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All right. There we go. I’m sorry—we must have missed most of it. I’m very sorry. Forgive me. So…maybe—let me start over. So, my name is Brian Hammer.

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I’m with Rice University’s Houston Asian American Archive project, and I’m here today with Mr. George Fujimoto in the offices of his company, Vibrant Vitality of Houston, located in

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Houston, TX. Today’s date is Thursday, March 8, 2012. And may you repeat your name, your age, and your place of birth?

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My name is George Fujimoto. I was born in California, a place called Colusa, California. It was in January 13, 1920. Great.

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And how long did you live in Colusa? We lived in Colusa eighteen months, and my parents moved to Colorado. And he bought a cherry orchard in Colorado, and he farmed—raised cherries for

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a couple years. And then after he sold that, we moved to Longmont, Colorado, and he started farming there for a few years. And... I’m gonna say approximately

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in 1920, from Longmont, we quit farming there, and moved to Ault, Colorado, and farmed in Ault, Colorado. And farming in Ault, Colorado, we raised sugar beets, vegetables,

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and so on and so forth and we marketed that with a truck and our—some of the, uh, vegetables we had, we contracted peas, which is a English pea, to a cannery—canning

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company and harvest time we harvested that and took it to the factory for them to process it. We also raised sugar beet, and they had a sugar beet factory there called the Great Western Sugar

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Beet Company, and we hauled our sugar beets to the sugar factory. And the other produce was we had different kind of produce, you know, vegetable produce, and we hauled our vegetables to different places, if it’s cabbage you go to cabbage, and...

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That’s great. How—So as a child did you work in the farm, on the farm, or- Yes, I did. What kind of work did you do? We did all kinds of labor work.

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And what’s that... My time there, well it was during the Depression, it was tough times. So my father wanted me to do a lot of work on the

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farm, so I didn’t have too much chance to go to school, so I missed most of my school. In fact, I didn’t get to really go to school much ‘cause when I was, I might have been about ten, twelve years old, when I had to start

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uh... you know, leaving school and going back and working on the farm, helping dad farm. So I didn’t get to go to school, in fact I didn’t get to go to high school, I didn’t graduate, so I went through

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to ninth grade. And that’s when my father got hurt, got kicked by a horse and... got me to really work on the farm. So my dad says, ‘Oh, well, George,’ says, ‘You’re the oldest one on all the farm.

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That mean you need to help me, so... instead of continuing school I think you’ll have to probably go quit school.’ Well, I was happy. You know, I didn’t like school because I

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couldn’t keep up with the rest of the students, you know, going in three or four months out of the year unlike the rest of them. I was happy I got out, but... I sure wished I’d continued after I, you know, you don’t think about that until it’s

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too late. Sure. Well, so you went to school…So you started school in kindergarten and then went for most of the, like elementary school years, did you go most of the time? Well, most of the time I still had to do a lot of

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work at home. But I finally got to the ninth grade, and at that time that’s when I had to, you know, really quit and really work on the farm.

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Yeah. And how many siblings did you have, growing up? Did you have a brother or...? Oh, yes. I had three brothers and three sisters. There were seven of us in the family.

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My parents had quite a few kids then. Seven of us. That’s great. And you were the oldest? I was the oldest. How many years separated you?

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Most of us is separated by two years apart. Yeah. Okay. So that was a busy family. Yeah. And did your mother work in the farm as well or did she…?

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Yeah, she was a home-you know-keeper, but she helped on the farm a lot, so she had to do a lot of farm work. Did you have any animals on your farm, or?

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Oh, yes. We had... We also had cattle, we had hogs... Of course we had horses. That’s what’ Oh, yeah.

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We got it. Horses. Also, so did you have milk then, or did you have things like that? We had milk cow, and my parents fed beef cattle for the market, so we had that. And also pigs we had to market.

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Uh-huh. Wow. So did you have to get up really early in the morning and do all your work at five in the morning? Yeah. We had to get up early in the morning and go take

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care of the animals before we got to eat breakfast. That’s farm life, you know? Right. And when you had breakfast, was it mostly your farm food, or was

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it other, other things? No, it, uh, we raised most of our food, so we did not have trouble with food. In fact, I think the only thing we had to buy was sugar, coffee, and salt.

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And flour. The rest of the things, or, most of the things other than that, we had at home. We had our own meat, and

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we had our veg, meat, you know…uh, to butcher, and we had beef, we had pork, chicken. So we didn’t starve. Sounds good. Pretty nice.

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How did your family get into farming in the first place? Do you know? Well, I think my dad probably just kind of learned it. ‘Cause I don’t think he was a

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farmer in Japan, I don’t…I’m not sure. And were your parents born in the U.S. or in Japan? No, they were born in Japan. In Japan. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

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Yes. They immigrated to United States back in... oh... before the 1900, I guess. In eighteen-something, yeah. Do you remember where they were from in Japan, or?

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Well, I don’t remember, I just heard that they were from, uh, Kumamoto, Japan. Uh-huh. And did they come to the U.S. together or did they meet?

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No. My dad was a stowaway. He left Japan when he was a brat ‘bout eleven years old. So he got to the Gulf of Mexico, and he was forced off the boat, so I hear.

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So they had to swim in, and he swam in and—to Mexico and got as far as to uh... Guadalajara, I think that’s what he said.

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And he was taken in by a Mexican family. And uh... They took him in, they fed him and give him some clothing, and says, ‘Well, you gotta work for us.

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You gotta do the housework and take care of... the housework and the garden and whatever we had here, and we will send you to school.’ So he was lucky, he got to go to

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school, he went to school for two year, or about two and a half year they sent him to school. And when the Mexican Revolution happened, that’s when my dad said he gotta go, ‘I can’t stay here,’ so that’s when he left.

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And he come in the United States and come in through Juarez I guess, and went in to California. Wow. Did he come alone, or how did you know how he made the trip? Well, that uh, he come with a friend, another friend had come with him.

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They two of them were the stowaway. And his friend stayed in Mexico, and Dad says he wasn’t gonna stay there, so he went to California. However, Dad’s friend kept ratting to him, he says,

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‘Come on back to Mexico.’ He said, ‘I got into a trucking business, and I’ll get you in with me.’ Dad said, ‘No,’ says, ‘I’m not going.’ So that’s why he stayed in California,

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and from California he went to Colorado. Wow, very interesting. Now how about your mother? Do you know how she… Uh, my mother, her parents come over.

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And her, my brother, and her brother—two brothers, and her mother and father, they come together to United States. And uh... From what I understand, they knew each other in Japan.

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I guess they were close together, or, and so when they got here, why, they went to California, too, and that’s where they met again, and that’s where they, they got married in California. Do you remember what year they were married, or...

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approximately? Mm. I had it written here, but I don’t know. Okay. My mother, you see when the date is...

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Sure. Okay. She was born in May 20, 1897 in Shimoyabe, Kuma—Kumamoto, Japan. And my father was born in March the

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2nd, 1890, the same state—Shimoyabe, Japan. And they both passed away now. You want their time of death?

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Sure. Okay. My mother died in October 9, 1973. My father died in January 15, 1975. So

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my father lived couple of years older. Where were they living when they were in their older years? Uh, they got married in California in um... That town that I said in…where

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did I say, I forgot... In California... Oh, man, I don’t have no... I’m not smart enough, I guess... That’s okay. Did they, did they ever move to Texas, or?

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Yes, they did. After I come back from the service, I tried to farm in Colorado, but I knew all along that farming in Colorado is tough. Tough place to farm because we had

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two elements— that’s the thing that I always said in Colorado—against it. One was the weather, the other the price. Neither one of those we could, you know, we had no control of it. So, I tried to farm a couple of years in

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Colorado, and I had a hard time, I couldn’t make it, so I said, ‘I’m gonna get out of here,’ and so I took literature from different places. And finally I got the literature from Rio Grande Valley, you know where that is? McAllen, Harlingen?

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Sure. So McAllen? Yes. And there was an outfit down there by the name of Benton Corporation who was in the real estate business.

