Gender

Male

Birth date

1923-8-22

Place of birth

Watsonville CA, U.S.A.

Inducted

1944-11-1, Salt Lake City UT

Enlistment type

Draftee

Service branch

Army

Service type

War,peacetime

Unit type

Support

Units served

MISLS ER-2 (Graduated Snelling, July 1945)
Hq. Co. 34th Infantry 24th Div.

Military specialty

Military Intelligence
Translator and Interpreter during the occupation of Japan.

Stationed

USA: Camp Blanding, FL; Camp Meade, MD; Ft. Snelling, MN; Camp Stoneman, CA; Ft. Lewis, WA
Japan.

Separated

Tacoma WA

Unit responsibility

Keep the peace in Japan.

Personal responsibility

Interpreting.

Awards, medals, citations (individual or unit)

Victory Medal
American Theater Service Medal.

Living conditions

In Kobe, it was okay living in a quonset hut on a cot. Took showers, it was okay. Traveling and taking photos. When our outfit moved to Ainoura, Nagasaki, I stayed at a former Navy camp. Food was okay.

Most vivid memory of military experience

In Kobe, a young man got hurt when a bombed brick building collapsed on him. Badly hurt, his father wanted to take him to the hospital. The father tried talking to an M.P. but both could not understand each other. I happened to be passing by and explained the situation and immediately took them to the hospital. It was my first experience interpreting

Missed most whilst in the military

Travel on train.

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

Went to Goto Island and different villages checking health and food situations, population, etc. Went to check illegal aliens coming from Korea in northern Kyushu. Also went to Tsushima Island, between Japan and Korea, to make sure that illegals were caught.