ClickOkinawa.com - Oral Histories

Higa Takejiro
published Oct 12, 2018

An Oral History

Takejiro Higa's interview courtesy of the Center for Oral History.
Photographs courtesy of Takejiro Higa.
The Hawaii Nisei Project © 2006

First snow, everybody went out to play around, like a bunch of kids. Something never seen before, yeah.
[And what was it like for you living up on the Mainland? How much contact did you have with people outside of the camp?]
Very little. Very little. The only time we go out is weekend pass, yeah. Few hours. So we used to go to Minneapolis. And in Minneapolis, there was a serviceman center. Just about the center of the city. And right next to it, there’s two chop suey houses. Nanking and — what was the other one now? — Nanking was the one I remember most because right next to the entrance. So we often went there, chop suey. So then, after Sunday evening, bus comes around and takes us back to camp.
[We’re you missing Asian foods already?]
Chop suey was the most sought after. (Chuckles) Not so much Japanese food, no. Chop suey.
[How was the chop suey?]
Very good. (Chuckles) Very good. Compared to today, today’s one may be better, but to me, that was the most delicious. (Chuckles)
[And then because you folks have Japanese faces, and you folks are up there on the Mainland, how were you folks treated?]
Minnesota people were very nice to us. I have nothing but good memories of Minnesota. And then during the training, we had the furlough, yeah. I went to furlough in New York City, yeah, with a couple of other guys. And here, I get another story I don’t think anybody else had. One day, we happened to go into a spaghetti house. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but spaghetti house. Three of us eating spaghetti. And we noticed one man from the balcony looking down at us kind of curiously, looking at us, see. Never mind, we just keep eating spaghetti. And then he finally came down, started talking to us. “Where you boys from?”
“Oh, from Hawaii.”
“Oh, I see. Then you’re Japanese? You’re Japanese? You’re not Japanese.” He pointed to me.
“No, I’m Japanese.”
“No, you’re not Japanese, you don’t look like other nisei I’ve seen.” Before that, 100th Infantry boys from Camp McCoy happened to go in there, I heard. So he start talking to me, “No, you look different, you don’t look like Japanese. You look more like Italian. Nose a little bit higher than others.” And so and so, see. They talk story with us. At the end of the conversation, he picks up a beer, “Oh, the meal is on me, nice talking to you.” (Laughs) On account of my nose, three of us got a free meal.
(Laughter)
So just before we left New York, going back to camp, we went back again. So we tell him, “Mr. So-and-so, we came back to thank you, and we’re going to eat one more spaghetti again before going back to camp.”
So he said, “Oh, this time you got to pay.”
(Laughter)
It was so funny. On account of my nose, three of us got a free meal.
(Laughter)
[You know at Camp Savage, the basic training, was that only language?]
No, military training, too. Every now and then, military training. You got to go through the formality. In the morning, stand up and the flag raising. And afternoon, lower the flag, retreat formation. Got to go through. And in between, we have a drill in between. Not only strictly language training.
[How did you take to that drilling, how did you do?]
No big deal. Yeah. I did some — not basic — but some training while I was in school, yeah.
[So you were in shape.]
Yeah.
[Rifle, too? You learn how to . . .]
No. At that point, just a wooden rifle. Carry a wooden rifle. Only when we went to basic training then we actually handled a rifle, M1.
[And then your basic training, you took at Camp Blanding in Florida.]
Blanding, Florida.
[How was that basic training?]
Rough. Sandy place. And got a lot of snakes. Rattlesnakes, coral snakes. And rattlesnake is a beautiful snake. I mean, not the rattlesnake, coral snake. It’s just like a feather lei. Right in the back of the head, there’s a black band, yeah. And in between, just like a flower lei. Beautiful. So one day, one Hawaii guy was playing around with the snake, see. Cadre grabbed this guy from behind and threw him over, say, “You know what that is, you stupid? That’s a coral snake. If you’re ever bitten by that, by the time we take you to the aid station, you’ll be dead. Don’t you ever play around with that.” We didn’t know what kind of snake it was, see. So after that. . . . Rattlesnake makes noise so you afraid, you know, eh. You avoid, of course. Ko-ko-kokoron. Coral snake is the most beautiful snake I’ve seen. Beautiful. Just like a flower lei, colored, yeah. Small, only about this long but. Right behind the head there’s a black band.
[But very poisonous.]
Very poisonous, I heard.
[At least you had some background with snakes before, as opposed to the other . . .]