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So I got in touch with them, and we made a deal to come down there to look at the land. So at the time, my father says, to me he says, ‘Can I go

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with ya?’ ‘Well, yeah, if you wanna go, we can go. You like to pioneer, too, you know, you went from California, you know, all the way to Colorado, and if you wanna go, we’ll go see.’ So he come with me.

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And after we looked at it, oh I, I didn’t look at it good enough, my father didn’t look at it good enough, we was real anxious, you know, get out of Colorado. So I stuck quite a bit of money down there, and my dad says, ‘Well, I’m

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gonna go with ya if you don’t mind.’ I said, ‘I don’t mind.’ I said, ‘You can go with me, but we don’t know how it gonna end up.’ Well, it baaad... good. It was bad, bad.

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We got here when we run into a drought. And they had about four or five years with the drought. So we couldn’t raise any crop. And I had to get rid of my farm and citrus, give

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them back, and go back to work. And at that time, it was the drought, and we had our water to irrigate the farm and everything was pumped from the Rio Grande up to, you know, our level where it would flow to the land, and,

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you know, but there’s no water in the Rio. So we had to get out. And my brother was with me, so I told my brother, I says, ‘Boy,’ I says, ‘We’re in trouble here, and I don’t know what we’re gonna do.’ But I said, ‘Well,

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we’re gonna have to go out and work or something.’ But in the meantime, I got, from Harlingen, I got a newspaper that had an advertisement in the paper where there was a

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man by the name of, uh... Outlaw, that was his name. And name—advertising that he had a farm in Alabama and that he wanted a Japanese family

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to farm it for him. Well, I got the address the farm and had the paper, and I asked my brother. I said, to Roy, I

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said, ‘Roy,’ I said, ‘We’re not gonna make it here.’ I said, ‘We’re gonna have to do something else,’ but I says that, ‘You thinkin’ you might wanna take a chance and go down there and look at it’look it over?’ I said, ‘I can’t leave here, I’m gonna too much in debt, I gotta pay off the debts here.’ He says, ‘Yeah, I’ll try

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it.’ So he went. And I said, ‘You take Mom and Dad, too, because they might wanna go, you know. They probably won’t wanna stay here.’ So he took them kinda like a vacation, you know, went over there, and spent a week.

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Never could find the man. So he says, ‘Heck, I gotta come home.’ And he started to come home, and what he done is on his way home, he saw an ad

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on a... uh... I guess it must have been on a roadside someplace that his nursery wanted somebody to come and take care of that nursery.

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So my brother says he stopped, and he talked to them, and they give him a good, you know , kind of a... deal where he could say there and work for a little and kinda

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work himself up and get into the company. So he was working for, you know, like nothing, though. And he got to work about two and a half years, and boy he got that place in good shape.

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About that time, the lady said, ‘Well, we don’t need you no more.’ So he didn’t know what he was gonna do, so he called me. In the meantime, I met a fellow in Mission that had a friend here in Houston.

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Mission, Texas? Yes. So... I called my brother back, and I said, ‘Roy,’ I said, ‘This friend of mine here in Mission got a friend in uh...

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Houston that’s got the... produce called Holly Produce,’ you’ve probably heard of it? Mmhmm. Okay. And he got a farm in the produce market, so he

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wanted somebody there, you know, kind of helping the farm, so I asked Roy about that. He said, ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘I’ll try it for a little bit and see what happens.’ So he farmed

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here in Houston for a couple of years, but farming’s still not that good, so yeah. After two years or so, he was got in with the nursery, and he worked in nursery for a while.

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And after the nursery, why, he says, ‘I gotta keep going and doing something else,’ so he got a job with the City of Houston. And at the City of Houston, his job was he worked for

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flood control. And so he stayed with them for about twenty-five years, I think. And of course, at that—when he got the job here, why, he left the nursery and his company,

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the nursery, was uh... A man that has a... niece, I guess, from Japan. And so that’s where he met her, and after a while

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they got married, so he married her, and he’d been with her for, you know, quite a few years. So he had raised three boys and one girl, and that’s his family, and he just passed away about

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a couple of years ago now. Yeah. And so that’s a very interesting story. So you—your brother went off to Alabama, worked, and came back to Houston.

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And you were in the Rio Grande Valley’ Valley, and- In the Valley. And how long were you there, and what was that like? I stayed in the valley for...19...

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I was there, we moved there in 1952... Okay, 1970, probably.... Let’s

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see...…twenty year or so. Around 1970. Oh, okay. So I done all kind of work over there.

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I was a jack-of-all-trades. I run a salvage yard, and I went to produce vineyards, and then bought and sold produce, and

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done all that stuff. And that wasn’t too good a job for me because it wasn’t steady. So I told my wife, I said, ‘You know I’ve been around a lot, I’ve throughout Texas, all over

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Texas, Mexico, and farming and so forth, and the area that I liked best was Uvalde.’ So I told my wife, I said, ‘When I get ready to retire, I’m gonna move to Uvalde. I’m gonna retire in Uvalde.’ Well, that was fine, but

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it didn’t end up that way. In 1969, I had an urge I’m gonna go into the bowling business. So I checked around and

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located some equipment, some land and property. And I bought a bowling center, which was a bowling center, but it was all... It was only a building, but the building was still

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there. So I called the owner about that. He said, ‘Yeah, it’s for sale. It’ll cost you money.’ I said, ‘Why, I expect that. I don’t expect to get it for nothing.’ But I said, ‘I’m gonna ask

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you how much you want it for.’ And he told me, I said, ‘You know I can’t give you cash. I’m gonna have to make payments.’ ‘That’s all right. We could work it out if you want

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it.’ So I went back to Mission, and I told my wife, I says, ‘I think I’m gonna go ahead and make a move. I located a place in Uvalde, and I’m gonna get back in touch with him and

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tell him whether I’m gonna take it or not.’ So that’s what I done. I went back about told Mary, and I went home and come back, and I called the man, and we made the deal. And before we made the deal, he says to me, he says, uh,

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we got to know each other pretty good because I talked to him a lot. ‘Call me George,’ and ‘Okay.’ And his name was uh...

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God, I forgot what the name was... Anyway, when we was making the deal, he says to me, he said, ‘Are you going to run the bowling alley, or are you gonna get somebody

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else, and you just gonna own the bowling alley and try to, you know, let somebody else run it?’ I said, ‘No, sir,’ I said, ‘If I buy the bowling alley, you sell me the bowling alley, I’m the one that’s gonna be here and run it.’ He said, ‘I

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like to hear that.’ He said, ‘Otherwise, I was gonna tell you I’m not gonna sell it to you. Because if I sold it to you, you didn’t run it yourself, you can’t make it.’ I said, ‘Thanks for that

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information.’ I said, ‘I’m not gonna let somebody else run it. I’m gonna run it myself.’ Then he was telling me a story about, ‘If somebody else has the place there,’ he says, ‘the money’s not gonna go

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in the cash register.’ I said, ‘I figured that.’ So I knew in my mind that if I run, get the bowling alley, I’m gonna run it. And I run it, I run it for thirty-six years.

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Wow. Yeah. I had a long go with that. Wow. That’s great. So I had a lot of bowling in the business. I got that and then’ What—How do you spell the place where it’s located?

00:24:51.920 - 00:25:00.880

U-valley, or’ U-V-A-L-D-E. Uval-L-D-E. U-V-A-L-D-E. Oh, okay. Uvalde. Oh, okay. Great.

00:25:01.380 - 00:25:18.740

Yeah, that’s where I spent thirty-six years. And probably the last ten, twelve years, my daughter that’s got this place here now, she says, ‘Dad, you gotta come to Houston.

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There’s no way that you could stay there.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I have to because I own the property and I don’t—haven’t even got it sold yet.’ But she says, ‘You know what?’ Says, ‘You know you’re getting old,’ she said.

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I said, ‘I’m not old yet.’ She says, ‘I can’t take care of you if you live in Uvalde. You got to get up here.’ How many years ago was that?

00:25:45.330 - 00:26:02.470

I moved here in two thousand and... six. So I been here seven years. Uh-huh, uh-huh. That’s great. So, very nice. So you’ve done many things as a—in

00:26:02.860 - 00:26:13.820

your career in terms of work. As a child, you worked on a farm, and as an adult you worked on a farm, you had your own farm. You’ve done other—many other things.

