Oral History Interview with Akira Toki

[Interview Begins]

DERKS: As I said, it's, ah, I'd like to go all the way back to, you know, where you grew up, and how you first heard about, what your first awareness was that there might be a war.

TOKI: Well, the first, the first awareness I thought it was when they bombed Pearl Harbor. And because, well before that, all the eligible men were supposed to register for the draft board. So I registered and then I got my card, greetings from Uncle Sam. But then, my father and mother were running a farm at that time, so I got deferred. But then I said if the United States went to war, 00:01:00I would join, go in right away. So when they bombed Pearl Harbor, well Uncle Sam gave me a greeting card within five days I was in the service. And -- so -- five days and I went to, from there, they collected the 73 of us boys up on the square Capitol, up on the square, the Red Cross gave us donuts and stuff and coffee and sent us off to a reception center. At that time I had a Chinese boy, was in the, was in a group of guys. You know when newspaper people saw that, 00:02:00they thought, oh boy, what a story it's gonna make. So they got him and I together and sat us in the bus and took pictures. And then, you know at that time China was our ally, and I was the enemy, so, so they made a big story out of that. So we went to Fort Sheridan, that's where I was inducted into the Army. And maybe I stayed there maybe four or five days, then I was shipped to Camp Robinson, Arkansas. That's where I had my Basic Training. But down there when I 00:03:00got to Camp Robinson, Arkansas, I met six other Oriental boys there. And I found out later that there were 6 to 7 boys in each company down there. We were all kind of segregated, so at that time, I didn't know any Oriental boys at all, or Japanese boys at all, so I didn't know how to act towards them or I didn't know what reaction they'll have towards me because, well I talked just like a Midwesterner you know. So I had to readjust myself to that and we got along pretty good so. Then when we got done with our basic, we went to, they sent all the Caucasian boys, after basic training, they sent them out for other training 00:04:00to other camps, and they left all the Oriental boys back at Camp Robinson, Arkansas. So we stayed around Camp Robinson, Arkansas, oh about two weeks doing nothing because they didn't know what to do with us, see. Because at that time, you know, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and all that kind of, people's emotions were high, you know.

DERKS: Yeah, did you, did you feel any of that even here in Madison?

TOKI: No, not at that time. When I left Madison, I didn't know anything about those kind of things. I didn't know anything about prejudice. I thought I was 00:05:00just like any Caucasian boys. If I got into a fight with another boy, I'd fight him and nothing to it see. There's no, no, no, hatred in there, it's just get the thing out of our system. So if he says something to me, I sass him back, see. That's the way.

DERKS: How about once you were down in Fort Robinson, or even on the way? Did anybody say anything? Any of the other recruits?

TOKI: No, no, no, no, no. See I think when I was down at Camp Robinson, they were, at that time they were starting to evacuate the west coast, and they took all the Japanese families, about 150 miles inland. Everyone that lived on the 00:06:00west coast, 150 miles inland, they took those all and put them in the camp, they uprooted the whole family, and put them all into camps and stuff like that. So well, I didn't think too much of it, but you know, as I got to know the guys more, it kind of irritated me a little bit because why, why, why aren't they, we treated like the rest of the fellas. But, coming back to this, Camp Robinson, Arkansas, are coming, when they collected all of us together, we put us on a troop train with the window shades all pulled down and we didn't know where our destination was. They didn't tell us. And then they, I guess the orders out of 00:07:00Washington came out that said at that time we were unfit for combat duty, so we were, so they, when we're then, they put us at Camp Grant, Illinois. At Camp Grant, Illinois, they divided all the guys into separate groups, like some of them went to the reception center to do pencil work, some of them went to medics, and some of them went to engineer quartermaster. They did all odd jobs, and some of the guys were hospital orderlies, things like that that's what we, I think we did that for about a year and a half at Camp Grant.

DERKS: Where is Camp Grant?

