12/7/41 and 9/11/01 “I had just finished my morning duties”

So I transferred up to Fort Ord and when I reported there the commanding officer asked me, “Where’d you come from?” And I was in my cavalry uniform. He says, “Where’d you come from?” I said, “I came from the Imperial Valley, I was with the 11th Calvary.” And he said, “Why did you come here?” I said, “Well, I’ve got a degree in engineering, so I figured if I’m gonna put in my year of training, I might as well be in the place where I can do some good in case war breaks out,” It was only about two weeks after that, I was on KP when, I had just finished my morning duties and I was in the day room. A couple of guys were playing on the pool table and they had the radio on. And about 9:00 I heard this report that says, “We have an unconfirmed report that Pearl Harbor is under attack.” And the guy says, “Oh boy.” And then, it was only about a minute or two later it said, “It’s confirmed now that Pearl Harbor is under attack.” And then this one GI says, “Well there goes my furlough.”

Being American “Each of us has had a choice”

Well I think it’s the greatest place to be. You’ve got your freedom, rights, and the good part of it is that you meet people of all ancestral backgrounds, you know, color and all that. Makes life more interesting. I figured I couldn’t live in a country like Japan where everybody’s thinking. But in this country each of us has had a choice. We could be what we want to be and accept all the others for whoever they are.

Identity “There’s always people who resent that”

Well it was pretty tough when the people of your ancestry attack this country you know. There’s always people that resent that kind of, regardless of what your background is. If you represent, just by looks and racial background, the enemy, why there’s gonna be people who will take it out on whoever you are.