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Yes, I did. After I went broke on a farm, we went down there, that’s when I had to do produce business; I had a salvage yard, run a salvage yard. I done everything I could think of. So when you had that salvage yard, did you have at the bowling alley, of course

00:26:31.720 - 00:26:45.140

you also had employees… Well, in the salvage yard I had one— One. Okay. But that was all because it wasn’t too big, you know, I’m just starting. So I had to do most of the work myself.

00:26:45.420 - 00:26:55.650

In the bowling job, I had one help, one girl help me, and my wife run the snack bar. Oh okay. So it was a family…

00:26:55.650 - 00:27:08.690

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it was just a twelve-lane house, so we had to run it family. So whenever I was doing that, also when things were kinda slow, I had to work outside.

00:27:09.480 - 00:27:22.140

So I got me a job, I was a salesman. I sold fertilizer to the farmers in that area to help me, you know, keep that going. So that’s what I had to do.

00:27:22.180 - 00:27:39.510

That’s great. That’s very interesting. So we skipped over some middle years there, in terms of your…So you were in school through ninth grade, and then you worked on the farm, with your father and the rest of your family, and

00:27:40.630 - 00:27:52.280

I’m wondering if we could just go back to just talk a little bit more about the school time and how you—what that was like. Were you the only Japanese family in town or...? Oh, no. There was uh...

00:27:53.650 - 00:28:08.120

There was about six families ‘Japanese family in that community. Small place. And they were all farmers. So we farmed there until I went into the service, and after I went to the service and come back, well then

00:28:08.120 - 00:28:19.780

I was gonna try again, and it wasn’t no good, so that’s when I made the move. So how did you come to be in the service? So we’ll talk about that process.

00:28:20.520 - 00:28:37.770

Well, this goes back to 1940. In 1940, I guess you probably knew, all... young boys, the minute they get, they hit twenty-one, they had a draft.

00:28:37.900 - 00:28:50.680

I mean, you know, uh... registration. We had to register for the army. So I already had, I was already registered for the Army, so in

00:28:51.740 - 00:29:08.740

1942, I went into the service in March of ’42. So you were drafted? Or are you just- Yeah, I mean, well, of course, you know, our name was called, so we just went. And initially, where did you go in the military?

00:29:09.190 - 00:29:22.880

What was your’ Well, I started out, we went from Greeley, Colorado, that’s where our draft board was, so we went over there and signed up, and from there they send us to uh...

00:29:25.050 - 00:29:38.980

Denver, Colorado. Or, not Denver. Colorado Springs. Induction center, they called them. And then from there we went to basic training in Camp Robinson, Arkansas.

00:29:40.020 - 00:29:51.480

Took our basic there, and after our basic, why, we were finally sent to Fort Riley, Kansas. Which—which place? Fort Riley. Fort Riley. Okay.

00:29:52.940 - 00:30:09.400

And that was uh... Fort Riley is um... is a Federal prison. Mm. Okay. I don’t know whether you knew that or not. Oh. No, I didn’t. Yeah. It was a federal prison

00:30:10.670 - 00:30:23.260

at the time, but I don’t know where they put the prisoners, they were still around there, not where we were. Because we had that building, and I don’t know where the other people, the soldiers come from.

00:30:24.430 - 00:30:36.630

I was one from Fort Riley. Not Fort Riley. From Camp Robinson, went to Fort Riley, and I think I was the only one—Japanese—who went to Fort R iley.

00:30:37.410 - 00:30:55.570

A nd lots of th different camps all over United States to that camp. And the more I thought about it, that was a concentration camp, or prison camp, really. Because it w as all Japanese

00:30:56.080 - 00:31:14.310

took a train into the area. We got some from California, Washington, everywhere. And’ Just enlisted servicemen. Yes. They’re all servicemen.

00:31:15.350 - 00:31:27.550

And of course, our officers. You know, we had Anglo officers, you know, because we were there. And the only time that I thought that we were

00:31:27.680 - 00:31:39.280

really prisoners, and I believe that’s right. Because when Roosevelt made his rounds, he’s coming around and look at that place. You know they put guards all around that building.

00:31:39.600 - 00:31:55.180

We were in the building. You weren’t allowed to go out to see the president or- I guess not. That’s as near as I can remember. I know we had—we was guarded.

00:31:56.380 - 00:32:11.420

Yeah. How many, do you remember, how many people do you think were there who were Japanese American? You know our unit at that time... It’s pretty hard to say, but I imagine there might, might have been about five or six hundred people there.

00:32:13.640 - 00:32:26.400

Wow. And were you ever in—together in a large group, or did they keep separated into smaller groups? No, we were all in the group. But they had us do detail work, dirty work.

00:32:26.720 - 00:32:42.750

They called it dirty work. Because they had us as a gardener, we had to garden the lawn, and then mow the lawn, water the lawn, take care of the swimming pool, and uh’

00:32:43.280 - 00:32:51.060

Who would use the swimming pool? Would you—were you able to use the swimming pool? No, we couldn’t use it. Who would use the swimming pool?

00:32:51.700 - 00:33:03.090

The officers there. Okay. And so we had to cook for the officers. They had a lot of officers there. They was training some for second .

00:33:03.090 - 00:33:21.380

And we had to clean their house. I mean it was pure detail. So whenever we got time, we finally did get a furlough every once in a while, we

00:33:21.380 - 00:33:34.920

all, like, turned, you know, get—take the furlough, get leave. So in order for us to go, we had to find somebody to replace us. So well, they would say, ‘Hey, Joe-whatever-your-

00:33:35.650 - 00:33:50.540

name-is,’ I said, ‘You wanna work in where I was working?’ Said, ‘You get extra money. Five bucks a month more.’ And five bucks was a lot because we got only—we only got twenty one dollars. For a month?

00:33:50.990 - 00:34:03.220

Yes. So they took it. And then after you come back, ‘Hey you gonna come back here?’ I said, ‘No, you keep that job. I’m not coming back. I’m not taking that

00:34:03.220 - 00:34:13.270

dog no more.’ I was through. So we didn’t do it no more. So what happened when you didn’t do it? Well, we done something else.

00:34:13.270 - 00:34:30.360

We had to go do KP and all other different kind of work. So let me just clarify. So everyone who was doing this type of work were Japanese American soldiers. Every one of the supervisors, everyone else, they

00:34:30.360 - 00:34:40.970

were white Anglo. Yes. Okay. And how did they talk to you? The Anglo officers? Yeah. Uh-huh. Well, I guess they were all right.

00:34:41.270 - 00:34:53.160

We didn’t have much trouble with them. And we had to feed all the officers, you know, in the mess hall. Doing the cooking and KP.

00:34:53.350 - 00:35:08.470

And, of course, a lot of them went to the school that they had there, cooking and baking school. And I was gonna do it, then, ‘Nah, I don’t like that,’ because believe me I was kind of

00:35:08.470 - 00:35:22.070

a farmer, you know, an outside man, so that wasn’t any good. And then there come the time when, I guess, the war come on, and they were gonna organize the Japanese

00:35:24.500 - 00:35:40.900

uh.... army. So they asked a bunch of volunteers. To go to another camp. Man, all of us at that place, I’m gonna say all of us, I think most of us that was in that place, was gone.

00:35:41.060 - 00:35:54.150

We volunteered and went. So they all kind of... temporary noncommissioned officers, that’s what we were when we got over there.

00:35:54.150 - 00:36:08.280

And then they got the volunteers from Hawaii. Young boys from Hawaii. And got them to come over here, and we trained them to be in

00:36:09.310 - 00:36:25.380

the army. That was the 442, that’s what the 442 made up of. And the 100th is uh... was uh... National Guard from

00:36:25.640 - 00:36:43.060

Hawaii, and they were brought in to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. So that’s where the 100th were. So that’s where the 100th got their name with the 100th, and so the 100th was different from the 442, but they kind of

00:36:43.060 - 00:36:55.820

got combined when they went to Italy and France and other places. So just to go back one step, to—back to Kansas. When you went to Kansas, what

00:36:55.820 - 00:37:03.840

were you told was your mission? I mean, why were you all congregating in Kansas? Nobody said anything. You know, we just thought that was our...