TOKI: Rockford, Illinois. And -- and while I was at Camp Grant, one of the boys in our group must have had a good friend, Caucasian friend, that this Oriental boy had a car in California. And the Caucasian boy was taking care of it for him. So he wrote back to this Caucasian boy, and asked him to bring the car back to Camp Grant, with a California license plate, everything on it see. So he brought the car back to Arkansas, or Camp Grant. So -- and at that time, you know, my folks were living in Madison, you know how far is Madison and Rockford? Maybe a couple hours drive. So I said I'll take you home, bring you home to 00:09:00Madison. We -- so we, we got our passes from the camp commander. It was all legitimate, we had permission to go, and we got into the, we took his car with the California license plate, and we left camp alright, then we got to Beloit. And at Beloit somebody spotted five oriental boys in a car, but we got through Beloit alright, then we got through Janesville, but we got stopped at Evansville. And they, the police stopped us, and they took us into the Courthouse, searched us, questioned us and -- and they wrote back to the company 00:10:00commander in Camp Grant, if we were legitimate and if we were, if the passes were okay, and they said it was okay. So they let us go, but I think we were held up in Evansville for a couple hours getting inter-, getting questioned all that. And before I left, I had a fountain pen in my pocket, they want to see that. So they took the fountain pen apart, see if anything I had in there. So they didn't, they took it apart alright, but they didn't put it back together for me. So I had to put it all back together and come home see. And in the mean 00:11:00time they said, the Evansville police department, the police told us not to leave Madison, you know. We're supposed to stick around Madison because they thought we would get into more trouble if we wandered around. So -- my father, mother gave them food, oriental food and things like that. They had a good time. And in the mean time, the American Legion post in Madison, got, heard what they'd done to us in Evansville so, the Legion people wrote back to Evansville 00:12:00police department and gave them a pretty harsh letter for holding us there like that, interrogating us like that, because we were all in American uniform and everything. They said that wasn't right. So see that's where I found , I found the prejudice.

DERKS: Was it a surprise having never experienced it before, all of a sudden to --?

TOKI: It was kind of a harsh feeling, you know, what they done to us guys, because we were in uniform, we swore to be a good citizen, things like that. Then while I was in Camp Grant, Illinois, the Legion that wrote the letter down 00:13:00to the Evansville Police Department then, then, uh, at that time the newspaper people and everybody, the media got a hold of it, and they, my father, they uh, and the mayor, and everybody came out to the farm, you know. And they, because we were all, before that we were interrogated by the FBI about the neighborhood and what kind of family we were, so my family were never interned at Camp David. They left us alone in Madison. But the citizens of Madison were real good to my father and mother, because my father and mother were farmers and they run a 00:14:00vegetable farm. And those grocery men were, you know, my father used to deliver to the grocery, to these little mama & papa stores. And those little those grocery guys got together and said, we will come out to the farm and we'll get the vegetables and we'll sell it for you. So protect our family from harassment from the outside, they just came, protected the family, because they didn't want to see our family being harassed and see any harm done to them. So they were real, real good to my family when I was in the service.

DERKS: Did you have any brothers and sisters?

TOKI: Oh, I have three sisters, no brothers. I'm the only boy in the family.

DERKS: Were the sisters all home?

TOKI: Yeah, yeah, yeah they were all home at that time. And let's see. Then when we were at Camp Grant they decided to close up Camp Grant, so we were regrouped again. And we were, some of, a bunch of us went to Fort Sheridan, back to Fort Sheridan, Illinois, to regroup. And then they gave us, in the meantime there was the 100th Battalion, Hawaiian 100 Battalion at Camp McCoy. All Hawaiian boys, 00:16:00oriental Hawaiian boys. They were getting their training. Yeah, those 100 Battalion boys were trained for regular combat duty, and they went overseas and proved that they were, could be trusted. So then they kind of backed down from holding us from being mistrusted. So they gave us our combat training, and then they grouped us all together and we went to Camp Blanding, Florida. But in the meantime, there was a whole regiment of oriental boys at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, training too. So I think when I went to my second basic training 00:17:00there was, I think, there was a whole battalion at McClellan, Alabama, too, training at the same time. So then we were sent overseas from there to replace the, some of the casualties that came out of the 100 Battalion. And we went to, I landed in Italy. Well, go back a little bit, back --

DERKS: As you go back, what, what was your training?

