would of like to experience. But at the time the casualty was so bad they just pulled back. So we never got to see any kind of action. The only action we saw I saw was while we were going from place to place they were bombing all over the place you know. So we could of got hit then or where while we were in the building because next one or you get up and you see a big hole in the side of the side of the building you know. So it came pretty close. You know we would that kind of as far as you know so we will get you know you could hear that you could hear that coming you know. And. So I suppose that was the closest thing for us far as we were concerned. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 30 of 30 � 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview, June 7, 1999 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview transcript [full interview], June 7, 1999 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sakamoto, John: narrator Tanaka, Stephanie: 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. 30 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 1999-06-07 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Las Vegas, Nevada 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 1999OH0052_T_Sakamoto https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/a544aaff06bc61c77dca475073cd9a4d.pdf 582c9830a441983d4c8120e699666e1b PDF Text Text Go For Broke National Education Center Oral History Project Oral History Interview with Richard Narasaki, September 12, 1998, Seattle, Washington INTERVIEWER: Okay, this is Stephanie Uchida; I'm conducting an interview with Richard "Dick" Narasaki. It is September 12th; we are in Seattle, Washington at the Residence Inn Hotel. Dick, would you please state your name and where you were born? NARASAKI: Excuse me? INTERVIEWER: Would you please state your name and tell me where you were born? NARASAKI: I'm Richard Narasaki. I was born in Santa Clara, California on January 13th 1926. INTERVIEWER: And can you describe to me what your life was like during that time in Santa Clara? NARASAKI: Just before the war I was living with my grandparents for health reasons and they had a farm in Santa Clara. I was going to high school and as the war started I was a senior in high school at that time. INTERVIEWER: Actually, I want to go back a little bit further; we were talking earlier about your parents. Would you please state their names? NARASAKI: My parents? My mother was Kikuo Hirakawa. That was her second marriage name and she was also a Nisei born in Santa Clara in 1906 and she was one of eight children in the Taniguchi family. And being the eldest girl, she was more or less pressured to marry at an early age to lighten the load on the family. So she married at age sixteen and within five years she had three children. I had an older sister and a younger sister. About five years---four or five years after that, my father contracted tuberculosis and he passed away and, unfortunately, he passed the disease on to the rest of the family. My youngest sister passed away next and then my elder sister passed away and I'm the remaining progeny. INTERVIEWER: And what age were you at the time that your family passed away? NARASAKI: All this happened at about the time I was five or six. INTERVIEWER: And what affect did that have on you as a child, losing your father and your two sisters? NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 1 of 29 �Excuse me? INTERVIEWER: What affect did that have on you as a child, losing your father and your two sisters? NARASAKI: Oh. Well, at that age I was really too young to know the enormity of it all other than, as a child would think that, "Gee, I wonder what ever happened to 'em . . And I was then put into a sanitarium for a couple of years so---and when I got out, I tried to be with my mother who was then working in Oakland, California. And I stayed with her for about a year and then they decided that, for my health, it would be better if I lived with my grandparents. So I stayed with them until the war broke out. INTERVIEWER: And what was life like with your grandparents? NARASAKI: Oh, pretty much carefree. I finished my elementary years there and I started high school. I went out for track and basketball in high school because in that area they had sports broken down so that everybody could play. And during my senior year, there was word that there was going to be a war. And when war finally did break out, I didn't notice any great change in our contact with the Caucasians, although there were some incidents but they were minor. And one thing about that time that strikes me the most was my uncle, who was the youngest son of my grandfather, had been married for about two or three years at that time and he was planning to break away from the family and start a farm of his own. Then my grandfather---he was pressuring me to take over my uncle's place because you had to have a citizen to get a lease on the farm and stuff like that. And he told me that he would do everything, I didn't have to do anything [other than] lend him my name. And it was quite a problem for me because I loved him, course, in a sense he had brought me up, but in a way the war took away the fact that I had to make a decision. INTERVIEWER: How did that make you feel? NARASAKI: About the war? INTERVIEWER: About the war, about the situation, were you angry? NARASAKI: Oh. Yeah, it turned out that---like I say I was a senior in that year and we had just gone through page by page, sentence by sentence, the Constitution of the United States. And when the war broke out I remember my uncle was saying, "There gonna put us away." And I kept saying, "They can't do that. According to the Constitution, they can't do that." And, as it turned out, they did that. Then I was quite angry to begin with and after I cooled off, I thought the situation through and like most Japanese say, well, "Shikata ga nai." Somethin' that happened we have no control over; let it go at that and try to make the best of the situation. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 2 of 29 �INTERVIEWER: What was your fondest memory in high school before you had heard anything about the war, prior to the war? NARASAKI: What? INTERVIEWER: What was your fondest high school memory prior to the war? NARASAKI: Prior to the war? Oh, I guess it's the living with my grandparents. My aunt, who was just only ten years older than I was, was more like my older sister and she had just gotten married; in fact, just before the war began, I guess, they had their first child. So---and it was strictly a---it was a good, basic family atmosphere. INTERVIEWER: Did you have thoughts of your mother during this time because you weren't with her? NARASAKI: Did . . .? INTERVIEWER: Did you have thoughts of your mother? NARASAKI: Oh. Oh, yes. But I never felt that that was deserter or anything like that. I was smart enough to know that they were really thinking of my best behalf; my health, health reasons because I was quite thin that most people that had tuberculosis were. And she would come down and visit me once in awhile and I would go up to Oakland and visit her once in awhile. In those days, 50 miles was quite a ways, I think. But, you know, we got along pretty well. INTERVIEWER: And can you tell me about the business that your grandparents and that your uncle were involved in? [Mr. Narasaki doesn't understand the question.] Can you tell me about the business that your family--your grandparents were involved in and your uncle were involved in? NARASAKI: Oh, that . . . Oh, they---they were all working on this one big farm, it was about 20 acres of all different kinds of berries. My uncle, he was the second boy; the first boy had moved to Turlock, California where he had a big farm and then my uncle stayed back to help my grandfather run the berry farm, and I would help whenever I could. INTERVIEWER: And you said that there were plans for you to take over your uncle's farm or to help with that. NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 3 of 29 �Yes, well, because of the land law at that time, my grandfather couldn't own property so he had his uncle---his son lease the property on which we did the farming. And since my uncle, being married for a couple of years, wanted to break away and have his own farm, become independent, so to speak---and my grandfather really didn't want to give up farming and he was in his about mid-sixties or something like that, and he told me that if I would stay with him and provide a legal signature for leases and stuff like that that he would take care of everything and just---he wanted me to stay with him so that he could continue farming. But like I say, since the war broke out I didn't have to make that decision because it would have been a real tough decision for me. I didn't really love farming that much. INTERVIEWER: What were your hopes? If farming wasn't necessarily something that you wanted to do, what were you hoping to do? NARASAKI: Well, at that age I don't think I had any real idea of what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be. One thing that stuck in my mind and one thing that my uncle kept telling me of the fact that, "Well, why go on to the university? You can't get a job anyhow. I have this friend who has a master's and he's farming. I have this other friend who had the best grades in school and he's farming, so why waste your time?" And that kinda stuck with me for a long, long time. It had affected my decision-making after I got out of the Army. I didn't go to school right away under the GI Bill because, like I say, those thoughts kept running through my mind: why get an education when you---if you're not gonna be able to do anything with it? INTERVIEWER: How did that make you feel? NARASAKI: I wasn't angry or anything like that. I says, well, that's the breaks of the game. INTERVIEWER: You accepted it as that was the . . . NARASAKI: That's the way things were. You made them---you tried to do the best you can with what you got. And if the opportunity isn't there, why waste your energy, you know, trying to get it? INTERVIEWER: What was your community like? What was the makeup of your community where you grew up? NARASAKI: Well, it was a---at that time it was a small town and I think there was only about 5,000 people, and our high school had maybe about 700 students. And I guess the Japanese were---the Nisei were probably, maybe about 10, 15 percent of the student body. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever feel discrimination? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 4 of 29 �NARASAKI: Overt discrimination? Well, at my age though, I don't think I was in a position that they would have any reason to discriminate. Like I wouldn't be going to any places where I wouldn't be allowed or stuff like that. INTERVIEWER: Did your grandparents or your aunts or uncles ever speak of discrimination that they had been exposed to? NARASAKI: No, not that I recall. I think almost all of us had the attitude that this is our place in life and this is what we're gonna do. Like my aunties we're all planning to marry the farmers from neighboring towns and stuff like that. INTERVIEWER: Now what did you consider yourself? Did you consider yourself an American, a Japanese/American, Japanese? NARASAKI: I always think of myself as Japanese/American. INTERVIEWER: And where were you when you heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor? NARASAKI: Oh. Well, this was on a Sunday so we were on the farm. We were just kinda laying around, taking life easy at that time, and when we heard about it we were all shocked. INTERVIEWER: How'd it make---how did it make you feel that people of your ethnic background were attacking your country? NARASAKI: Well, at that time, I thought they were pretty dumb to do such a thing. Although, as I grew older and read back into the things leading up to the war, I could understand why they attacked in the manner in which they did; and I don't agree with it, but I can understand why they did attack. But, like I say, at that time---well, look, I was only 16; I didn't know all that much about what was going on around the world. INTERVIEWER: What did your friends think at the time that they had heard about Pearl Harbor? NARASAKI: Well, next day was school, of course. So we always used to eat together, most of the guys in our class, and they kinda talked about it and there were some that kind of very pro-Japan and other was---others that was pro-American but we didn't argue about it. We just said, well, this is how we feel. We knew we were stuck in the middle and we didn't know how they were gonna play out. This was months before talk about evacuation started. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 5 of 29 �INTERVIEWER: How did that make you feel? NARASAKI: The talk about evacuation? I thought it was very wrong. I saw no legal right that the---they could do this to American citizens. I said, well, I could understand they could do it to Grandpa and Grandma because they were aliens. But we were American citizens. They couldn't do that, according to the Constitution. So I was quite upset about that, you know. INTERVIEWER: What was the atmosphere like within the school on that Monday that you returned? NARASAKI: Oh. Well, aside from the shock of knowing that we were at war against Japan, I---there was some cool receptions from people that we palled around with. But there were no real overt actions taken against us like people calling us names or stuff like that. It was, I would say, a pretty calm atmosphere. INTERVIEWER: And what is your next memory after that? NARASAKI: Oh, after that? Going into camp? Well, we were sent to Tanforan which was a racetrack in---close to San Francisco, the assembly center. And we stayed there a few months before we were shipped out to Topaz, which is about 250 miles south of Salt Lake City. And it was my first contact with indians, the native indians. And I was surprised to see how Asian they looked. In fact, I didn't realize they were indians until later. But the camp was pretty harsh the first winter because [there was] a lot of snow that most of us Californians were not familiar with. And although I was 16, I was already out of school. The high school I went to, fortunately, had very understanding teachers. I think all the Nisei that were going there, that were due to graduate, did get their diplomas; they didn't have to finish their school year. I understand some places that wasn't the case. But all of us got our diplomas. So when I was going to Topaz I was already a graduate, high school graduate. INTERVIEWER: Can you describe to me the last day that you're in school before you went to camp? NARASAKI: It really it wasn't one day much different from any other as far as the school atmosphere was concerned. In other words there was no assembly, no gathering of people saying goodbye or anything like that, it was "Hey, tomorrow we gotta go get on the bus and go." That's the way it was. INTERVIEWER: Did any of your non-Japanese friends say anything to you about going to camp? NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 6 of 29 �No. No. I think most of 'em were unaware of what was really happening. You know, in terms of like evacuation and stuff like that; that was kinda over their head. All they knew is we were going away, period. INTERVIEWER: And what were your family's reaction and your reaction to Executive Order 9066? NARASAKI: Before or after? INTERVIEWER: Before, when you first heard. NARASAKI: Well, I remember my uncle being the "man of the family," so to speak, he was very busy trying to get rid of property like automobiles and whatever else that we could get rid of because there was no place to store things like that. And I know that he had just bought a car about a year ago, a year before, and I knew approximately what he paid for it, and I think he got somethin' like ten cents on the dollar just to get rid of it because you couldn't keep it. But most of the family belongings---I think they stored it in a--the Seattle Buddhist church, but there wasn't that much left to store. We were leasing the property, the house really didn't belong to us, it belonged to the one who owned the property so that part we can't say we lost our home because it wasn't ours anyhow. INTERVIEWER: And can you walk me through your last day in your home before you're getting ready to leave for camp? NARASAKI: Well, the last day on the farm was really the day I had to leave to meet my mother in Oakland. I remember saying goodbye to my grandma and grandpa and my uncle and aunt took me to the bus station. Then we just "Well, we'll see you around." It was nothing really emotional about it because that's the way things were. INTERVIEWER: Did you question if you would see them again? NARASAKI: Did I . . .? INTERVIEWER: Did you question if you would see your grandparents and your auntie and uncle again? NARASAKI: Oh. No, for some reason I was---always had the feeling that someday we would be together again regardless of how the war turned out. And in my mind it was never a question that the U.S. would win. Never a doubt. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 7 of 29 �And how did you go to meet your mother? NARASAKI: Oh, she just met me at the bus and I just became part of her little family there, which was she and her second husband. And I guess her second husband did all he could to try to make me feel at home before we moved out. INTERVIEWER: Like what kind of things did he do to make you feel at home? NARASAKI: Well, he would try to play card games with me and stuff like that. He was the kind of a leader in the kind of a Japanese community thing, and he had some ties with the old country where he would take care of their bigwigs when they came over, stuff like that. So he, [I] mean, he was a Hawaiian Nisei and, being older, he was kind of very conservative and having a teenager stuck in his midst was, I guess, pretty hard for him too. INTERVIEWER: Did your mother and stepfather have any more children? NARASAKI: No, they did not. INTERVIEWER: And---actually I think . . . CREW: Might be a good time to change . . . INTERVIEWER: Yeah. BEGINNING OF TAPE TWO INTERVIEWER: Okay. Dick, I'd like to go back now and if you could describe to me your journey to the assembly center. NARASAKI: Excuse me? INTERVIEWER: I'd like you to tell me about your journey to the assembly center. NARASAKI: Oh. Well, the assembly center, like I say, was just a few miles south of San Francisco and since we live in Oakland, it was just a short bus ride to the center. And we got there, we were issued numbers, family numbers, and we were told where our living quarters were, which in our case was a whitewashed horse This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 8 of 29 �stall. And then we were given mattress covers in which to stuff hay and straw into for our mattresses; given a couple of Army blankets and that was it. INTERVIEWER: What were your thoughts when you first saw your accommodations? NARASAKI: Well, I guess we were probably, shall we say, unhappy about the whole situation, but like it was something that we had to live with. INTERVIEWER: What were some of the comments that you heard? NARASAKI: Well, I guess most of what I heard was basically, "I wonder what they're going to feed us?" and "Where's the benjo?" And we---like younger folks, we'd all get out to the racetrack and just walk around just killing time. In about a few weeks later, I guess they tried to set up some classes for the younger people so they would have something to do. They set up some recreation halls so the kids could play ping pong or cards or whatever. They would have classes in how to drum, you know. And they kinda kept us busy that way. INTERVIEWER: Did you have any other family members with you or any friends? NARASAKI: At that time, since I was more or less new to Oakland where my mother lived, I guess I didn't have any friends other than the people I met in camp. But I was somewhat at an age where I was out of school and most of my contemporaries were still in school so there was a little schism there. INTERVIEWER: And how long were you at the assembly center? NARASAKI: I don't exactly remember how many months there was. Probably about five or six months there. I think we moved to Topaz in late fall, if I remember correctly. INTERVIEWER: And can you describe to me a typical day at the center for you as well as for your parents? NARASAKI: Well, I basically left my parents alone and one of the first things I did in the assembly center was see what was open in the matter of jobs. So I gotta a job washing dishes at the mess hall there. And in my free time I would just start trying to blend in with some other---some of the local Oakland people. INTERVIEWER: And what did your parents do during the day? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 9 of 29 �NARASAKI: Frankly, I don't know. I think they probably did a lot of reading and stuff like that. I don't think they did an awful lot of socializing, at least I didn't see them. INTERVIEWER: And do you remember what your day was like once you started your job? NARASAKI: When I started the job? Well, I had to get up early, of course, for the breakfast, and then I'd have a couple hours off and go back to work for lunch and then again at suppertime. In between I would go over to my newfound friend's place and either listen to music or just BS. INTERVIEWER: And what kind of things did you take with you to the assembly center? NARASAKI: What kind of what? INTERVIEWER: What kind of possessions did you take with you from your home to the assembly center? NARASAKI: I don't think, aside from my clothing, I don't think I brought anything of personal stuff with me. I really don't think so. INTERVIEWER: And were there activities that were planned for people of your age? NARASAKI: For the high school age, yeah. They used to, I think, have touch football; they had softball; they had track, you know; and, like I say, they had lessons how to drum or things like that. But most of the time we would just sit around the rec hall listening to Big Bands music. In fact, that was my first contact with Big Band music; we didn't hear too much of it on the farm. INTERVIEWER: What did you listen to on the farm? NARASAKI: Records, mainly. She would---she used to have some Japanese records although I really didn't like them too much. But there were things like the "Beer Barrel Polka" and stuff like that there. I used to listen to the radio "Fibber McGee and Molly" and, you know, some of those old series there. That used to keep up my time aside from my studies. INTERVIEWER: And after the initial questions of "what are they going to feed us" were answered, what other questions arose? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 10 of 29 �NARASAKI: Well, there was always rumors going around like they were making plans to put us on the boat back to Japan and things of that nature. But aside from some guys saying that they gotta put us on the boat and sink us, sink the boat and, you know, things like that. And it was, you know, you could tell from just listening to that they were just somebody's wild thinking. I don't think anybody with a brain would have believed that. But we really didn't know that they were setting up these relocation camps. We---at least I didn't know, I had no idea that that was what was being planned. I thought Tanforan was gonna be our home for awhile. INTERVIEWER: And did you ever question when you might be released? NARASAKI: When I might be released? INTERVIEWER: From the assembly center. NARASAKI: Oh. I just assumed that sooner or later that when the war start going well for the country that they would release us. I think---I probably thought that maybe the majority would finally understand that they had no reason to put us in there in the first place. INTERVIEWER: After feeling this injustice of---you learned about this can't be done with the Constitution, it says it can't be done; what are your thoughts now that your---this has happened to you? What are your thoughts that---about your future? NARASAKI: Frankly, I didn't get much time to thinking about my future. This was before the thought of opening up the Army. But before that time I just thought, well, the war's gonna run its course; the U.S. will win; they'll let us out, and we're gonna have to just resume our living. INTERVIEWER: Will you now take me to the day that you found out that you would be moved to a relocation camp? NARASAKI: Excuse me? INTERVIEWER: Will you now take me to the day when you found out you'd be moved to a relocation camp? NARASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Will you explain that to me? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 11 of 29 �NARASAKI: What? INTERVIEWER: The day you found out about being moved to the relocation camp. NARASAKI: Oh. Well, all I know is that in the assembly center we kids would get together, and the rumor was going around that they were gonna move us and the question was where. None of us had any idea of where or when we were going. INTERVIEWER: How did that make you feel about knowing where you would go? NARASAKI: Well, at my age I really didn't care. INTERVIEWER: What were your parents' thoughts? NARASAKI: Frankly, I didn't ask them. INTERVIEWER: So now it has been decided that you're going to be moved to Topaz, can you tell me about your journey to Topaz? NARASAKI: Well, it was in these old style trains were really quite uncomfortable. They were dirty because all the smoke would get in and they would just kind of just having to put up with the uncomfortable situation. We didn't have berths or anything like that; all we had were those seats. Only thing we had was walking up and down the aisle for exercise and that was it. INTERVIEWER: How long was that train ride? NARASAKI: I think it took us, I think two days. It was about two days, I guess. But it was quite an eye-opener for me because first time I been away from the coast and saw the Sierras, going through the Sierras, and then on into the leatherlike portions of Utah. INTERVIEWER: And what is your first recollection of when the train pulled into your final destination? NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 12 of 29 �That final location? It was just youthful curiosity. Like I say, I looked out the window there and I saw this indian standing there and I go, "Gee, he looks Oriental." And then I thought, well, they must have got here before us or something like that. So that was it. Then we got put onto trucks and driven in to the camp. The camp was probably about ten miles away from the rail station. So we had to wait our turns for the trucks or the bus to take us there. The camp had just barely been completed, there were tarpaper barracks and stuff like that. INTERVIEWER: What is the first thing you remember seeing as your truck pulls into the camp? NARASAKI: Just rows and rows and rows of barracks and ours happened to be on the perimeter. I could look out and see the barbed wire, see the sentry towers and that was about it. It was dirty and dusty and I think there was four of us in that one apartment: my parents and a friend of my father's and myself. INTERVIEWER: And how much living space did you have for four people? NARASAKI: Well, let's see. I would say it was probably about 20x30 or something like that. I really couldn't say for sure but it was nothing more---well, maybe I would say about the size of this room here, up to the wall and around. We had a big iron cast stove in the corner for heat, then cots for our beds. Then we strung up wire and blankets so that everybody had some kind of privacy. INTERVIEWER: I'd like to now move into the military segment of the interview. Can you tell me how you're introduced into the military? NARASAKI: How the what? INTERVIEWER: How you were introduced into the military. NARASAKI: How was . . . Oh. I was out in Salt Lake City at the time. I was working at the University of Utah when the announcement came out that the government would start drafting Japanese/Americans. It turned out that was just a couple of weeks before my 18th birthday. So up until that time my draft card said 4C, I was an enemy alien. So when I heard that over the radio that that's what they were gonna do, I made plans to go back to Topaz and stay with my mother until I got drafted, which I eventually did. INTERVIEWER: Was there an opportunity for you to volunteer before you were drafted? NARASAKI: There was. In fact, before the announcement came out, they did send people around to the various camps trying to get 'em to volunteer. And at that time also the infamous questionnaire came around, This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 13 of 29 �and my mother asked me what I was gonna do. And I told her, "Well, I'm gonna put down yes, yes." That as far as I was concerned it was something I had to do. She said, "No, you didn't have to do that. Look where they put us. Why should you do that?" I says, "Well, look at it this way, when I was really small and I got real sick, the county of Santa Clara put me up in a sanitarium; they made sure I got well. Whereas, if we were back in Japan, I don't think they woulda talked once about letting me go because I was just a peon. So, if for no other reason than that, I think I owe 'em somethin', regardless of what they're doin' right now. So aside---after that she never