00:37:04.300 - 00:37:14.500

our military camp that we was gonna go to. We didn’t know what it was until we got there. And when we got there, we was all piled up in there in that barrack,

00:37:14.580 - 00:37:24.060

that big barrack there, they had, you know, beds in there. Small, close together. And that’s the only thing we knew until we

00:37:24.060 - 00:37:41.690

got ready to go. How is that different than your experience later, in terms of facilities or quality of the space, or? Well. Well, when we left there, we went to Camp Shelby.

00:37:42.070 - 00:37:54.380

And at Camp Shelby, we had lots of—there were American—I mean, you know, Caucasian officers. And we didn’t have any trouble with them. They were good officers.

00:37:54.560 - 00:38:07.350

They knew. And we got to talking with them after a while, and they said, you know we have no trouble with that, ‘We know you guys.’ Said, ‘We know you guys from way back.’ You

00:38:07.990 - 00:38:20.330

know, not the soldiers but the Japanese people. They were, you know, all among the Japanese people from different places. And so they treated us good. We enjoyed them.

00:38:21.070 - 00:38:33.800

And we took our training again, another training, and um’ Training in what? What were you training for? Basic training. We had to go out there and put the gear on and go out

00:38:33.800 - 00:38:44.540

and train for, you know, under fire and so on and so forth. So how long were you at Camp Shelby? And when was that? In Camp Shelby.

00:38:45.020 - 00:38:55.340

I was not there too long. I was at Camp Shelby... uh, until we finished training. Basic.

00:38:56.550 - 00:39:16.050

Then we go on to work a little bit, and then it got to the point they needed soldiers to... uh... go. And so, we got sent back we didn’t know where we was gonna go, but, uh, they said, ‘You gonna guard the German prisoners.’

00:39:18.750 - 00:39:30.890

Okay. So we got ready, and we left Camp Shelby. They picked up some German prisoners that they got in Africa. They brought ‘em to the United States.

00:39:31.490 - 00:39:46.760

And they brought ‘em to Alabama. And in Alabama, they had peanut farms. And that’s where the prisoners gonna work on a peanut farm. So the farmers plowed up the peanuts, got them

00:39:46.760 - 00:39:58.760

loosened them up in the ground, and the prisoners had to get a pitchfork and go shake them out, you know, dirt off of there and stack it on loose stakes they put on the ground. And that’s what we had to do, we had

00:39:58.760 - 00:40:11.750

to guard those prisoners. And... I didn’t get to do too much. I think a week and a half or so was my time there and we was coming home from

00:40:12.840 - 00:40:27.820

guard duty, and we got into an accident. Had a truck wreck. And, ‘course, I heard that it was a…t-road, and the road, at

00:40:28.400 - 00:40:42.300

the end of that was an old riverbed. They said it was pretty deep riverbed, I didn’t know which one it was, and I didn’t know where I was until I got in the hospital and I see my parents come to see me.

00:40:42.300 - 00:40:55.200

They thought I was dead, I guess. So I thought maybe I was there guarding prisoners for a week, maybe two. I got to talk to few of the

00:40:55.200 - 00:41:04.690

prisoners, but they were all’Not all, but a lot of them were, they could talk pretty good English. They says, ‘What are you guys doing here? You guys are Japanese, ain’t ya?’

00:41:04.730 - 00:41:22.710

Says, ‘Well, we might have been, but we’re American soldiers, American army.’ And we got talking. They said, ‘You guys are our allies.’ And what did you say in response?

00:41:22.850 - 00:41:34.670

‘Naw, we’re American soldiers, and we’re here, and we’re here to guard you guys.’ But that was it. I mean, they didn’t do anything else. I mean, they could’ve got

00:41:34.720 - 00:41:46.000

mean, I guess, but they knew better, I guess. So they didn’t. So, then you were in this accident, and then you were in the hospital, and what, what happened, how were you injured?

00:41:46.070 - 00:41:56.220

Was it’ Well, that’s where I spent most of my life. I mean, at... Georgia. This is in Georgia, I was in Georgia. Georgia where I was in the hospital there.

00:41:56.300 - 00:42:11.940

And I kept thinking to myself. I spent a lot of time in the hospital there. I was in a full-body cast for twelve months. I had this side leg, it was in a straight cast all the way down, and

00:42:11.940 - 00:42:20.610

this side was cut off here. At your knee? Just below your knee? But the rest of it was in a body. And you know at the hospital, the officers

00:42:20.960 - 00:42:29.700

supposed to... they com e by, lot of them, to talk to you. But this guy never talked to me, just said, ‘Hi,’ or something like that. And then usually I would think they ask you how

00:42:30.020 - 00:42:44.350

you feeling and so on so forth. That never happened. The nurse was the only one that talk to you. The nurses were pretty good. But in my mind, I never said anything, I kept quiet.

00:42:44.840 - 00:43:00.720

I stood it as long as I could, and finally I said, ‘I need to get out of here,’ because... Well, that was too long there. I told them the story that I had a sister in C hicag

00:43:00.820 - 00:43:17.990

my parents lived close to Denver, see. And I said, ‘I have parents close to…Denver, so I’d like to get transferred.’ I said, ‘I’ve been in this darn thing too long.’ So I finally got

00:43:18.030 - 00:43:35.530

my transfer. I got my transfer, and after I got my transfer, and I got to Denver, Fitzsimmons, there’s two officers, a colonel and a captain, making their rounds, you know. They would say, ‘Good morning,’ they’d talk to you, ‘How you feelin’?’ and I

00:43:35.560 - 00:43:50.180

said, ‘Well I guess all right.’ And he was lookin’ at that chart, and the colonel says to the..., he says, ‘Look at this chart, would you?’ And I heard him talk, and he said, ‘I can’t

00:43:50.180 - 00:44:05.500

understand why they kept this soldier in a cast this long. A whole year.’ And that’s when I thought that the captain over here in Georgia probably didn’t like me, they was gonna keep me in that thing forever.

00:44:07.340 - 00:44:21.230

‘Cause if it wa—I heard them say that, so I should’ve been out of the cast. Instead of being in the cast. But after I got to Denver, that’s when they took the cast off, and I was exercising and so forth.

00:44:21.310 - 00:44:35.850

And I spent—it took me a long time to get straightened out because they sent me to Georgia and back to Denver, and then to Geor—I mean, not to Georgia, to Colorado Springs, back and forth. And finally at the

00:44:35.910 - 00:44:55.210

third time, they sent me to Washington, and I got my discharge in Washington in 1945. But... We had our, one of our meetings

00:44:55.210 - 00:45:11.100

here, and... that was in two thousand and... and before I come here, so that’s when I met some people.

00:45:13.650 - 00:45:21.660

Not some, I didn’t meet very many, just one fellow there. In fact, it wasn’t him, it was his father. He said his father was

00:45:21.660 - 00:45:35.800

in that unit, and we got to talking about that, and he says, ‘Maybe my father might have known you.’ But I said, ‘I didn’t get to know anybody there because when the accident

00:45:35.800 - 00:45:51.190

happened, I was gone in the hospital.’ And nobody knew that I was there. None of these guys. So the boy that said that he kind of knew my name, I don’t know which one he is

00:45:51.190 - 00:46:04.360

there, and he said that, ‘I heard you was dead.’ That’s what he told me. I said, ‘Well, I’m not dead. I’m alive.’ And I’d like to one of these days maybe get to Hawaii to visit you

00:46:04.610 - 00:46:20.550

with you again, but I never got that chance, so I don’t know. So, you know, whenever you get together ‘a bunch of soldiers like that and you don’t have too much time, you know, it’s hard to get to know them.

00:46:22.630 - 00:46:36.410

So I didn’t get to know ‘em, and so they all said that we thought you were dead. Of course, you know, when they shove ‘em in the hospital like that, why, they weren’t there. Oh my goodness.

00:46:38.070 - 00:46:52.720

So... I didn’t have too good a time in the army anyway. Oh, goodness. So what were you thinking at that time, like about the—your treatment? What?