TOKI: Infantry, combat infantry training.

DERKS: And what did that involve?

TOKI: They gave us everything to do. They made us, anything, how to shoot any 00:18:00kind of weapons, drive any kind of vehicle, only thing they didn't teach us was demolition. But -- but otherwise they trained us, they trained us how to climb up a rope ladder off the ship, come down off the ship into the landing barge. And then they made us go through ammunition course and all that with live ammunition over the top of our head. So, so then I went to France from there, from well, I ended up at Camp Shelby, after I got done with my basic training, I 00:19:00was on, they gave me a furlough, so I came home, then I went back. They told me to report to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. So we kind of regrouped there and then we went overseas from, shipped out of Shelby to [appears to be a break in the tape] --more gung-ho than ever, because I wanted to do more, see, to prove that they were--we were good American citizens, see, and we went overseas and I joined the 100th Battalion [out] of 442, see, and the 100th Battalion was the first 00:20:00battalion over there--that was the Hawaiian Battalion.

DERKS: When you say the 442nd, that means something, doesn't it?

TOKI: It does, yeah. That was all Japanese regiment boys. Well, we had Caucasion officers, but we gradually made our officers also, see. They got to be field-promoted and things like that.

DERKS: [What] were you at that time?

TOKI: I was just a corporal at that time because, well, I think I crabbed so much and bitched so much that they were getting tired of hearing me crab nearly all the time because we were doing just as much work as anybody else, see, and 00:21:00we weren't getting promoted, see. So, yeah, the family, see, our family were treated real good at home and they looked after--well-- --And I think -- while we were overseas you know, we went-- I landed in Italy, then got replaced in the 100th Battalion then we went to France, invasion of southern France. But we didn't invade southern France, because they pushed the enemy back faster then they thought they were going to do, see, we got there a little too late for that. But we got up into central France, that's where our biggest casualty was, 00:22:00up in central France. But the 100th Battalion had the big casualty around Mount Cassino and Anzio because, I wasn't there so. So -- so they, they were known as, the 100th Battalion was known as the Purple Heart Battalion at that time, because well they were all in places where they couldn't move or nothing. They were wounded and a lot of them were killed there, around Cassino and Anzio. But then they regrouped and we went to France. Then we went up into around (?) Woods 00:23:00in central, central eastern France. And we liberated the little town of Briare, and the French, the French people were -- were real good to us at that time. And they're real good to us right now. If we go back there, they bring out the red carpet for us in that town, for liberating that town.

DERKS: So what did that involve to liberate it? What -- do you recall the campaign, recall getting there? Were you looking forward to actually getting into battle?

TOKI: Well -- It, it's hard to say because I kind of wanted to see what it was like, you know, and I think that the worst experience I had was when a German 00:24:00shot artillery shells and it burst in the trees, treetops, and you didn't know where the shrapnel was coming from. That's one of those horrify, one of the hardest things to see, you know, or do, because you didn't know if you were going to live or what you'd do there. And like, and then we were up there two weeks around that, in that area, there were casualties going down and down you 00:25:00know. Then -- then we got called up again for the Lost Battalion, the 36th Division, Texas division, was the regiment was trapped, they were surrounded by the Germans, they couldn't go backwards, forwards, or nothing. And -- and we were under strength, we were down real low at that time, but they called us up and told us to go get them. So we, I think we were supposed to be resting for five days getting our replacements down, but they told us we need you, so they took us they called us back in about five days time, we were called back up to 00:26:00the front line again. And we -- and they, they told, the general told us we were supposed to get those guys out in a week's time and we dug them out of there in five days. And it was -- in a place where you had to use shrubs and stuff to hang on to climb up the hill. It was a rough, rough terrain where we were, and the Germans had, you know, they had their guns emplaced in the right positions 00:27:00so every move we made they could see us, see. So we, we got those guys out in that length of time.

