Interviews

1. Nickname

2. Kibei schoolchildren in Hiroshima, Japan

3. Feelings of loyalty to America while in Japan

4. Treatment of Kibei after return to United States

5. Keian employment agencies

6. Difficulties understanding different Japanese dialects

7. Mixed emotions after declaration of war on Japan

8. Finding work in the assembly center

9. Living conditions in the Santa Anita Assembly Center

10. Train ride to Jerome Relocation Center

11. Atmosphere in his Merrill’s Marauders unit when surrounded by Japanese soldiers

12. Finding his relative among Japanese prisoners

Matsumoto,Roy H.

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

Difficulties understanding different Japanese dialects

I am familiar with Hiroshima because everybody talked like that and I grew up with that so I learned, I thought it was part of a standard Japanese until go to school, went to school and then there was local dialects and the book, my nephew just made it; it's all this Japanese slang and especially local slang. I don't think anybody other than Hiroshima people understand that and not the standard Japanese, with mixed Japanese and that's somewhat familiar to me. Some of 'em I just learned, new things and that's what older people talk about. So, go different places, there different people talk but I didn't pay much attention to. But most of 'em here it was like a Kyushu dialect such as Fukushi-, I mean as Fukuoka, Saga and some Nagasaki and some Kumamoto and I have experience with Kuma-, I mean, Kagoshima, Mr. Yamaguchi was a Kagoshima and they talk I don't completely understand so I don't even care to write it down because they strictly different even though same island, Kyushu. But when they spoke in standard Japanese, very nice and I appreciated.

dialects Hiroshima (city) Hiroshima Prefecture Japan languages

Date: December 17 & 18, 2003

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Alice Ito, Tom Ikeda

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Hiroshi Roy Matsumoto was born on May 1, 1913 in Laguna, CA, a rural area on the outskirts of Los Angeles. His family was from the Hiroshima prefecture in Japan. As a young child, he went to Japan to live with his grandparents where he attended elementary and middle school.

Upon his return to the United States, he worked a variety of jobs, while also graduating from Long Beach Polytechnic High School. During World War II, he was sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center. From there, he was sent to the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas where he stayed for six months before volunteering for the Military Intelligence Service.

Mr. Matsumoto was in the first MIS class at Camp Savage. For his heroism as a member of Merrill's Marauders, he was later awarded the Legion of Merit and inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame. (December 18, 2003)