00:46:53.090 - 00:47:04.770

What were you thinking about your treatment? Oh, about the treatment? Yeah, yeah. Well, my hospital treatment, I never thought too much of it. In bed, laying in bed, I

00:47:04.770 - 00:47:18.160

couldn’t think of it too much. And then when I got to Denver, I had physical therapy, you know, treatment all the time. And it was alright, the only thing I wanted to hurry up and get well and probably get out because they said they wouldn’t be able to keep me in

00:47:18.160 - 00:47:30.120

there, you know? I had braces and everything, but I’m okay. Yeah. Yeah. So you were discharged, you were transferred. You transferred to Washington, D.

00:47:30.120 - 00:47:44.700

C.? Or you were discharged? Uh, they sent me from Denver to Colorado Springs, and they got tired of me in Colorado Springs. I went there twice for physical therapy; then they sent me to

00:47:46.220 - 00:47:51.470

Washington, D. C. I mean, the state of Washington Oh, state of Washington? Tacoma. Tacoma. Okay. Tacoma, Washington.

00:47:51.920 - 00:48:08.360

And I thought, ‘Man, I’m gonna get some more physical therapy.’ Why, I got a little bit of physical therapy, but that’s where I got discharged was in Tacoma. So I got another slow train ride from Tacoma, Washington to Colorado.

00:48:08.840 - 00:48:22.400

And at that time, your family was still living on the farm... Yeah. In Ault? Or..? Yeah. Okay. Okay. And your younger brothers and sisters, they were—most of them were

00:48:22.400 - 00:48:34.450

still in school, probably? Oh, they were all in school when I left. So as I left, couple of years, my younger

00:48:34.450 - 00:48:49.410

brother Harley, he went to service, he got into MIS, he was in a mili…you know, military service’ Intelligence? Intelligence. And then couple years after that, then my third

00:48:49.410 - 00:49:02.220

brother went in, he was in the Korean War, he went to Korea. And then my youngest brother, he was the youngest one, and so he had his job was what they call TDY, temporary

00:49:02.220 - 00:49:12.760

duty. It was after the war, so he kind of went over there to patrol the area and so forth. So there was four of us boys, all four of us went into service.

00:49:12.940 - 00:49:25.410

Do you mean in Japan he went to temporary? Or where was he at temporary duty…temporary duty where? Your third brother. Well, they sent him to Japan to kind of patrol

00:49:25.970 - 00:49:38.610

the place there, and my other brother, one that was in MIS, why, he served a lot of time in Japan interpreting there. And of course, the Korean War, he fought in the Korean War.

00:49:38.970 - 00:49:54.350

And... of course this is what my brother used to tell me all the time we talk about that, and ‘course he was in at the time when Truman, you heard of Truman?

00:49:54.520 - 00:50:11.850

President Truman? Of course. Well, President Truman I don’t think was too good a president myself because he was the man that fired General MacArthur. Well, my brother fought under General

00:50:12.190 - 00:50:22.680

MacArthur. And that was in Korea. And in Korea, the North and South Korea just divided by line. North Korea was the communists.

00:50:23.580 - 00:50:34.400

Right? Right. And that’s what they were, we were fighting. So he said we cross that line, 38th line, and get over there and ? You gotta pull them back.

00:50:34.870 - 00:50:47.360

MacArthur did order to pull back. He said, ‘I don’t know how many times we done that.’ So when my brother knew about MacArthur getting fired, well he wasn’t too

00:50:47.360 - 00:51:01.860

happy, either. And, so, naturally, as time goes on, we heard—you probably heard, too—that nuclear war, I mean, they were gonna start in North Korea.

00:51:02.060 - 00:51:17.670

That’s when my brother said, ‘If it wasn’t for Truman, if there was Douglas MacArthur, we’d of got rid of that.’ And I’m sure that’s what would’ve happened. ‘Cause he said, ‘We’re there, but they pulled us back.’

00:51:20.390 - 00:51:32.410

Interesting. What did your family think after your experience in the military, what did your family think about the military? Well, they never thought anything of it.

00:51:32.410 - 00:51:45.760

about it. They, you know, told us last. I said, ‘You guys gotta be good. Hold your face up.’ You don’t wanna be a pigeon, I guess.

00:51:47.940 - 00:52:03.540

So we was alright, my folks never had any objection to that or anything. In fact, my dad told me after I come home. He said, ‘You know what? You boys are lucky

00:52:04.430 - 00:52:19.760

that United States won the war. ‘Cause if United States didn’t win the war, you guys went in the United States Army, and they know that, they’re gonna really get ya.’ I mean, they

00:52:19.920 - 00:52:33.010

gonna really get ya. They’re gonna crucify you. So I told my dad, I said, ‘ I’m glad we won.’ Right. So did you, did you speak Japanese at home when you were

00:52:33.010 - 00:52:43.940

growing up? Oh, yes, sir. When I was a kid, I know I had to speak Japanese because my mother didn’t speak it. English. My father had to learn English.

00:52:44.900 - 00:53:01.220

And so we went to—we started school, and after I started school and Japanese got away from me. And I feel embarrassed about it, but can’t help it.

00:53:01.310 - 00:53:17.960

I mean, it just got away from me, and I didn’t proceed. My younger brother, the one that went to the MIS, see, we had a Japanese school, but he was more studious than I was. In fact, all along he was the one able to go to all the other schools.

00:53:18.710 - 00:53:30.000

So he kind of studied instead of fooling around like me. ‘Cause I knew a little bit, I could say some of the things when I went in, but I said, ‘I can’t say it. I don’t know what it say.’ They say, ‘Okay.

00:53:30.130 - 00:53:40.820

Get out of here. You don’t belong here.’ So I didn’t go to MIS. I stay as a foot soldier. Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. Okay. So...

00:53:41.930 - 00:53:52.800

military service. What—When you were in the military, when you were serving those years in the hospital et cetera, what were you hearing about Japan or the war?

00:53:54.850 - 00:54:08.880

Oh... Not too much, except the war was going on, and they said they were going back and forth, you know, fighting back and forth and so forth. But that’s about all, I never—

00:54:09.220 - 00:54:18.900

the place where I was, I didn’t hear anything. There in the hospital, you don’t hear nothing there that we don’t hear. And that’s where I was most of the time, right there

00:54:22.150 - 00:54:39.030

in that darn hospital there. So I didn’t know much. Yeah, it’s interesting. So then you were discharged in Tacoma, took a train, a slow train back to Colorado, and then you were in Colorado for a while, and how long before

00:54:39.080 - 00:54:53.640

you went to the Valley, or how did that…? I farmed in Colorado for two years and thought I was gonna try to make it there, but I couldn’t make it, it’s too hard, and so that’s when I decided I’m gonna go someplace

00:54:53.640 - 00:55:11.760

else and find a more tropical place. So that’s when I located the Rio Grande Valley. And I made my mind up to go to the Valley and, so, my father was—said he’d like to go, I

00:55:11.860 - 00:55:27.710

says, ‘Come on, let’s go,’ so I took him, too, and went. So how do you feel? So you grew up mostly in Colorado on a farm with—there are other Japanese families in the area, plus other folks, as well.

00:55:28.320 - 00:55:40.070

And then you raised your family in Texas in the Valley, Uvalde. How do you feel that those childhoods may have been different between yours and your children’s?

00:55:42.440 - 00:55:59.000

Oh, I don’t know. I guess maybe our kids, you might say, maybe they come up more Americanized than we did because we was still with our folks, and ‘course they spoke

00:55:59.070 - 00:56:11.120

Japanese, and we spoke Japanese, too, at home. But we never talked too much about Japan or anything. I mean, we didn’t, I don’t know about other families. But that’s one

00:56:11.190 - 00:56:26.470

thing that my uncle give me heck for. When my father passed away here, my Uncle Charlie, he was the youngest one of my uncles, I guess. That’s my sister’s brother.