DERKS: How did you do it? How did you get them out?

TOKI: Well, toward the end a couple of the company did a bayonet charge, they went gung ho and went charging up the hill with the bayonet, but like some of the companies out of that Lost Battalion, us guys we only came back with one guy in the whole company. That's how high the casualty was, and like in my company we had 21 guys left in our whole, of 200 guys, and I was in charge of a squad, I 00:28:00came back with one man, so. And uh, so, uh, we got them out alright, and we were, they made us an honorary Texan. So--Um, area that wasn't healthiest place, but then I read a book, I was reading, I'm reading a book now. The Germans had their own regiment trapped back there, too, somewhere in that area, so it was just not only the American regiment trapped there, it was a German unit trapped back there too. Couldn't move or nothing.

DERKS: So is that whole experience still pretty vivid?

TOKI: Yeah, yeah. I can, and see one of, before we went to the Lost Battalion, we were cut off too for three days. The general told us, he kept us pushing us, keep moving forward, forward, forward, because he was one of those generals that was looking for glory.

DERKS: At your expense.

TOKI: Yeah, at my expense, yeah. Or our expense. So we, because one time he was up, he came up to the front line with his aide, and he was encouraging us to go forward, forward, you know, he was out in the open you know, standing like a 00:30:00beanpole out in the open field. Then the bullets come flying, he didn't stay up there very long, then his aide got killed right there, right on the spot. His aide got killed right away, so he didn't stay up there very long.

DERKS: Who was that general?

TOKI: Uh, Dahlquist. He was the head of the 36 Division--general. And I don't have too much respect for him anyway, but that one time he wanted, after the Lost Battalion, he wanted dress review of us guys to thank us for what we did. I think at that time there were about 800 of us guys left out of the whole 00:31:00regiment of 9,000 to 10,000 guys. Only 800 of us were left out of the group. So -- and I heard that general ask the colonel, where in the hell are the rest of the guys? Are they on pass, furlough? What? You know how that sits with the colonel when he asked that question you know. And then I heard through the grapevine this, last few years ago, the colonel met this general down south. They didn't talk to each other.

DERKS: The colonel knew all to well where everybody was.

TOKI: Yeah, yeah yeah. So he's, he's not, not respected with us guys very much.

DERKS: What was it like after you came out of the lost brigade?

TOKI: Oh, it was like, we had to regroup. We had to regroup, so a lot of these boys that were in, in these relocation camps, they volunteered into the service. And they got their training and they came overseas. So, so they were proving that they were, you know, good citizens also see. Because their father and mother were in camp, but they were in the service fighting for this country, see.

DERKS: You had a lot to complain about. That just doesn't seem very fair.

TOKI: Well, no, no it, well it doesn't seem fair, but what can you do? What can we do? We can't do nothing. We just had to prove that we were good citizens. And then that's why I think we lost so many guys, and high casualty because we were all gung ho to prove that we were good citizens and good Americans. So, so we, and just like, like, like I said before, our battalion was, our battalion was a 00:34:00Purple Heart battalion but the whole regiment, has over 9,000 Purple Hearters in the group, so.

DERKS: Were you wounded?

TOKI: Yeah, I was wounded, yeah.

DERKS: How were you wounded?

TOKI: Uh, I was wounded twice, but I only got one Purple Heart. I got, I got, hit in the head. That's why I'm crazy sometimes. [laughs]

DERKS: You were never crazy before that?

