Gary Tsuneo Kadani grew up in a large family in San Juan Bautista, Calif., where a small, but tight-knit Japanese-American community developed. 

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We were raised very strictly in the Japanese tradition. Every New Year's day we woke up early, brushed our teeth, my father and brothers faced toward the east. We were not allowed to speak English at mealtime. [Oral History]
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All of the families came from the Hiroshima area, and often the Kadani boys would help their neighbors for little or no pay. Together, the Japanese Americans called San Juan Bautista heiwa no mura, peace village. Upon high school graduation, Kadani wanted to work and his father took him to San Francisco to work for his friend at Nippon Dry Goods Store. In 1938 Kadani became the sales representative for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming. A year later, he became a salesman for California. 

In March 1941, the Army drafted him, and soon thereafter he traveled to Camp Roberts for basic training. Recommended for Non-Commissioned Officer's School, he received two stripes and then was interviewed by a civilian captain. By September, he arrived at the Presidio and began stuyding with the first Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) class. After December 7th, he could only travel as far as 50 miles from the base, but decided to break the orders to visit his family at the Salinas Rodeo Ground:

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This was the saddest day of my life. Trip to Salinas Rodeo Ground farewell to my parents.... My parents were sleeping in a horse stall and my mother asked me to get Clorox, all the Clorox I could find. I drove to Salinas, and that's over 50 miles. I'm not supposed to be there.... It smelled so bad they couldn't sleep so that's why I got in my car and drove to Salinas and bought dozens, they were only about nine cents a bottle, Clorox in those days, back in '41.... I loaded back of my Chevrolet trunk with that because when my mother was asking me, my sisters-in-law and friends asked me, "Oh, Kadani ni san, can you get some for me." And so I just bought a whole bunch, as much as I could and put 'em in the trunk and took it back to Salinas Rodeo Ground and gave it to the people who were waiting by the gate. Then I went back to Presidio after saying good-bye to everybody and that was the saddest day of my life. [Oral History]
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He also learned that the FBI had watched his house, probably conducting a background check on Kadani:

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Father buried everything, including kendo equipment and beautiful picture of the Emperor, very valuable. I still remember my father with tears in his eyes telling me these things. [Oral History]
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He returned to the base and eventually graduated from the MISLS. He did not return to visit his family again before he shipped out to Australia where he helped establish the first Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS).

After he arrived, Kadani asked Colonel Thorpe if it made sense that all of the MISLS graduates had not yet received a promotion. They were still privates:

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He said, "Kadani, I'll see what I can do." He called General Willoughby, General MacArthur's G-2. On the 4th of July everybody got promoted to Sergeant. I got promoted to Staff Sergeant. [Oral History]
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At ATIS, his team worked on publishing a Japanese-English dictionary and studied Malayan. He followed ATIS when it moved to Hollandia and then to the Philippines. On one occasion, he interrogated a soldier who had been hiding in a cave when a flamethrower burned him. Kadani talked to the cooperative soldier who did not question his Japanese ancestry:

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He thanked me because he was in bed surrounded by all the American soldiers being treated. He couldn't get over the fact that he was being treated like all the other Americans who were wounded by the Japanese. He got on his knees on the bed and he thanked me. [Oral History]
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When Japan surrendered, Kadani was hospitalized in the Philippines. Toward the end of 1945 he returned to the continental United States and met his wife in Columbus, OH. They decided to move to California, and he found work in Monterey as a language teacher. The Army called him back for active duty in Japan, and he went to work in the Historical Section under Gen. MacArthur. 

In September 1948 he left the Army and returned to Fresno with seventeen boxes of Japanese gifts. He and his wife opened a Japanese gift store, and Kadani began a career as an insurance salesman. Remembering that visit, he said:

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You know, the irony of the whole thing about this horse stall, when we first went to Melbourne, they didn't know where to put us. They put us in some old Army camp, they said, "You have to get your bedding...." They take us to a place and they have straw, to put into a bag for mattress, and when I saw that, I thought of my parents again. 

And then, after we left Australia, we went to Philippines.... and we stayed at the Santana Race Track. Another horse barn.... It was a beautiful headquarters at Santana Race Track. 

Yeah. I hate horse tracks now. [Oral History]
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