Yeah, well, Okinawa snakes, all triangle head, see. The more triangle, the more poisonous. Get two kinds of snakes in Okinawa I know of. What they call regular habu. And the other one is akamata. Akamata is reddish. That is less poisonous than the regular habu. But still, both of them are poisonous. But, as I told you, I learned later, that snakes avoid, don’t like sulfur smell. So during the wartime, all crawled into the hole and hide. Lucky for us. (Chuckles)
[And then, you know, going back to the basic training in Florida, what did they train you in? How . . .]
Oh, regular infantry training. How to shoot the rifle, how to shoot machine gun, how to throw hand grenades, how to dig foxholes.
[And did you think that training was adequate?]
In the combat? No way. (Laughs) That’s manegoto, that.
[Just imitation. Not the real thing.]
Imitation. Imitation. That’s real kindergarten training. Then, we came back to Hawaii. Before shipped out to overseas, we went through jungle training, on this island [Oahu]. Other [windward] side of the island. I don’t know what part of the island, but, yeah. Just over the mountain, there’s a terrible place training. Man, I never thought we had such a place in Hawaii. Jungle. It rains a lot. So for one week, we hardly had a dry moment. And then once we dry up, we get river-crossing training. And get wet up to here again. And then the other side you get sandy ground, handto-hand combat training. Then muddy again. Then go back in the river, wash up again. And then come home evening for dinner and sleep, yeah. First thing, we go to shower room. Scrub off all our uniform, wash, and hang ’em. And then change to regular fatigues for dinner and sleep. And next morning, five o’clock, you try put on the half-wet pants. (Chuckles) For one week. Hardly a dry moment. It’s a wonder that you know, we were in shape, that’s why we survived, I think. If you’re not in shape, you would catch cold and become sick. Rained so much. And if not raining, they make you wet in the river crossing. Jungle training, one week. Just before we shipped out.
[At Camp Blanding, was it your whole [Camp] Savage group that went down?]
Well, the ones that went to training are schooled together.
[Yeah.]
One company.
[Were you folks combined with any other company down there?]
No, just separate. Ourselves.
[So you didn’t have to know new people or anything, down there, in Florida, as much.]
No, not the same. The ones that went to school together, that’s one company.
[And then you went to the windward side of the island. By that time, you were already assigned . . .]
Assigned to the 96th Division. So we went together with the other haoles, yeah.
[So that’s the 318th Intelligence Team (314th Headquarters Intelligence Team).]
Yeah.
[And then, you know from there, I think you said you were shipped out to the Pacific?]
On the way to - when we left Oahu, I understand, the original plan was to land on Yap Island. Date, I don’t know. But somehow, while we were on the way, the navy bombarded Yap Island, neutralized the island. So no longer need to land. So our unit was sent to New Guinea. New Admiralty Island. And then we came under General [Douglas] MacArthur’s command. And at that moment, over there, we came under the command of General MacArthur’s headquarters. And then became part of the unit. . . . In fact, I think 96th was the only division landed in Leyte. We landed on October 20, 1944.
[And I was wondering, how long did you folks stay in New Guinea? The New Admiralty Islands.]
Ah, kind of hard. Forget. Chee, I forgot how many months we were there.
[So you were there for months then.]
Yeah.
[And what was your work over there?]
Nothing. Just hang around. Sort of a what they call, taiki [stand-by]. Alert. Doing nothing, just exercise, do whatever you want. Some training, of course. Exercise training. Not regular training, but calisthenics, more like. Keep in shape.
[And what were conditions over there like?]
Kind of humid. Other than that, I don’t remember.
[And were you folks living in barracks or tents?]
I think it was tents. I don’t remember, I kind of forgot the details.
[And then later on, you were with the 96th, landed at Leyte in the Philippines.]
Yeah. October 20.
[And then while you were in the Philippines, what happened?]
Okay. Before that, there was a tremendous air raid in Okinawa, October 10, 1944. October 10, a big carrier base plane air bombing of Okinawa. And after that bombing, they took hundreds, perhaps thousands of aerial pictures, entire island, then. . . . Before I got called into corps headquarters, my brother, who was in the Philippines, Leyte, yeah, one day happened to go to G2 tent, right next to our tent. And on Master Sergeant Duffy’s desk, he saw one big book, Ryükyü. Thick book, yeah. Just the cover, you know. Being a son of an Okinawa immigrant, he was curious what the Ryükyü book was all about. So asked Sergeant Duffy, “Eh, Duffy, let me take a look at that book.”
And Sergeant Duffy, think nothing of it, “Yeah, take ’em.”
So my brother brought the book back to our tent. About to open — he just had the chance to open the front cover — Sergeant Duffy run in, came in, “Hey Warren, where’s the book I just loaned you?”