TOKI: No, no. But, no, because -- see, when I got hit I was back in Italy again. See, after the Lost Battalion we regrouped and then -- they took all of our equipment -- and gave us brand new stuff. And then they shipped us back to Italy 00:35:00again. So in Italy we finished up the campaign of the Po Valley. That was at the end of the war in Italy at that point --finished that up. And that's where I got hurt was in Italy. I didn't get hurt, well I got hurt a little bit in France, but just a little minor scratch there, but I didn't think nothing of it. But -- in Italy, the terrain is a lot different than in France. In France we were in the woods and shrubs and brush and all that kind of stuff. But in Italy we were on a mountaintop. Nothing up there. So we had to be like a billy goat to climb 00:36:00those things. So we were -- and when we went back to Italy we joined with the 92nd Division. That was all colored division. All negro boys that were up there. It was a stationary front at that time -- because, well I guess they were stationed at the front, regrouping things like that. You know, getting ready for another offense. But in the meantime the Germans were pushing the 92nd Division back. They're losing ground. So then -- that's what I heard, see. Then they 00:37:00brought another Caucasian division back of them. Back of the 92nd, so to keep the 92nd guys up there. So they couldn't back up, because they'd have another bayonet back of them! And then they had, they had the Germans in front of them see? So they broke that division up. They took our regiment, and then they took ah -- aircraft boys, made them into infantrymen. And they kept one regiment of colored boys so there was a, one regiment of black, one regiment of white, and 00:38:00one regiment of oriental boys. So it was kind of all-American thing. So, we -- we went there and we were the spearhead of that offense there, when we opened it up. And they gave us a timetable to do certain things, you know. But we done it quicker than that. If they said do it in a week's time, we did it in three or four days, so. So -- so we had, so we finished up Italy like that way. Then from 00:39:00Italy, I, that's where I got hurt. Then I ended up in the hospital. Then I, they want to ship me home, but I said I want to go back to my company. So I went back to my company, and then I, at that time I had too many points for being in combat and being in the service so length of time. So when I had too many points they'd say you better go home. So they sent me home.

DERKS: Do you remember being wounded?

TOKI: Yeah, I think it was April 5 on top of a mountain. Well, the -- the mountain was, it was pretty high but I hit a rock, I couldn't dig any deeper, 00:40:00so, the shrapnel had my number on it and it came at me. So--

DERKS: It was shrapnel? (Yeah) You're probably feeling at that point that nothing could get you.

TOKI: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But at that time they, oh, they sent me to school. The engineer sent me to school. The munitions school to use, how to use explosives and stuff like that.

DERKS: You got to blow stuff up?

TOKI: No, I didn't get a chance. I was taught that but I didn't get a chance because I got hurt, before. Because there were six of us boys that went to that demolition school. I think all six of us were hurt before we ever got to use 00:41:00that knowledge of demolition.

DERKS: Did it, you get right through the helmet?

TOKI: Yeah, mine went right through the helmet. Through, if you know what a, the helmet looked like, you know that little lip on the front, front, right there, right in the forehead I got it. So, so I stayed in the hospital until the end of the war, the end of the Italy campaign. Then I went back to my unit.

DERKS: And then they shipped you out.

TOKI: Yeah, they shipped me home. But in the meantime, well while I was still over there, the war ended in Europe. We were slated to go to Japan. They gave us 00:42:00one-day notice. They made us all pack up. And when, and one day they told us we were going. But we didn't go.

DERKS: Was that for the invasion that they were sending you to or one of the islands?

TOKI: I don't know what they was going to do to us. But we were slated to go over there. And I think, I heard we were slated to go through the southern route. Not over the Pacific, the other way. So--

DERKS: How would, by ship through the Suez Canal?

TOKI: Yeah, yeah, I think so. Well because they didn't have transports at that 00:43:00time. You know, air transport at that time. They, they used ships like Queen Mary and the big liners like that. They all used.

DERKS: All those queens.

TOKI: Yeah. So it's, it was a -- then I came home.

DERKS: What was that like?

TOKI: Nothing to it. No, no parties or nothing, because a lot of them, well everybody was, you know, Europe was over at that time so a lot of them were coming home from that way. So, then -- then I went back to helping my father farm.