spoke about that again. But it was interesting thing, like I say, I had a lot of high school age people even though I was already out and one of my best friends lived not too far away, couple blocks away. Anyway, we used to spend a lot of time together and when this questionnaire came out and all the wrangling, pro and con, he asked me what I was gonna do and I told him. And I know he really wanted to do what I was doing but his father was really pro-Japan and when he heard me talking to his son about what I thought was right, his father forbade me to visit him again. And eventually he did become a "no-no" boy and although I think after the war was over, I think he volunteered for the Army but that was just one case. Another case I know that a bunch of us that used to hang around that, one boy, his family---he was adamant that he was gonna volunteer if he could, and his father kicked him out of the house, so to speak, whatever house they had. So he had to move in to some other friend's place but then among the gang that we were more or less comprised of, we used to run around and play sports and stuff like that, there were others who were very, very no-no. And they used to come and chase him down and hit him and everything else. It was something I saw that I just---made me sick to think that this would be going on. The boy not only had to be kicked out of his home but even gettin' beat up by his own friends, which I thought was just terrible. INTERVIEWER: So, what . . . [crew interruption]. So now you receive your draft notice, walk me through what you do next. NARASAKI: Well, you get the draft notice and you had to take a train to Salt Lake City, Fort Douglas. And the first day through they go through all the checking this and checking that, taking x-rays. And usually after the first day they can say you're in or you're out. In my case, because I had TB as a youngster, I had a lesion on my lung. So they kept me overnight and then the next day the Army doctor told me he says, "Hey, if you don't want to go, you don't have to go. I'll make you 4F." I said, "No." "If that's the only thing that's wrong with me, I'll go." And so I wound up 1A; went back to Topaz and waited for my orders. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever give it much thought that because of your illness you could stay back and not have to face the war? NARASAKI: Because of my . . . INTERVIEWER: Because of the TB. NARASAKI: Oh, yeah. But to me it was never something to be debated. I knew what I wanted to do. Given a chance to do it, I went. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 14 of 29 �INTERVIEWER: So once you got your orders, where did you do your training? NARASAKI: I did my training in Camp Blanding, Florida. INTERVIEWER: And what did your training consist of? NARASAKI: Let's see. About 16 weeks of everything from calisthenics to long marches; and lot of firing and learning to crawl under machine gun fire. I never felt in any danger but it was a lot of work and it was really hot, well, hot and humid. In fact, I think couple times a lot of people just passed out because it was so hot. And then we ended the training with a 16-mile march with a full field pack, and you figure most of us Nisei weren't all that big, some of 'em were but . . . I was probably an average although some were heavier and then that carrying a full field pack for 16 miles, that was a lotta work. Then we did some more training out there: house-to-house fighting and stuff like that. Then on the way back, we got to carry a light pack but we had to march 25 miles within somethin' like 8 hours, and that was a long, long way. INTERVIEWER: Was your TB ever a hindrance to your training? NARASAKI: No. No. I was probably not as strong as I could be but as it turned out I did everything that I had to do. INTERVIEWER: And did you have any friends that accompanied you to the camp where you did your training? NARASAKI: No, not from my camp. I think when I left I was about the only one. You know the---in those days, there was always talk about how to get around being drafted, like drinking shoyu was supposedly the favorite trick to get your blood pressure up so they'll, you know, give you a 4F and stuff like that. One thing I know that the month before I went up, I think there were eight guys that went for their physical and seven came back 4F for whatever reason. Then when I went, I think there was only two or three of us that went and I think all of us got through. INTERVIEWER: And once you completed your training, what happened next? NARASAKI: After that, after a short leave back home, back to the camp that is, we went to port of embarkation in New Jersey, I think Camp Shanks, it's long since disappeared; and we shipped out from there. INTERVIEWER: I think we're going to go ahead and change tape. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 15 of 29 �BEGINNING OF TAPE THREE INTERVIEWER: [Addressing crew.] Okay? [Addressing Mr. Narasaki.] Dick, can you tell me a little bit of---about the make up of the men that were at your training camp? NARASAKI: Oh, oh yeah. Well, Camp Blanding was a training camp that was taking the Nisei who were going to be replacements for the 4-4-2 and the 100th. And they were practically all mainland people: people from the Northwest and California and some other states, but mostly Northwest and California. That's where I met quite a few Seattle people there, which eventually led to my decision to settle up here. INTERVIEWER: And after your training was done, what was your next mission? NARASAKI: Oh, after training? Well, we were sent to the port of embarkation to be shipped across the ocean. But remember, at this time, the reputation of the 100th and the 4-4-2 was well established so there was no question that when we were going there, going across, we knew darn well that that's where we're gonna wind up. And we wound up in La Havre, which is a port in the northern part of France, hopped on to some---the famous "forty and eight" boxcars that was made famous during World War I what used to ship troops. I think forty-eight men---forty cattle and eight men or somethin' like that but we did get on those; went all the way from Northern France down to Southern France, Marseilles. I thought, well, we're gonna go join up with the 4-4-2 there. Well, I was quite surprised that we were put onto another ship, landing ship, and during our trip down to Italy, I found that the 4-4-2 had been sent from Southern France to Italy to attack the Gothic Line. So after we got to Italy, we went to what they call a replacement depot and from there all of us Nisei were sent to the 4-4-2. Then when I got there they were---had already started. In fact, they had already broken the Gothic Line and start to---on there way east across Italy. One of my first jobs when I got sent up was to be a litter bearer, that is, to go up to the lines and carry the wounded and the dead back down where they could be taken care of. It turned out, the first litter job I had was that of a Seattle boy who had been killed in action, and I see his face in our clubhouse room; it's quite a coincidence. But, after that then they---I remember that the company was moving forward and across and we were kinda tagging along after them---this was before I was assigned to a specific company. And I remember late one night coming across a small town and we were all bushed and then we decided, well, at least we would sleep under a roof tonight. We got up on the second floor and just fell dead for awhile until we heard artillery. Gee, sound like they're gettin' closer. And one thing you learn in training camp is the way the artillery fires; they either have what they call stepping fire or cross fire. This was stepping fire; one would land, another one a little further ahead, so forth and so on, and these shells were coming closer and closer. Goddamn this is stepping fire; the next one'll come through this window. We were so tired [and] said "Ah, the heck with it. If it comes in the window, it comes in the window," and we stayed the night and luckily we---they stopped before they got to the house. But then the next day I joined the company, F Company, Second Battalion, and immediately we were told to get your ammo together, we're gonna go on a task force. Well, at that time I weighed, probably, 110 pounds at the most. And here I had a bandolier full of rifle clips, I had a couple of others belts of ammo, a couple of grenades; I think the whole thing must have weighed about eighty pounds. And I said, "Oh boy, how am I gonna possibly make it through this but, you know it'd be This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 16 of 29 �surprising---I think that night we were supposed to take the Germans from the back and set up a roadblock. And so we marched from, I don't know, must have been about 5 o'clock in the afternoon to about 2 o'clock that night. And boy, it was---I was surprised that I had the strength to keep goin' but everybody else was goin' so you keep goin'. And as we got close to the roadblock, the people---squads who were ahead of us had already engaged the enemy and there was firing all around: machine guns going here and there. And we set up a line and told---were told to dig in. And while we were diggin', it turned out a couple of Germans, who were probably lost or thought that we were part of their troops, came walking up and they said something to our squad leader in German. The squad leader turned around and shot 'em right there; they tumbled down the hill. And that night, I guess one German was--one German had already passed on, the other one was gasping for breath and as he kept moaning, he kept moaning for his mother. And I was kinda taken aback because while we were comin' up, there were already wounded that were in the gully, our own troops; one of