Interviews
Teaching at the military language school during World War II
My Japanese was quite good in terms of writing and so forth. One of the interesting assignments I got when I was teaching at Fort Snelling was I taught some, in this Japanese language school, I taught some English. The army had drafted Kibei who knew more Japanese than English and they were a valuable resource because we lacked mainly people who could read Japanese. But then these people's English was limited, so they had a difficult time in translating. So here I am, teaching English grammar -- [laughs] -- in this language school. It was quite an experience. And, of course, I only taught the elementary Japanese.
But then I got selected to go to Officer Candidate School. There was, when I look back, segregation in the army, because the 442nd was segregated. The 100th infantry battalion preceding the 442nd was made up of draftees of Japanese descent before Pearl Harbor.
And the language school, although we had a mixed group, there was Mr. Boggs, a haole man in our class and there were some Koreans and others, but they also had at Camp Savage, special classes for Caucasian soldiers. And these were very bright language specialists. Lot of 'em had PhDs in French or Spanish or German and a good pedigree. You know, Yale, Harvard, University of Michigan, and they had a program which was quite different from ours, but once a week in the afternoon, since they wanted the haole soldiers to hear Japanese, they had some of us meet with them, one-to-one. And we had to speak Japanese to them.
Date: March 19, 2004
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Mitchell Maki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.
Explore More Videos
Feeling prejudice while looking for jobs
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Generosity of the Italians
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Invited to teach at Harvard by his boss
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
The riot in Manzanar
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Being inducted into the army
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Serving in Tokyo
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
The Dopey bank that survived the war
(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII
Evacuated to the Jungle
(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.
Captured by Guerillas after bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.
Grandfather picked up by US Army
(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii
Father's business partner operated their farming business during WWII
(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.
Father was convinced the constitution would protect him
(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.
Working together in Okinawa using three languages
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.
The lack of discussion about family’s incarceration in Amache
Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Mother founded Japanese language school in neighbors’ backyard
Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California