DERKS: How old were you when you came back?

TOKI: Oh, let's see. I was 25 when I went in, 26, 27, 28.

DERKS: A pretty eventful few years, huh?

TOKI: Four years of an eventful life. Well then I got married after I came home.

DERKS: Not as eventful? But almost.

TOKI: Almost, yeah. Yeah. So well, I've been married fifty years. That's quite a 00:45:00while, I think.

DERKS: Do you think the war experience changed you any?

TOKI: In a way, yeah. I feel more, I think I can understand people more better now than I did in that time. I could, I could figure them out better now, their attitudes and things like that. And like when I volunteer at the VA Hospital, I talk to the patients. We talk about a lot of things. If they look down-hearted I give them a hard time and make them laugh. But I, the way I say it I laugh with 00:46:00it see? Then they laugh too then. They know I don't mean what I'm saying to them. But, no, then -- then even when I work with the kids, I can understand them too, see.

DERKS: Do you talk to kids about World War II?

TOKI: Yeah, yeah.

DERKS: Do they say how many people did you kill?

TOKI: Yep, that's the first question they ask, how many people did you kill? Or did you kill anybody? So I tell them it's him or I, and it's going to be him. So they don't say anymore. [laughs] So, no I kind of enjoy talking to the kids. 00:47:00Tell them what it was like and things like that.

DERKS: What do you tell them?

TOKI: Oh, similar to what I was saying today here.

DERKS: Do you tell them about the Lost Battalion?

TOKI: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I think it's good for them to know how we suffered through those things and how we have to do it. And, and, and -- and being told what to do. And we had to do it, they say you do it and you do it, see. So -- so, I kind of enjoy talking to kids. Even college kids. I go to the 00:48:00university and talk to them too. I haven't done it lately, but I have done it about three, four years at the university. Then the kids from the university come over and interview me, so.

DERKS: When you broke through to the Lost Battalion, and they made you honorary Texans, do you remember that when you got to them?

TOKI: No, I seen them but I didn't. They were tickled to see us.

DERKS: You had other things to think about.

TOKI: Yeah, yep. Because -- I've been back there three times now.

DERKS: To France?

TOKI: To France and Italy. I've been back to Italy twice, France three times. And I've been around that, I went back to the area where we fought. And place like that. I'll say this much, the big cities, you don't see much war scars. But you go to theses little villages and hamlets, you'll see little shrapnel markings on the walls and posts and things like that. It was still there yet. 00:50:00But what they did with the, like when they'd bomb the big cities, what they did with the rubbish, I don't know. You know all that stones and bricks and all that. Where did they put it? So what they've done with it I don't know, because you don't see it around. So it's amazing what people will do to clean up the mess.

DERKS: What did it feel like to go back to where you fought? I mean would you look at that and be back there again? Is that what it felt like?

TOKI: No, because you are not with a group, I mean not with the whole, your own regiment. You're all by yourself there see. Or you're with your family. So it's, 00:51:00it's a different feeling. When you're with the guys there, you know I mean, you could sense something there, through them to you. But when you're with your family, that's a little different experience.

DERKS: So, what's it like with those guys in that regiment when you're not fighting. What was just regular camp life like?

TOKI: Oh they were just like anybody else. They have a good time, go to town, drink. Things like that. And go see things, go site-seeing, places where they 00:52:00could go. Because that's, go to look at things, you know. Or they'd play cards among themselves, play poker among themselves. Because -- at that time, when we were in Italy, we used to get beer rations, beer and Coke rations. And anybody that didn't drink beer, they gave them Coke. We traded and things like that. And then we'd go to town and well, we'd get cigarettes and barter with the people in 00:53:00the town for something that, for jewelry or something with cigarettes. So it, we just did things, I don't know, I don't know what to say, how what we did, but anyway, kept us doing things you know.

DERKS: So for all the bad times were there also times of a lot of laughter?

TOKI: Laughter, yeah, yeah. It was good times and bad times, so.

