Shigeo Uchino

U.S. Army

I was drafted on May 10, 1945 and sent to Schofield Barracks, near Wahiawa on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. I was assigned to a special company composed of Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA). We received basic military training in the morning and took Japanese language lessons in the afternoon. In early August 1945 we were training for landing operations at a beach near the barracks. We were told that the training was to prepare us for a landing on mainland Japan. On August 14, 1945, we were told that Japan had surrendered and World War II was essentially over. We were overjoyed that war with Japan was finally over. Following the Japanese surrender, our landing operation was curtailed and I was given two options--I could go to the U.S. mainland to attend more advanced Japanese language classes, or I could be assigned to overseas duty. I elected to be sent overseas. On August 20, 1945 I and seven other AJA soldiers flew out of Pearl Harbor on a seaplane and went to Guam, where we stayed for a month. Our ultimate destination, however, was Nagasaki, where our Japanese language skills would be put to good use. Though World War II had ended, my job with the army had just begun.

Shigeo Uchino

Submitted by:
Katrina E. Hill
Poway, CA - United States

Relationship to Storyteller:
Grandchild