00:56:26.740 - 00:56:45.640

And he come over here and he says, talking about my dad, he said, ‘Did you’—Did you know your dad, he said, ‘Did you know that your dad was come from a Samurai family in Japan?’ I says, ‘No.’ So he give me heck, he says, ‘How

00:56:45.640 - 00:57:00.130

come you didn’t know?’ I says, ‘Because I didn’t ask!’ And I guess I was the only one, I was the oldest one, and of course, you know, I left fairly early because

00:57:03.340 - 00:57:20.430

when the war started, why, the things was changing. And my younger brothers, why, they were younger, so they were still at home, you know, for a lot longer time than I was, so I kind of got away

00:57:20.620 - 00:57:37.490

from all that pretty quick... And my kids, especially my daughter here, she was the youngest one, so when

00:57:38.140 - 00:57:48.780

she went to school she went to school in McAllen, and I guess when she went to high school, she says she really had trouble in high school. They was harassin’ her, ya know, and all that

00:57:49.120 - 00:58:08.730

about being Japanese and so forth. And she says she was really getting tired of that, but she said…She had my... that book. That come out of a book, I had a book about the 442. Had a book there, you know, all we do in the army and so forth.

00:58:09.390 - 00:58:23.340

So she took that to the school, probably three or four years of high school, and she explained, tried to explain it to them because, you know, they called her names so forth,

00:58:24.480 - 00:58:39.530

and I guess maybe that’s why when she got out of high school she didn’t want to go to school anymore. She never said why, but I was already in Uvalde, getting ready for that bowling center, I had to fix it up,

00:58:40.260 - 00:58:58.710

so my daughter at that time, she started college Pan Am in Edinburg . But my daughter said she didn’t wanna go, and so my wife called me, says, ‘I don’t know, we gotta send her to school.’ I said, ‘She need

00:58:58.710 - 00:59:09.450

to go to school.’ But she said she didn’t want to go. She wanted to come to Uvalde and work the bowling center with me. And I told her mom, I said, ‘That’s no business for her.

00:59:09.540 - 00:59:21.230

She needs to go to school.’ But she said, ‘What am I gonna do? She not gonna stay here at home.’ ‘We just sent her there’here, then. She wants to work with me. I’ll get her to go to

00:59:21.230 - 00:59:37.490

school.’ Well, I didn’t have any luck getting to go to school ‘cause she help me, and I said, ‘You go to school here.’ They had, we had a college, you know, junior college there in Uvalde. So she said, ‘No, I’ll go

00:59:37.570 - 00:59:49.980

to data processing school here.’ They had that. She started with that’s no good, she said. But she wanted to come to Houston. I heard that her

00:59:49.980 - 01:00:09.710

older brother went to school here, in data processing here, but you know when you go to school, a trade school or whatever you call it—I call it trade school—they can guarantee you work and so on so forth, until you come to my school, and I give you

01:00:09.780 - 01:00:27.170

job when get a... But that’s a lot of baloney. ‘Cause I told Donna, I said, ‘That’s not gonna work that way because whenever you going to work for a job, they’re gonna say, ‘Okay, miss, how much schooling you got?’ and,

01:00:28.030 - 01:00:41.980

‘How much experience you got?’ You don’t have it. You just got out of school.’ Well anyway, she kind of worked around, and she got the job, and she done real good. She got two or three jobs with that.

01:00:42.260 - 01:00:58.000

She took this job but not good, she not never satisfied. Finally she got... oh, Lone Star Gas Company. She liked that. I don’t know how she learned all that, but she picked it up after you got

01:00:58.000 - 01:01:12.130

out ‘cause when you get into the chemical like that, you had to have chemistry, I thought. Well, anyway, she didn’t have that, but she went to work for this guy, and worked for him about a

01:01:12.220 - 01:01:29.770

year, year and a half, and then she decide, I guess she gonna go ahead and get into a company by herself. But another guy said, ‘He’s not going to the company with ya, if you’re gonna go in company, why, we could go ahead and partner.’ She thought that was alright, so

01:01:29.910 - 01:01:46.540

she got in with him, and they worked for a year or so, and it ended up really—it wasn’t any good. So she called me, she said, ‘Dad,’ says, ‘I’m gonna have to quit this guy. I’m not gonna work with him because I gotta do all the work,

01:01:47.030 - 01:01:56.250

and he wants to quit. He wants to be the boss.’ And she said, ‘I’m not gonna let him do that.’ So she says, ‘Well, okay, how

01:01:56.250 - 01:02:09.740

much money do you want to get going, you know, you get on your way?’ And I guess she give him five thousand dollars; I don’t know what he borrowed it or what, but she done that on her own ‘cause I didn’t help…couldn’t help with it, you know?

01:02:10.120 - 01:02:21.170

And she got rid of him, and then she got on her own with Cole Chemical. She was married to a guy by the name of Cole, but he wasn’t any good , so she took his name.

01:02:21.250 - 01:02:39.290

She didn’t change the name because she says, ‘If I just go by Fujimoto, maybe a lot of people won’t recognize the name.’ So she says, ‘I’m gonna go Cole Fujimoto,’ and that’s how she gonna start the business. Because I think there’s might be some politics in there.

01:02:40.160 - 01:02:58.950

So, that’s the way she started, and she started, and going to start, and guys with a different oil company that knew Donna, you know, that were doing good, said, ‘You not gonna last there, you can’t get that job.’ They said, ‘That’s a men’s job.

01:02:59.840 - 01:03:13.770

Men’s business.’ So Donna says, ‘Okay, you watch.’ And she got, she got into a business by herself. But she worked

01:03:13.770 - 01:03:32.680

hard at it. Sure. That’s great. So, she got a good business going. Yeah. Yes. I’m wondering... Maybe she got a lot of that from you, I suspect, you know, of

01:03:32.680 - 01:03:50.020

your industriousness and your hard work. Uh, I don’t know. Well, anyway she didn’t want to go to school. When I found out she didn’t wanna school, I just god that’s not that good for her to work here in a bowling alley because it’s too small a place

01:03:50.080 - 01:04:04.230

anyway, you know, 12-lane house, that’s not for her. But I guess she did that, that’s all she do, why, I could’ve, after so many years, I could’ve got out and let her run it, but that I didn’t wanna do that.

01:04:04.270 - 01:04:16.730

I wanted to get her the education to do something else. So I mean, eventually you sold—you did sell the bowling center, is that right? Yes. I got it sold in 2006.

01:04:16.820 - 01:04:28.300

And that’s when I come up here. That’s when my daughter... in a kind of way, I think that she already knew that I sold before I knew it

01:04:28.300 - 01:04:41.740

myself. I just feel that way, you know? I don’t think so, but then, boy, she called me right away. ‘Okay, dad, it’s time to move! Better come up!’ ‘Okay,’ she said,

01:04:42.330 - 01:05:02.240

‘I’m gonna take care of you guys, and the only way to take care of you is you move up here,’ said, ‘I can’t take you down there.’ So she’s been good to us here, treat us good, and she said, she keeps saying, said, ‘Well, you took care of me, so now I’m gonna

01:05:02.380 - 01:05:22.510

take care of you.’ So... She got a good business, I’m glad she has, or she couldn’t take care of us. Yeah. I wonder if you could tell me about your Vibrant Vitality of Houston’ Okay, let me show you that, and then tell you.

01:05:23.980 - 01:05:44.390

Easier. Okay. Oh, this is a machine called a VIBE machine. It, uh... It’s a electrical vibration magnetic treatment.

01:05:44.660 - 01:06:00.410

It energizes you, and it could, uh, relieve lots of pain, and it takes care of lots of pains that people have. And as far as the machine is concerned, a lot of

01:06:00.410 - 01:06:14.080

people think it’s a new machine, invented not too long ago, but the man in Greeley is making these machines now. But this machine itself is, uh, not new.

01:06:14.510 - 01:06:29.910

The vibrant vitality it’s electrical generated. It was first invented by four medical doctors in California. And at that time, they have given patients treatment,

01:06:30.550 - 01:06:49.420

and they claim that they, uh, cured cancer, a hundred percent. And, uh, I’m not gonna say that it will cure cancer because this is not what we’re supposed to say, we could get, you

01:06:50.170 - 01:07:00.140

know, trouble. I understand, yeah. So I could say, ‘Whatever it does, we can help ya and help ya feel better.’ We could make ya he lthy.