DERKS: So you met a lot more Japanese Americans than you ever would have if you had just stayed in Madison?

TOKI: Yeah, I would never have known, mingled with Japanese people as I did when 00:54:00I was in the service. Because -- well, because there's quite a few boys and family in town now, you know, but we very seldom get together. We usually, each one goes our separate ways. So, and like -- there's, let's see, 1,2,3, three or four boys that were in the service, but they don't belong to any veteran groups or anything. I've gone to all of them, but they don't.

DERKS: Were they in the same, they weren't in the same platoon?

TOKI: Yeah, one of them, one guy is. But there are, there are several at Camp McCoy, Tomah. They were in the 100 battalion, but they're all passed away so. Then I have one, I have a friend in Chicago, two of them, that I still kind of keep in contact with. I keep in contact with several of them, but not real close.

DERKS: How about your neighbor? Did he come through the war?

TOKI: My, which? Oh my Navy friend? He, he's back and he's in Florida. I think he is. I haven't heard from him, he's still in Florida. He retired.

DERKS: Did you guys go to high school together?

TOKI: Yeah, we went to high school together. He graduated one year ahead of me. So him and I, well there was another guy who were always running around together like, but he, he, he's. Because he's one of, his father and mother kind of backed my father and mother up too. He kind of vouched for them.

DERKS: We hear a lot of people say that when they got back from the war that they couldn't talk about it --So how did that happen? That's funny.

TOKI: Well, I also have a school named after me.

DERKS: That's what I heard. Soon as he rolls the camera, I want to hear about that.

TOKI: How Toki Middle School got started? Well, at that time, there were five schools buildings, were had -- graded school, integrated with, middle school, see. And they wanted to separate them, so Orchard Ridge was one of them, and Hamilton was another one, and there were a couple other ones. I can't remember anymore. But the reason they selected me, because they were looking for minority people, names. They wanted, they were selecting like White Horse, or Ray 00:58:00Charles, and all those kind of people. But the, our chief Volunteer Service person, who worked at the VA hospital, his kids were going to school, see. And he's, he kind of instigated that they should pick my name.

TOKI: So they did research on it and the kids did all the work. They started from, from class, they made the resume of the school name. And then they presented to the school board, the PTO, the board of education. It went up, all 00:59:00the way up the line. And then went to the city. That's how it got started, the kids, the kids did the research. Parents didn't have nothing to do with it. The eighth grade kids did it all.

DERKS: Was there a ceremony, a naming ceremony?

TOKI: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they had a party. So, I go back there every once in awhile, and talk to the kids. And we, we, I hear by rumor, you know, that they're planning something for my tenth anniversary naming of my school after 01:00:00me, this year sometime. I don't know when, but I hear a rumor.

DERKS: Another party?

TOKI: Another party. Every year they have a party for me anyway, on my birthday, but this one here is something special that they're planning on.

DERKS: Well you deserve something special.

TOKI: Well, I don't know about that part there. I don't know. But that's the part of the story about Toki Middle School. They, so they wanted a live one see, that what they picked it for. They wanted a live one, they didn't want a dead one.

DERKS: So did you ever see their resume, the research that they did? What they came up with?

TOKI: No.

DERKS: No? What, what, all did you, you got a Purple Heart, even though you were wounded twice, you got one Purple Heart. What else?

TOKI: I have a bronze star with a, with a -- with a cluster, three of them. Three bronze stars. Then I have other ribbons, you know.

DERKS: What were the three bronze stars for? Were they three different campaigns?

TOKI: Yeah, actually I was in four campaigns but I only got three. Briare, Lost Batallion, and the Po Valley. See, I was supposed to get one for Southern France, but that's were we regrouped when we went over to Italy.

DERKS: Did you have much contact with the French people or the Italians?

