This is part 2 of Jon Yatabe’s adapted excerpt from his father’s memoir. To read part 1, see “Volunteer,” by Jon Yatabe.
When I got off the train in Jackson, Mississippi, it was hot and humid. I took a bus to Hattiesburg, where the Camp Shelby Reception Center was located. After a few days of testing, I was taken to the barracks and assigned to Company E, 1st platoon of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
I was assigned to Company E and was greeted by Sergeant Ishimura and his 19-year-old assistant, Danny Inouye, who slept in the adjacent cot and called me ”Pop” because I was 35 years old. Danny Inouye went on to receive a battlefield commission and a Medal of Honor after losing an arm in a major battle.1 I also met others like “Donkey” Masuda from Hawaii and George Tatsumi.
We began the rigors of basic training the next day. Up at 6:30 am to get clothes and field pack in order, and then calisthenics, bayonet practice, marksmanship with the M-1, and running obstacle courses. I received offers of help on the forced marches and hard exercises, but I refused, saying I had to make it myself. My great challenge was the 8-foot obstacle wall.
One of the men who was already overseas wrote, saying, “Stay at Shelby as long as you can—it’s heaven compared to over here (meaning the Sicilian and Italian fronts).”
A group of the 442nd were sent to Dothan, Alabama to guard German prisoners who were being used to harvest the peanut crop. When the trains transporting the 442nd men and the prisoners passed through the southern towns, the people cheered the Germans, thinking they were American soldiers guarding Japanese prisoners of war. But the townspeople of Dothan went all out for the 442nd when they realized the real situation. They welcomed the Nisei soldiers to their homes and churches and gave parties for them.