Gender

Male

Birth date

1925-6-30

Place of birth

Los Altos CA, U.S.A.

Inducted

1944-7-1, Denver CO

Enlistment type

Draftee

Service branch

Army

Service type

War

Unit type

Support

Units served

MISLS (Graduated Snelling, May 1945)
ATIS (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section)
5250th Technical Intelligence Center
GHQ: Legal Section, War Crimes Investigation
7th Calvary

Military specialty

Military Intelligence
Interpreter

Stationed

USA:Fort McClellan, AL for Basic Military Training
Fort Snelling, MN for Japanese Language Training
Other countries: Tokyo, Japan, for Occupation duties serving as an interpreter

Separated

Camp Beale CA

Unit responsibility

ATIS: Interpreter & Translation
5250 Technical Intelligence Center: Investigation of Japanese Military Technology
GHQ Legal Section: War Crime Investigation
7th Cavalry: Election surveillance

Personal responsibility

Serving as an interpreter.

Major battles (if served in a war zone)

JAPAN; Battle of Occupation

Awards, medals, citations (individual or unit)

Pacific Campaign

Living conditions

Living conditions varied from tents to hotels.
Bathing facilities varied from out-doors to hot springs.
Meals varied from C & K rations to mess halls.
Entertainment varied from none to Kabuki.

Most vivid memory of military experience

a). New born Japanese babies abandoned in rail stations.
b). People (Japanese) fighting for food.
c). Many other major cities looking like Hiroshima, the result of war not atomic bombs. Former 5th Airforce Commander in Chief, General Curtis LeMay reported the same in New Yorker Magazine in 1995.
d). Post war economics: All demand, no supply. Inflation I never experienced in America.

Missed most whilst in the military

To help my grandparents, mother and younger siblings return home from the relocation camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. My grandparents were 73 years old. My father was interned in New Mexico.
Hearing my grandfather's words about what it was like when they returned home saddened me more than anything I had experienced. Grandfather related about having to walk to town to buy food, tools, etc. to start over again reminded him of exactly what he had to do 44 years earlier when they first purchased the farm. It wasn't long thereafter that he passed away.

Most important thing, personally, to come from military experience?

War with guns and bombs is like fire. If left to continue, war can consume and destroy today's civilization on earth. Likewise, ignorance can do the same. Mankind needs to continue in more ways that permit better understanding of nature on earth that continues to sustain life on earth. Human life on earth can destroy itself and earth if not better understood by all and managed accordingly.

Additional information

Unfortunately, World War II had not ended for me with V-J Day in 1945. I was drafted into the army in 1944 with a history of tuberculosis. In 1940, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was dismissed from high school. I was being treated by pneumo-thorax till the day of internment. The treatment was primarily by collapsing of the lung through introduction of air into the thoracic cavity. Thereby reducing lung activity. I still remember the doctor telling me, 'young man, no more baseball for you.' Additional care was by rest at a sanitorium and proper diet. Thus, when I was drafted into the army in July l944, I was surprised. I was given a subsequent six month medical deferment and put in the reserve. From which I was called to active duty on February 5, 1945 and told to report to Fort Snelling for basic and language training. All of which was in preparation for the invasion of Japan.

Fortunately, the war ended in August of 1945. My training at Fort Snelling was hastened to conclusion and shipped for occupation duties in Japan in December 1945. Wherefore, my tour of duty in Japan in 1946. Although the war was over, the country was in dire strait. It was the immediate post war period and all I saw was the total devastation, privation, etc. No trains running, electricity off, could not even hear water running out of faucets. Lister bags with heavily chlorinated water was only source of drinking water.

Initial quarters were 10-men canvas tents which was far better than foxholes dug to escape roaring tanks over you during basic training. Winter in January was wet, cold and snowy in Japan. Weather was somewhat similar to internment camp in Wyoming except for the fierce blizzards at the latter. In Japan, it was wet and cold similar to Fort Snelling, Minnesota. A scene I will never forget at this location in Japan was when the mess hall garbage was being hauled out of the encampment, Japanese youngsters climb onto the garbage wagons, knock the cans over and scoop up the garbage by hand for food. A sight I will never forget. The youngsters looked like my younger siblings and reminded me of how they were managing back home in California.

I returned back to State side as soon as I was eligible for discharge late in 1946. I enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in the spring of 1947. Upon taking a physical examination, I was told my X-ray showed spots that needed to be continually monitored and was until I hemorrhaged late that year. Where upon, the doctors told me to go to the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital and have it treated because I was only recently discharged from military service. Upon going to the VA hospital, I was refused hospitalization because I had a prior history of the disease. According to the law on the subject at the time, stated that tuberculosis diagnosed within a year after discharged is considered service connected. Subsequently, the time period was changed to three years after discharge. All of which was of no avail. In the interim, I placed myself on the hospital waiting list for non-service connected tuberculosis and awaited VA notice for hospitalization and treatment. Meantime I returned home and with the help of the family did what I could-rest and wait.

After waiting more than a year, I was finally informed to report to the VA Hospital. I spent the next three years there and was able to leave only after surgery to remove the infected lung. Upon leaving the hospital, I applied for a civil service position and was told I was not physically fit for a civil service position. Where upon, I decided to return to college with the remaining GI Bill. I spent the next ten years finishing college. Fortunately, by then, the nine million GI's from WWII had become re-adjusted to civilian life with job, families, etc. Thus, when I finally was able to work, there was numerous job offers and I was able to choose what I considered very important. Job was a civil service position in soybean pathology in Iowa. There was a million acres of soybeans produced when I first came to Iowa in 1963. Today it is 10 million acres in Iowa and 60 million acres produced in the United States. The more important story today is what all the soybeans are used for and at what price?

All of which are my stories for a book I continue to work on after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) closed my project and I decided to take early retirement for that purpose.

In the photo above,taken at Fort Snelling in 1945, are, from left to right, James Aiso (youngest brother of late Judge John Aiso, former Academic Commandant at Fort Snelling), Isao Shimoyama (center) and Hideo Tachibana.