TOKI: Italians I had quite a few contact. French people, they're a little 01:02:00different, because -- they seemed, they didn't want to do anything, too much with the American people. Why I don't know, but, just like -- when I went over there as a civilian, you know, visiting there around the area, they don't cozy up to you like the Italian people do. Italian people, they really, well I think maybe the Italian people were a little more poorer people, you know, didn't have much money or that, so maybe that's what did it, I don't know. But they were more friendlier. And they were more talkative.

DERKS: Did they speak English or did you speak some Italian?

TOKI: Half and half. Because to tell you the truth, I could talk better Italian than I could talk Japanese.

DERKS: Did you learn there?

TOKI: Yeah, I took those up over there. Well, I had a -- I had a German prisoner that I used to take care of. You know, I used to trust. He took care, he used to wash my mess gear and polish my shoes, and he even polished, he polished my weapons and everything.

DERKS: Wait a minute, what does that mean you had a German?

TOKI: POW? Well he just cozied, I don't know, he just cozied up to me and we started talking. And he befriended me and I befriended him. He was an older man 01:04:00you know. He was a merchant marine. So he must have been about 40, something like that. He was kind of old. So I used to give him cigarettes and things like that, and leftover food we'd give him. So he was good to me and I was good to him. And he taught, he was trying to teach me German. See I was trying to learn German too. So I talked to him, I talked to him in Italian, and he could talk Italian, see. So, so I asked him teach me some German, and he'd say a German word to me then he'd tell me what it means in Italian, see. Then I'd catch on see.

DERKS: But were there other prisoners in the camp?

TOKI: Oh yeah, yeah.

DERKS: Other prisoners that you guys were in charge of, and you didn't keep them in one spot. They just sort of mingled with you?

TOKI: Yeah, we kept -- well some of them weren't, weren't uh, you know, they had a segregated way from, but it was in the stockades, it was towers around it. So, then, oh yeah there's another thing I can say is, when we were guarding the stockade, I, an Italian farmer had a, he had a field next to the stockade. And we saw him work the ground, and get the ground ready. And he put sweet corn in 01:06:00there. And he hoed and weeded it, and when time to harvest it, us guys went in and took the corn and had sweet corn for lunch.

DERKS: So that farmer really liked you.

TOKI: Yeah, he really liked us.

DERKS: Did you take it all?

TOKI: Practically. No, we were desperate looking for vegetables.

DERKS: Yeah, you probably hadn't had sweet corn. And you grew up with it.

TOKI: Yep. So that's what we did. It, it, it was one of those fun days you know.

DERKS: You probably appreciated those when they came along, those fun days.

TOKI: Yeah, because uh, the Italian man, or the Italian farmer, used to give, he had a honey wagon. You know what a honey wagon is. Well he used to go in the prison camp and scoop it up and spread it out in his field for fertilizer, see.

DERKS: Didn't think you were supposed to use that for fertilizer.

TOKI: Well they did over there. They did over there, so those are the little fun things that we did.

DERKS: So, we're just about done, but were you guys standing pretty tall by the end of the war? Did you feel like you had really accomplished what you had set 01:08:00out to accomplish?

TOKI: Uh, I don't know. I don't think, we haven't accomplished all the things we wanted to do, yet, I don't think. What, I think, I think, to me, I want to get rid of the prejudice. Get rid of that prejudice, that's what I want to do see, because we are all human beings. We are all here as human -- and try to, try to get along with each other. That's what I can see done more.

DERKS: So you guys went over there [cough] and fought like crazy and proved over and over again--

TOKI: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

DERKS: That you were good Americans, and you came back and there was still prejudice.

TOKI: Still prejudice see, because there's -- well, there's a couple instances that I know. One of the guys went into the barbershop to get a hair cut, he wouldn't cut his hair. Said no Japs allowed. Well, there's still that kind of animosity around yet, but I'd like to get rid of that kind of stuff. But I don't know -- I don't know if I'll live to see it, I don't know.

DERKS: Well I think you're talking to the right people when you're talking to the kids, because that's where it needs to start. Well thank you.

TOKI: You're welcome.