01:07:01.350 - 01:07:16.000

But it will make you healthy, I think, because by being treated with it machine, it detoxifies your system. By detoxifying your system, you gotta get rid of your

01:07:17.010 - 01:07:29.920

liquid. That’s why you drink lots of water. And whenever we get rid of our poison from our body, I think we will not be sick. It, uh, takes care of all the...

01:07:31.500 - 01:07:45.840

cells in your body, and it purifies your cell, so your cells are clean. Myself, I’ve taken this now for about five years, six years, and I take it quite a bit.

01:07:47.840 - 01:08:03.300

And I believe this is why I am as healthy as I am. And I haven’t gotten sick, not one bit, in six years. Wow. Yeah. And... my daughter, uh, the uh...

01:08:04.850 - 01:08:15.250

has this business here. She gives the treatment with this VIBE machine to all her employees, and she was—when she took her treatment

01:08:15.630 - 01:08:29.930

it helped her problem. So she said, ‘Well, I believe in this machine now, and I’m gonna give even with the girls a treatment and keep them healthy. If I keep them healthy, that’s

01:08:29.970 - 01:08:40.510

money to me. They won’t get sick.’ So that’s what she’s doing. And so she takes this treatment and also. And— Very interesting.

01:08:42.300 - 01:08:54.380

Uh.. You may wanna know how I got it. Okay. Yes, exactly. Yes. I had problems myself. A few years ago, I had Bell’s palsy.

01:08:55.640 - 01:09:08.060

And Bell’s palsy I got rid of right away, I went to the doctor and got it cured. Within a week, I got another palsy on my left-hand side, and I went to the hospital, Veteran’s

01:09:08.060 - 01:09:14.720

Hospital in San Antonio. And they said, ‘Uh-oh! We got problems.’ Uh... It kinda scared me a little bit.

01:09:15.790 - 01:09:32.250

And they says, uh, ‘You know, we gotta go through here, right here, with a probe.’ I said, ‘What do you mean a probe?’ I said, ‘I think you’re talking about a needle.’ He said, ‘That is exactly what it is.’ I said, ‘Well, I guess you’ll have to do

01:09:32.270 - 01:09:43.970

it, that’s what you wanna do.’ So he done that, and when he done that, oh, what he done, or the doctor, they went up through here, and they cut a nerve.

01:09:45.580 - 01:09:57.770

When they cut a nerve that give me the worst headache I’ve ever had. Bad, bad headache. I mean, it’s a throbbing headache. And no matter what I

01:09:57.770 - 01:10:11.850

done, it would not help. I took acupuncture treatment, I took massage treatment, they said, ‘Do this, do that.’ But it wouldn’t help. And then, by coming here to Houston, then

01:10:11.850 - 01:10:27.870

we gonna go to Colorado, so on... I went to Colorado, and I went to see this machine because... that’s not what I went for, we just went for a visit... but they make it in Greeley,

01:10:27.870 - 01:10:45.100

Colorado. So I come back, and when I was coming back, I talked to this girl here that works with my daughter, and she’s got a cousin that’s, uh uh, acupuncture doctor. So I

01:10:45.100 - 01:10:58.880

been getting treatment, uh, from him, or I was, and on my way back, I called him up, I said, ‘I’m halfway between San Antonio and Houston, and I’d like to stop by and get a

01:10:58.950 - 01:11:15.240

treatment if you have time, if you will give me a treatment.’ He said, ‘I will if you stop, come on.’ So I stopped and got my treatment, and after I got my treatment, he says, uh, ‘Have you got a few minute to spend?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said,

01:11:15.240 - 01:11:29.300

‘My brother bought this VIBE machine. He just bought it on his way back.’ He said, ‘I don’t know where he heard about it or what he’d done, but he, he bought it, and he’s got the machine here, and

01:11:29.300 - 01:11:42.790

the machine will take care of a lot of ailment, it take care of pain. And it really help pain.’ I said, ‘That’s what I want.’ So I took the treatment with him. And, eh, ‘course you know

01:11:42.790 - 01:11:58.770

you just take a treatment, that’s okay. I felt okay, and I said, uh—his name was Gilbert— ,I said, ‘Gilbert.’ I said, ‘You know, I, since I’m starting this with you, I wanna make a contract, I wanted to get ten treatments.’

01:12:01.070 - 01:12:16.470

Because, uh, I am hurting, and I want something to cure the treatment. I don’t wanna take it one time and say it don’t work because that’s not my way of doing thing, you know. I wanted either by me actually taking it so many

01:12:16.720 - 01:12:27.240

treatment, and then if it don’t work, it don’t work. But I wanna find out. So I said, ‘I got a hundred mile to come. But then that’s okay, I’ll drive a hundred miles.’ So I come from

01:12:27.240 - 01:12:45.060

Uvalde to San Antonio, which is a hundred mile, once a week. And I took my treatment, once a week. And at my treatment, the sixth treatment, I remember it quickly. I was sittin’ over here, taking my treatment just like this, and all of a sudden,

01:12:45.220 - 01:13:00.790

my pain had just gone, just like that. I said, ‘Gilbert!’ I said, ‘I feel pretty good, no more pain!’ He said, ‘That’s what I wanted you to do, I mean, that’s what the machine is, and that’s what I

01:13:00.790 - 01:13:20.230

heard. That’s why I got it.’ So that’s how I got to know about this machine, and, uh, a friend of mine in Uvalde, he says, ‘My sister-in-law’... Yeah, it was his sister-in-law got

01:13:20.290 - 01:13:37.390

colon cancer. But she wasn’t operated on and in a real bad way. And I thought maybe I could buy this and help her because he had heard it cured cancer. So he bought it, and bought one, and he gonna take it to her, and she told him to

01:13:37.530 - 01:13:45.210

‘get the damn thing out of here.’ That’s what she said. ‘I don’t want it. I’ve had all kind of treatment I wanna get, and I don’t wanna take no more treatment.

01:13:45.930 - 01:14:01.740

I’m through, I’m through with all that.’ So he says, ‘Well, okay.’ Says, ‘I know it helped you,’ but anyhow, he bought two machines. We bought two at that time, and we had this one here stayed at the bowling alley that I

01:14:01.790 - 01:14:17.400

had. And I operated that in the bowling alley. And so he took his home to his home, and when I am—got ready to come over here, I just paid him off on this one, and he took his home to his house.

01:14:17.670 - 01:14:25.590

And I brought this here. That’s why I got this machine. But the man in Greeley is making this machine.

01:14:26.650 - 01:14:41.260

So actually, as far as the, what this machine will do is not new. It’s an old... over from back in the ‘20s. Uh-huh. That’s amazing.

01:14:42.240 - 01:14:58.720

So I can give people treatment and... And, uh... Some people I could just tell ‘em what it does. Uh, I had a patient come in that just had a

01:14:58.720 - 01:15:18.530

stroke. And uh... And her daddy brought her in in a w heelchair, and she w treatments, I probably treated her for about... six month, I think.

01:15:20.550 - 01:15:32.950

But she took a lot of treatments. But you know, it cured her. I could say it cured her, I mean I can tell you that. I can’t tell the company or somebody else, but she could walk and she could talk.

01:15:34.710 - 01:15:47.880

After a stroke. And there’s several other thing, a lady that was losing her hair got a treatment. And after so many treatments she got her hair back. Thyroid problem: cured that.

01:15:48.290 - 01:16:07.960

And that twenty-dollar bill, when I first come here, there a Linda Metcalf. She says, ‘I read your article about everything, and it says something about a testimonial.’ Says, ‘George, I

01:16:07.960 - 01:16:21.260

don’t want my testimonial written up.’ Fine. You don’t want, I don’t put. But after she took her treatment, well, she come back one day, and she said, ‘George, I’m gonna take a

01:16:21.260 - 01:16:38.390

treatment with you, but I wanna tell you something.’ Okay. She says, uh, ‘You know, now you could put—write my name down in the testimonial.’ I said, ‘Fine, thank you. I appreciate that.’ So after she finished why I

01:16:38.440 - 01:16:50.960

said, ‘Okay, now, Linda. Tell me what you had.’ She says, ‘I got a, a, a liver disease.’ I didn’t know what it was, and I still don’t know. I thought it was cancer, but I don’t think it’s cancer.