the men was hit pretty bad and he was crying for his mama. So it was kinda coincidence there, and that probably struck in my mind forever, the fact that here's an American crying for his mother and there's a German crying over his mother. I guess it really kinda brought to me the fact how strong a role the women play in our lives; but it was a quite an experience. And next morning the fighting started again and turned out we were busy shootin' at whatever we could shoot at. Then I heard a cry call "medic" a couple of foxholes down the line. Our BAR man had gotten hit and I understand that he didn't make it. And late that afternoon, I guess our job was done, the Germans had left, they decided not to fight anymore, they had left so we started our long march back. And we got back to where we started from, kinda sprawled out, and we were not even thinkin' about the fact that all around us were stacks of land mines that the Germans had left: shoebox mines and regular claymore mines. We just sat there drinking our water or whatever and all of a sudden, the German artillery opened up. They had what they call "88s" which were originally anti-aircraft guns but they used them for field artillery and they---usually you have enough time to hear it whistling overhead before it lands. But these 88s, all you hear was a "phttt" and it was there. Then we just hugged the dirt, and soon as it let up, we ran like hell over the hill so we got on the other side. Then, well, that was just part of some of the experiences. There was one time when one of my squad mates---we were dug in and he was sleeping, in fact, all of us were sleeping, and a German patrol came up. And he woke up just in time, then he and this German guy were wrestling for his gun. Luckily, he won out. But, they retreated. Well, that was basically---once you establish a line, you send out patrols to see where they're at and things like that, what the lay of the land is. And we did that and they did that. If you're unlucky enough you get caught; if you're lucky enough you don't get caught, that's the way things were. INTERVIEWER: Can you explain to me the importance---the strategic importance of the Gothic Line? NARASAKI: Yeah. Well, the Gothic Line was a line across Northern Italy. It started on the Apennine Mountains on the West Coast, went all across Italy to the Adriatic Sea, I think and, well, wasn't quite that far it was only the mountainous portion. And that Line had held the allies back for many months; they couldn't breach it. Well, I think part of it was because of the troops they had there. But they sent the 4-4-2 back to see what they could do, and within three days they had breached it and were drivin' the Germans back. So, I think a lot had to do with the quality of troops. You know they---you read every now and then that people say that the 4-4-2 was used as a cannon fodder and, I don't know, I kinda believe what the officer's said that we were not being used as cannon fodder, we were being used because they were the best troops. And that was it, we were. And at that time and place, nothing could hold us back. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 17 of 29 �INTERVIEWER: How did it make you feel to be part of such a wonderful group of men? NARASAKI: Well, for the longest time I didn't think too much about it until just recently, that you can see just what affect that the exploits of those men, and the men of the MIS, had to do with a lot of the country's policies. I don't think that there would have been redress without the 4-4-2, regardless of what anybody says. And I don't think it was patriotic to refuse to fight, that's if you were able to. Everybody was in the same position. Some people lost more property than other people, but that was not enough reason to turn your back. If you intend to live in this country, if you intend to marry and have your children live in this country, you gotta do somethin' for it. That's given the chance. INTERVIEWER: What is your most difficult experience from the war that you remember? NARASAKI: During the war? Well, I guess, really the most difficult part was that part I told you about: hearing one of my buddies crying out in pain for his mother and then within a few hours later hearing the enemy doing the same thing. That really struck in my mind. And you know over there, we didn't think of the Germans as a, you know, somebody you gotta hate and you gotta kill no matter what. I think most of us felt that they were just like us. They were put in a position where they had to kill or be killed, which is a very sad part of war. Most people don't deserve to be put in that position. INTERVIEWER: What effects did seeing that have on you as far as continuing to fight against these men? NARASAKI: Oh. No, that doesn't take away anything of my desire to fight against them. Like I say, it's nice to feel sorry for 'em but better them dead than you. INTERVIEWER: What else do you remember about your time in Italy? NARASAKI: About the rest of my time? Oh. After the war was over, you mean? INTERVIEWER: About the remainder of time . . . NARASAKI: Of the, oh . . . INTERVIEWER: . . . wartime in Italy. NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 18 of 29 �Oh. Well, the remainder of the wartime was---after we had broken the line, at the same time the Fifth Army had broken into the Po Valley. Then it was just a matter of rolling the enemy back toward Germany, although Switzerland, too, was in the way. And it was just a matter of chasing them back and then finally---until they decided to surrender. And they came down out of the hills and we set up POW camps for them and our regiment was guarding a large portion of those who came---who surrendered. And that's when I really finally got to know my Hawaiian buddies because we would spend many a night by the campfire making rice in our helmets. And this was---I had learned a lot of Hawaiian songs, I learned how to speak pidgin English. By the way, it's a easy language to pick up but it's terrible to get rid of. I found myself speaking pidgin to my mother when I got back. You know, that was the very first Hawaiian I met was just before we went overseas. They had gathered the Niseis who were trained in Camp Blanding, the ones who were trained at Shelby and Camp Hood, and that's the first time I met one of them. He said something to me and I says, "What?" He says something again and I said---I thought my hearing's bad---I says, finally I says, "Sorry, I can't understand you," and he got very angry. I don't blame him but then, really, pidgin English is not that easy to understand when they speak it purely. The one you hear nowadays is kinda softened out where you could make out the noun and verb and stuff like that, but before, man, I'm telling you, the true pidgin English is very---it's a foreign language. But then, like I say, after the main part of fighting was over is when I first got to really know the Hawaiians and I've very many friends. I've gone back to all the reunions that I---every time I go there they take--there's nothing too good for us. When they come here, same thing. They're wonderful people. I mean they, like I say, the Hawaiians are more Japanese-y than the Nisei were. They clung to more the old country customs and they also had more of the barroom training, so to speak, in that they were willing to put up their dukes whenever they felt offended, whereas, the mainlander would probably turn away from, you know. And they couldn't understand the way---why mainlanders were so quiet and withdrawn. And I---it was just a different culture. But now, I think everybody understand each other and get along fine. INTERVIEWER: While you were in the field fighting, did you hear news of the advances that the other troops had made or progress that the other troops had made? NARASAKI: Excuse? INTERVIEWER: While you were fighting . . . NARASAKI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: . . . did you hear any news of any advances that other troops had made? Any progress they had made? NARASAKI: Oh. Oh yes. We were generally kept in touch by the Army newspaper. We knew that soon after we had broken the Gothic Line that the main assault, which was in Central Italy, the Po Valley, they had broken through. So after we heard that, we knew it was just a matter of time when we would drive 'em out of Italy. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 19 of 29 �INTERVIEWER: At that point did you feel that the war was close to reaching an end? NARASAKI: Yes. I felt pretty sure it was just a matter of time because, like I say, after we---we must have driven for a couple of days---we settled in Lecco, which is the northern part of Italy. Then just set up camp for the--take the prisoners that were comin' in. INTERVIEWER: How did it make you feel to know that the end of the war was close? NARASAKI: Oh, I felt pretty good. But I think most everybody was relieved. We knew that the war was still going on in Japan. But, in fact, during the time that we were taking the Germans in, a call came around for volunteers for the MIS. Fortunately, I couldn't speak Japanese so I had to decline. But we knew that war was going on. We never forgot that. And I think---it's probably a different subject but I think that most GIs that were actually exposed to the battlefront, I think most of 'em felt that "Gee, I wish the hell they come up with some kind of weapon that would stop the war right now." Then lo and behold, that's what happened. Regardless of what the feeling is nowadays about the bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think most GIs would feel that it stopped the war. And that was the main purpose is people die: innocent people, a lot of innocent people. You think about a place like Dresden; the firing bombing of Dresden killed as many people as the atomic bomb