01:16:52.160 - 01:17:09.440

But she says, ‘I had that, and I had problems, and I was going to the doctor. But I wanted to get health insurance. That’s why I didn’t want my name in the testimonial because the doctor gonna ask

01:17:09.440 - 01:17:24.220

me question and thing about that and he finds out about this, then I can’t get insurance.’ Fine. I said, ‘Okay.’ So then she wrote the testimonial for me. After her

01:17:24.220 - 01:17:38.080

treatment got well. And there’s several other things, you’d be surprised. I mean, it’s amazing what this machine will do. I got a call from this girl in Uvalde, the one I was

01:17:38.080 - 01:17:49.340

telling you that got the other machine. She said, ‘George, I got a surprise for you.’ I said, ‘Fine. Tell me. I’d like to hear it.’ She said, ‘I have a patient that brought in a dog that

01:17:49.340 - 01:18:06.830

had tumor, and we cured it.’ And I said, ‘Is that a surprise to you?’ I said, ‘No, that’s not a surprise to me.’ The more she kinda yelled, says, ‘What do ya mean it’s not a surprise?’ Says, ‘How you know?’ I said, ‘When we first got this machine, I don’t know whether

01:18:06.830 - 01:18:20.130

you read the article or not, but I got the testimonials in there where there’s two people had pets, dogs, that had tumor. Brought pets to get treatment.

01:18:20.850 - 01:18:34.850

And those two people had a testimonial in that thing that cured their dog from tumor.’ And so after that was through, and he says, ‘I dunno, I didn’t know that.

01:18:35.850 - 01:18:48.970

So that’s why I said it was really surprise to me that, you know, she, the dog owner.’ But he says, ‘Thanks, anyway. I’m glad you told me that because now, I can say we can cure a

01:18:49.740 - 01:19:03.050

dog with a tumor.’ And if people wants to know, I can tell ‘em it’s in Uvalde, and it’s in Texas. But the one in Colorado, I can’t say that, too far away, I mean, you know.

01:19:04.650 - 01:19:20.110

So I said, ‘I’ll just tell him that.’ And then I said, ‘By the way,’ I said, ‘I wanna—I’d like to know who—what was it, that had the dog.’ Said, ‘You know him.’ Said, ‘What do you mean I know him?’ I said, ‘I don’t know him.’ He says, ‘His name is Juan.

01:19:21.680 - 01:19:35.220

Martinez.’ ‘Juan Martinez. You mean the guy that got that, that townhouse restaurant?’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘I didn’t know that guy had a dog.’ ‘He’s got it.’ He had that little dog, and it cured him, so...

01:19:35.830 - 01:19:48.080

So there’s thing, you know, migraine headache. People have migraine headache. Stop that. Yeah. So, uh, different thing.

01:19:50.000 - 01:20:01.600

Uh... It will cure, and there’s lotta things it cure, and probably there’s lot of them there I don’t know of, so when they come with, I don’t know. I’m gonna tell them, ‘I don’t know.

01:20:01.600 - 01:20:17.950

We could help—probably help.’ And that’s what I do. So I know for a fact I cured one lady with a stroke, and, in fact, there was another lady that had a stroke. Her hand was like this, she couldn’t straighten it up.

01:20:18.390 - 01:20:37.160

She’s had about six years ago—she said—earlier. And when I give her the treatment, why, she didn’t have the uh the disclaimer signed. So I says, ‘Linda,’ I says, ‘You know, you didn’t sign the declaimer on

01:20:37.230 - 01:20:50.810

here, and I’d like to have ya sign this disclaimer for me, please.’ So I give her that pad, hand it to her, and, ‘Oh, my god!’ Oh, god, don’t tell me I messed up something. And she says, ‘Looky!

01:20:52.980 - 01:21:04.980

I wrote with my hand.’ She says, ‘I couldn’t do it for five years, and I wrote with my hand.’ She said, ‘That’s really a surprise.’ So, you know, there’s a lot of things

01:21:07.750 - 01:21:20.750

I could take care o problem, a lady losing her hair. And all that kind of stuff. It’s amazing. Well, so it’s

01:21:20.750 - 01:21:30.980

electric current. Yeah. And, okay. You, uh, you like to take a treatment? No, thank you. Not today, not today, not today. Thank you, though. Electric won’t hurt ya!

01:21:31.510 - 01:21:42.010

I know. Um... Just going back, I think, it’s been a long time, so I just wanted to ask a couple more questions, and’ Oh, okay. Okay? Um...

01:21:42.980 - 01:21:55.800

And... Maybe thinking about the, your service in the military, the four- year relationship with the 442, um... And then we recently, just less than a month ago, had

01:21:55.860 - 01:22:12.790

that banquet, and the medal, of course, the Congressional Gold Medal, and I’m wondering if you could just talk about what that means to you today. Well, I don’t know. I think... the reason why

01:22:13.790 - 01:22:29.060

I can’t say what it meant to me. It, ah,... As far as the medal concerned, I think it was a pretty good thing because that

01:22:29.230 - 01:22:43.080

involves lots of things. It involves a lot of our lives, and it probably goes to show you where our parents, not ours, but I’m gonna say

01:22:43.250 - 01:22:59.200

our parents because a lot of the parents that was California people, they were all interned, they put in prisons, you know, and the boys that got the Medal of Honor got them because they told about

01:22:59.200 - 01:23:10.650

how they done, you know, went through all this, too. So that was something I thought was pretty good because I think it needs something straightened out.

01:23:10.960 - 01:23:25.110

And better than that, what I thought, is that the... In fact, a lot of people that don’t know it today, even the Japanese people don’t know. But...

01:23:25.270 - 01:23:42.210

Did you know that President Roosevelt already had in mind that he’s gonna intern all the Japanese people before the—even the war? No, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that until I read the Pacific Citizen, the

01:23:42.210 - 01:23:51.490

last issue, this December issue. And some people knew it. But I didn’t know it. And I got to talking with some of the other people, and they said they knew it.

01:23:52.770 - 01:24:05.290

I don’t know why he didn’t go and do it, but I heard that, and it was in the paper. So, I guess that’s what it was. And... The people that

01:24:05.830 - 01:24:23.690

were interned real bad, why, there were people like Buddhist preacher or the one that’s preaching, going to school, gonna do that kind of work, they were the one who was really put in, and I guess they got out after a while, but then,

01:24:25.040 - 01:24:35.160

there’s no reason for that, no excuse for that. And... Just like us, I mean, we were G.

01:24:35.160 - 01:24:45.200

I. s., we were soldiers, we were put in that camp at Fort Riley, Kansas, but why? We didn’t know. What have you heard since about that Fort Riley?

01:24:46.160 - 01:24:55.970

Have people talked about that? No, we don’t talk about it. We just whenever it comes up like this, you know, to you. But sometimes, some people mention it.

01:24:56.640 - 01:25:08.750

The guys at... A lot of the Caucasian people, they didn’t know about the 442, they talk about it. And then if they ask me, why, I mention it, but otherwise I don’t mention it.

01:25:10.540 - 01:25:23.890

They didn’t know. How did you talk to your family about it, when you were-when they were young? No. In fact, I didn’t never even told them anything. Didn’t tell them anything? Yeah.

01:25:25.140 - 01:25:34.860

Why is that, do you think? I don’t know, never thought about it. Never thought about it. Yeah. A lot of things that, to me, I don’t think about it, and then

01:25:36.120 - 01:25:53.410

if somebody don’t come out and ask me, why, I don’t even think about it. Which is the best thing, I guess. Yeah, it’s a good way to move on. Well... I think that’s maybe enough for today, but

01:25:53.520 - 01:26:04.540

I appreciate your time and your insight and everything, it’s really been a pleasure. Went too much, I think— No, we could go on and on, I think. I would, you know—maybe we’ll

01:26:04.540 - 01:26:10.290

come back and see you again sometime, but it’s been really a pleasure. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Appreciate it.