did in Hiroshima. And, in fact, their death was probably even worse 'cause theirs was prolonged by fire and lack of oxygen, where this one is "boom", they're dead. Which one is better, I don't know. But, anyhow, the point I'm making is that at least I myself and I know a lot of others who wished for some kind of weapon like that that would stop the war in its tracks. INTERVIEWER: Did you often think of the innocent victims? NARASAKI: There's always innocent victims. There were probably, well, there were just as many innocent victims on the---well, in fact, I think there were more on the Axis side than there were on the Allies side, mainly because we were on the offensive most of the time. But what are you gonna do? You want to win the war? I hate to think of my family being obliterated, but so whether they be obliterated by a bomb or with gas or what, they're obliterated. There's something you can't do anything about. I feel for the people in Hiroshima no matter what. But at the same time we had to end the war. You can't just say this army is going to fight against the other army, the only one that's gonna get killed are the soldiers. It doesn't work that way. The next war, if there is one, oh, man, talk about innocent victims, everybody's gonna be an innocent victim. So we just hope there's no other war. INTERVIEWER: While you were in Italy, did you write to anybody back home? NARASAKI: Oh yeah. I wrote to my mother and some girls I knew, yeah. But that was about it. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 20 of 29 �INTERVIEWER: And what did you tell them? NARASAKI: Oh, I never told 'em anything about wartime. I just---it was just was mostly after the war was over. During the war I would just say, well, I'm lonely, tired, hungry, that's about it. INTERVIEWER: Okay. BEGINNING OF TAPE FOUR CREW: Okay. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Dick, could you tell me a little bit about the first time you actually handled your gun in combat? NARASAKI: First time I handled the dead? INTERVIEWER: Your rifle in combat. NARASAKI: Oh. Well, this was on that task force where we went behind the enemy lines to set up a roadblock and, like I say, the leading elements of our company had already engaged the enemy so they knew we were there and they're firing like crazy. My sergeant told me, "Hey, let's get up there, see what's going on." So, we were in a ravine so we climbed up the side of the ravine, just he and I, and he lead the way and we crawled up and we saw these three machine gun nests firing at where they thought the rest of the company was coming up. And the sergeant tried to get close to them, then as they got close, the machine gun---that nest that thought they spotted something suddenly swung the line of fire. And I was surprised more than scared to see the tracers move from over there to directly over my head. You know, the way the machine gun nests are set up, they generally have a bar across where the machine gun will travel---travel back and forth to cover a field. And luckily we were close enough that they were firing over our heads. Anyhow the---after I fired some rounds at another machine gun nest all of a sudden that line of tracers came suddenly floating over my head. So the sergeant says, "Oh, hell, we can't do anything, let's get outta here." So we both crawled back to the ravine and jumped back in then joined the rest of the squad, and then they told us, "Well, let's go up to the place up there where it's level and see what we could see." So we went up there in the line and we were all spread out maybe about five, ten yards apart in the line. Then we could see the machine gun nests on the far side of the hill shootin' up---shootin' away. So we all got down and start emptying our rifle clips at where we thought the machine gun nest was. You know, the tracers---generally, you could see the tracers of bullets go by and you would think, well, right over there is the beginning of the tracers, therefore, you should shoot there. So I was firing away at that spot there and my squad mate turned to me, he was more experienced, he said, "No, no, no. Shoot further back." It turns out the tracers don't light up until This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 21 of 29 �they're about twenty yards beyond the gun. So we aimed our fire at---about a spot twenty yards back, and sure enough it caught their attention because the tracers come swinging over again, right over our heads. And finally we quit firing and then we decided we'd stay there the night; we dug in. And then, next morning, the firefight started again and the lieutenant sent the word down to one of our squads, "Take your men down there, knock out that machine gun." And the squad sergeant, very experienced, says, "What do you think we got mortars for? Drop mortars on 'em." And he was smart, so that's what we did, dropped mortars on 'em. They stopped firing and evidentally, soon after, they decided to leave. And there suddenly was no firing whatsoever. We went down, took a look around; they had already gone so we headed back. And on the way back, every now and then, you hear a "thunk" and wonder what the heck that was. Ah, it's a sniper over there, he can't hit anything worth a darn. And I think like most guys they get to a point where they're tired and they see somethin' like that, unlike new guys like me, you hear somethin' like that you dive for the ground. But they just come walking nonchalantly along. So I says, "Ah well, I guess that's the way they do things." But we made our way back safely. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever hit or shoot the enemy? NARASAKI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever kill anyone? NARASAKI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me about your first experience with that? NARASAKI: Well, we were told to take this one position, and our squad was assigned to it. So we kinda kept leapfrogging along until they started firing, so we knew where they were at. Then I saw this one guy get up. It just so happened that I happened to be aiming that way so I shot off a clip and he went down. Then after we overran the position, I walked by; he was lying face down. I didn't want to turn him over. But that's somethin' you had to do. INTERVIEWER: What kind of affect did it have on you? NARASAKI: It was a job you had to do. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me a little bit about the conditions that you were exposed to during combat? NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 22 of 29 �Oh, sometimes it was cold, especially up in the mountains, be real cold. Get up outta your foxholes and look around you. Most of them were bearded. I was being---I was just a young kid, I was only 18 years old. And what the oldtimers were---beards growing down their face and they got their snot kinda frozen on to their beards and they---it was kinda miserable. I think that was, at that time, I swore I would never ever go camping again under any circumstances. It was not a pleasant thing. You live in your clothes for about a week before you get relieved. Every part of you smells but everybody smells so, so what, you know, you didn't think about it. But, it was kind of primitive living. Then when you had more experience, you carried less ammunition. Like I said, first time I went over I had a belt full of clips: I had a bandolier of clips here [indicating left shoulder] and bandolier of clips here [indicating right shoulder]; grenade hooked on here [left shoulder], a grenade hooked on there [right shoulder] and a couple of rifle grenades. Man, I look back on this; how could I possibly have carried all that weight? I wasn't much over a hundred pounds then. But you be surprised what the body can do when it has to. But then, I learned; I no longer carried those bandoliers. I still carried the grenades, but then my belt was only probably half full of clips so it was quite a bit lighter. INTERVIEWER: What was the longest amount of time that you ever went without bathing or eating? NARASAKI: Oh, it was no more than two days, I think. Well, we always had our C-rations, you know. Dried food, mainly. I think, well, during the---late at night when everything settled down and as long as you didn't have to go out on patrol, all you had to do was stand guard or something like that, then you'd eat something. One thing that, as an example what it was like, no matter what, as long as you go, you do have to relieve yourself once in awhile. I remember my squad mate---no matter what, you don't want to do anything in your foxhole---so he says, "Ah, dear, godammit, I just gotta go. I can't help it, I just gotta go." "Go ahead, there's a tree over there---bush." Well, so happened it was on a hill, so there he was hanging with one hand on the bush and relieving himself. And I look back on that and I kid him every time I see him; he was a Hawaiian fella. But that's how primitive things were. Then there were humorous points where we'd not have eggs for a long time; not real eggs, we'd have powdered eggs for breakfast. Come up on a farm and just so happened the farmer has a chicken or two runnin' around. One of the guys would go up to the farmer; he couldn't speak Italian, the farmer couldn't speak English, so the guy would pantomime a chicken laying an egg so he could get the point across. And that was, you know, kinda funny. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever trade anything for food? NARASAKI: Oh yeah. We used to trade our C-rations for, well, some veggies or, like I say, if you're lucky enough to find somebody with lots of chickens or something like that, we'd give 'em what they---cigarettes, anything that comes out of your K-rations, which is, deviled ham, cheese, biscuits, and stuff like that. INTERVIEWER: Besides this experience with the farmer and the chicken and the egg, did you have other encounters with the civilians? NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 23 of 29 �Oh yeah. We used to run into 'em occasionally. There's one time when I first went---took the job as a litter bearer, I remember that we had---they had set up stations, you know, maybe about two, three miles apart, all the way from the top of the hill down to the bottom, and we had taken the wounded down to the next station and then we were resting at that station; looked like there weren't anymore wounded coming down so we decided to sack out, and in the middle of the night, all of a sudden I heard voices yelling and I woke up suddenly and here---turns out a band of, well, we call 'em "partigianos," they were partisans. They were the Italians who were against the Axis. They had bumped into us and wondering, you know, what we were doing there. We, "Look, Red Cross, Red Cross. We're working for the medics," and they understood and then they left us alone. But it could have just as easily been a German patrol, you can never tell. INTERVIEWER: And did you have any experience with any civilian women as friends? NARASAKI: Yeah. Well, this was after the war, not during the war. I didn't---I used to see some here and there but, you know, they're always probably in a village that had just been run over or somethin' like that and they were in hiding, most of 'em. But during the war, I don't think I had any personal experience with a Italian woman. INTERVIEWER: As a litter bearer . . . NARASAKI: Hmm? INTERVIEWER: Litter bearer? NARASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Is that the terminology? As a litter bearer, did you ever have someone die in your arms? NARASAKI: No. They were either badly wounded or like that one incident the guy had already died. INTERVIEWER: What was your first thought when you encountered your first dead body and it was of some from your side? NARASAKI: Well, I guess just there for the grace of God go I. Well, that's a given. You're lucky if you don't get hit, and I was lucky. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 24 of 29 �What were your feelings when you had heard that the war had ended? NARASAKI: Oh, I was quite happy. Like I say, Japan had---didn't surrender until almost, what, five months, six months later. And at that time we were back in Livorno where we had set up a prisoner of war camps for the Germans, and that's where we got the news through the Stars and Stripes that Japan had surrendered. And everybody was happy but, you know, I'm glad it's over---get back. Main thing was when are we gonna get discharged. When am I gonna get sent home. That was the first thing in everybody's mind. INTERVIEWER: What happened next? NARASAKI: Well, the regiment got sent home as a unit where they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue for Harry Truman; they got their last Distinguished Unit award. But guys like me who was a replacement, we had to stay over there for a couple more months to get enough points to come home. So when I finally got that stage where I got sent home, well, got on this---they put me on the train, stopped off in Salt Lake City, went to see where I worked, which was the University of Utah, then I finally wound up in Fairfield, California where I got discharged. That---before that time, I remember after the war where I had a pass to Rome, and through the Red Cross I was able to talk to my mother who had resettled in---was working in San Francisco; I talked to her over the phone. That was a good point. INTERVIEWER: What did you talk to her about? NARASAKI: Oh, what do you say to your mom? "Hi, mom. How's everything," you know, "I hope you're well," that kinda thing. She says, "When you gonna come home?" I says, "I don't know." You know, typical mother-son stuff. INTERVIEWER: And so when you were back in Fairfield, what did you do? What was the first thing that you did? NARASAKI: Well, that's where we got discharged. So I headed straight home and just got home and say, "Hey, mom, I'm home." "Oh, that's good. Here's your room." So I went to the room, took off the uniform, swore never to wear it again, and put on my civilian clothes. [Inaudible question from crew member.] Just something that happened, you know. I guess, there's no big deal as far as I was concerned. INTERVIEWER: Did you mother ask you about your experience? NARASAKI: No. In fact, I never do---did tell my kids much about it. I figure, well, they---they're doing good stuff, they don't need that. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 25 of 29 �INTERVIEWER: And how long did you stay with your mother after your discharge? NARASAKI: Well, like I say, I was only 20 when I got discharged, and so I bummed around. They had the GI Bill but I didn't know what to do. Like I say, the words of my uncle about not having possibility of a good job regardless of education, that kinda stuck in my mind. I went to a business college for awhile, then finally after about year and a half I decided I better split and I came up to Seattle and I grabbed the first job I could, which happened to be the post office; they were hiring quite a few minorities then. And that's where I met the rest of the Seattle bunch, most of who were with the 4-4-2, some were with the MIS. So I kinda made a life for myself here. INTERVIEWER: What did you do? What was your position at the post office? NARASAKI: Oh, I was just a---first I was a clerk, then I drove a mail truck for awhile, then, let's see, after about four or five years, like I say, I met my wife and we got married. I had a very unusual mother-in-law, I mean, she was dead set against my marrying her daughter mainly because she could see by my physical build that "haibyo" she kept saying, "haibyo," that means TB, you know. And the Japanese don't like anybody with TB or they kinda shy away from it. But my wife to be said, "No, here's the man I'm gonna marry." So we got married, then after that my mother-in-law had a complete change; there wasn't anything that she could do for us that was too much. In fact, it was only because I could count on her help that I decided to go back to school, I mean, go on to the university. I think I was about 30 years old when I started. I like to tell my friends, I say, "Well, I started university with a wife and a child. By the time I got out, I had a wife and three children." I thought that was quite an accomplishment, especially the three children. But it paid off. The post office at that time was---it was good work, it put food on the table but chances for advancement were nil. The talk was you had to be a Scandinavian or somethin' to get anywhere into management. But that was before the civil rights thing all started the wheel that---it opened up everything. Well, at that time, it wasn't there for me and I figured I'd just---can't do anything for my kids working at the post office, so that's why I decided to go back to school with the urging of my mother-in-law. So I made it through and I went to work for Boeing and put in about 30 years there. But my biggest accomplishment, as far as I'm concerned, are my children. They all turned out pretty good considering the atmosphere that they were growing up in. I'm pretty sure most of 'em tried one drug or another, but they never got hooked. There's one daughter I told you about, she's the director of the Asian Pacific Legal Consortium in Washington, D.C. I think that's one of the chief civil rights organizations, national. And my eldest daughter is the head of the Asian Counseling and Referral Service here in Seattle. And really, most of their social activities, that is, community activities, are not aimed for the Nisei or Sansei or Yonsei; they are for the whole Asian-wide Asian community: Vietnamese, Cambodians, Filipinos, whatever, and I'm really proud of them. That, I think, is my greatest accomplishment, having them. Then my other two children, my son, he's a struggling actor, and my daughter, she's workin' away with her husband. They have a beautiful granddaughter that I baby-sit twice a week for the last four and a half years. So . . . INTERVIEWER: And have you ever shared your war experience with your children? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 26 of 29 �NARASAKI: No. They---I answer some questions that they ask but I don't go into great detail. INTERVIEWER: Why is that? NARASAKI: Well, I guess, like most of my generation, it's not easy to talk about yourself, as a rule; there are exceptions, of course, but . . . INTERVIEWER: Do you think it's important to pass this information on for future generations? NARASAKI: Yeah. No doubt that it is important. How they react to it is something else again. I don't know whether they'll look upon this as a, well, that's somebody else's life; it has no affect on mine. Or whether they would take it to heart saying "Hey, they gave us a building block, let's build on it." I don't know how they would react to it but it's better that it's there rather than not there. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned that at the post office there was not any room for advancement. NARASAKI: That's true. INTERVIEWER: And does that mean that at that time, your thinking had changed from what your uncle had said that you might as well not go to school because you can't get anywhere? NARASAKI: That's true. It wasn't until the, I think, what was it, the late 50s the electronic revolution came by and all these high tech companies are just begging for engineers. You used to read article after article about, oh, these engineers are in such great demand and stuff like that. And that woke in me the thought that, hey, they need guys so bad that they don't care whether you're not white. They need you; they'll take you, regardless. So that was one of the reasons I decided to go back to school. If that hadn't happened, I don't know, maybe I would have just wound up making a career out of the post office. INTERVIEWER: I think we're going to stop. BEGINNING OF TAPE FIVE INTERVIEWER: Could you tell me, if you had a message to pass on to future generations, what would that be? NARASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 27 of 29 �I guess, really, is that education is probably the most important thing if you ever want to realize what your dreams are. Next to that, I guess, perseverance. Keep going regardless of what obstacles are in front of you. Last, I guess, learn to be happy. You can be happy by knowing who you are and be happy with who you are. That's about it. INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that you haven't realized your dreams? NARASAKI: Well, I think I got as far---in fact a little further than I thought I would when I was growing up. But I know that if I had taken advantage of what few things there were for me or if I had been more obstinate and continued school when I should have, I might have gone a little further, but that's in the past. INTERVIEWER: And if you could look---in reflecting back to everything that you now know about what the 100th, the 44-2, and MIS contributed during World War II, what are your reactions and thoughts on that? NARASAKI: My reaction to their accomplishments? I guess my reaction is I hope the future generation doesn't let all that go to waste by letting the racists take over because you don't take any action. INTERVIEWER: What do you think we can do, as young people, to prevent that from happening, prevent racial division? NARASAKI: Well, I think you're doing the right thing here by making historical data from these interviews. But I think whatever position you finally wind up in in your later years---if you could ever---if you ever have to fall back on the accomplishments of the Nisei, you shouldn't be a bit ashamed to do so. Most of all, I guess, I would say don't forget us. INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that what you accomplished is something that has helped us to enjoy the life that we have today? NARASAKI: Well, not what I have accomplished but other World War II Nisei vets I think the younger generation owes 'em a lot because---it didn't open the doors but at least it unlocked 'em so that you could open it. I think my children were able to go as far as they could based on the knowledge that they had a family that did something that they could be proud of. INTERVIEWER: I know that going into the war, the Japanese/American veterans, they had a lot to prove. NARASAKI: Yeah, they did but then you---if you really think about it, there was no good reason that we had to be put in the position where we had to prove anything. It should have been taken for granted that we were American and we were gonna do what every American is supposed to do; there should never have This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 28 of 29 �been any question. Of course, looking back on it, if that was the feeling then, then we would have been drafted into the various units of the Army and the Navy and whatever, and nobody would ever know that they're---Nisei were capable of doing what they did. In other words, would have been too scattered. I'm not in favor that if the next war comes that they set up another segregated unit. I think this was a kind of a one-time thing when it did work out for the best. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any last closing thoughts or words you'd like to share with us? NARASAKI: Yeah. I would like to talk about my mother. She's ninety-two, healthy and happy, and she is reaping what she sowed in that---although she had a terrible young life, being born the eldest of a family of eight, being married off at age sixteen, having three children by the time she was twenty, and within a few years, losing her husband, then her youngest daughter, then her eldest daughter; all within two years. Being able to fight through all that and come up being a real winner. She's a---always amazes my kids by the fact that she---she is bilingual, and she makes herself at home in both cultures and, she's quite a lady. I think what I am has a lot to do with what she did for me. That's about it. INTERVIEWER: Thank you. CREW: Thank you. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Part 29 of 29 � 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 Richard "Dick" Narasaki oral history interview, September 12, 1998 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 Richard Narasaki oral history interview transcript [full interview], September 12, 1998 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Narasaki, Richard: narrator Tanaka, Stephanie: 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. 29 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 1998-09-12 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Seattle, Washington 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 1998OH0010_T_Narasaki https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/178a16c1fd97f77157b73da9ab552153.xml 7448ed2e40f6093ece7d6e7823e2ff1b 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview, June 7, 1999 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/052-Sakamoto-John-3.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1919 Nov 27 Location of Birth Vernalis, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Location of Basic Training Camp Robinson, Arkansas Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns Rhineland Campaign-Maritime Alps 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview, part 3 of 3, June 7, 1999 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sakamoto, John: narrator Tanaka, Stephanie: 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 1999OH0052_03_Sakamoto Description An account of the resource Sakamoto discusses his experiences while being in the regimental band. He details about his life after being discharged. Sakamoto also discusses the plane crash at Camp Beale and seeing the unveiling of the Civil Liberties Monument. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Military service--442nd Regimental Combat Team World War II--Songs and music War monuments Identity and values--Family 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. 0:29:56 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999 June 7 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Las Vegas, Nevada 206th Army Ground Forces Band 442nd Regimental Combat Team Camp Beale Civil Liberties Monument European Theater family music regimental band https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/a7e62cd651084df93056029e8f9d9c46.xml cd38a5597421ca2f3134409127a0b111 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview, June 7, 1999 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/052-Sakamoto-John-2.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1919 Nov 27 Location of Birth Vernalis, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Location of Basic Training Camp Robinson, Arkansas Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns Rhineland Campaign-Maritime Alps 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview, part 2 of 3, June 7, 1999 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sakamoto, John: narrator Tanaka, Stephanie: 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 1999OH0052_02_Sakamoto Description An account of the resource Sakamoto discusses more about his time in the military before heading to Italy. He details about his voyage to Italy and being transferred to the regimental band. Sakamoto also discusses experiencing prejudices and hobbies. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Military service--Basic training World War II--Military service--442nd Regimental Combat Team World War II--Italy 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. 0:26:43 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999 June 7 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Las Vegas, Nevada 206th Army Ground Forces Band 442nd Regimental Combat Team Camp Blanding Camp Grant European Theater Italy regimental band Social activities https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/e16b0c208d0c765381b3f70999268e67.xml d3f03eff000ff5d80db7ed05df864251 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview, June 7, 1999 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL https://gfbnec.org/oral_histories/mp4/052-Sakamoto-John-1.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1919 Nov 27 Location of Birth Vernalis, California War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Location of Basic Training Camp Robinson, Arkansas Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns Rhineland Campaign-Maritime Alps 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 John Sakamoto oral history interview, part 1 of 3, June 7, 1999 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sakamoto, John: narrator Tanaka, Stephanie: 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 1999OH0052_01_Sakamoto 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. 0:26:19 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999 7 June Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Las Vegas, Nevada Description An account of the resource Sakamoto discusses his family and his childhood experiences. He details the aftermath from Pearl Harbor and the affects it had on his family. Sakamoto also discusses he time in the military before being shipped overseas. Subject The topic of the resource Identity and values--Family World War II--American Concentration Camps--Tule Lake World War II--Military service World War II--Pearl Harbor and aftermath American Concentration Camps Camp Blanding Camp Grant Camp Robinson Draft family Pearl Harbor Tule Lake