From early on Sho Nomura knew about discrimination against people of Japanese ancestry that existed in some communities across America. In the late 1930s, those who studied and graduated with a degree in aerotechnology were almost guaranteed a good, solid job at large aircraft companies. In fact, all the graduates of Nomura's older brother's class were recruited by such companies in Southern California. The only two who remained unemployed were Nomura's brother and another Japanese American. Witnessing this, Nomura changed his mind about following his brother's footsteps and opted to study business.
<br><br>He also helped his family with their wholesale produce market business. During a mandated blackout one night, they inadvertedly forgot about the refrigerator lighting system, and the civil patrol demanded that Nomura, his brother, and their father go to the police station to explain the violation. Nomura remembers being treated as criminals without any explanation: 
<br><br><BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The three of us were hauled down to the police station and they told us to remove our belts and empty our pockets and put it on the table. And I said, what is this? You said we...you wanted us to come down here and explain why the light in the refrigerating unit went on. He says, don't give me any sass and then they took us...slapped us into a cell. The first time that my dad sat down on a cell bed and said, my dad said, this is the first time I ever been in a jail. And what happened, I'm in jail with my two sons.
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<br><br>Reports of the incident appeared in the local news, and the Nomura family acted quickly to assemble all of their friends--Japanese-American and Caucasian--to gather at the courthouse the following day. Upon seeing this congregation of supporters, the presiding judge's comment was, "Well I see that you have plenty of character references and I understand that you're being evacuated in a couple or three weeks. So, we'll drop all charges." Nomura never found out just what the charges against him and his family were.
<br><br>As the judge predicted, Japanese Americans were soon forced out of their homes and relocated to various assembly centers. Nomura and his family then transferred to the Gila River Detention Camp in Arizona. Stifled by life in the camp, Nomura decided to volunteer for the Army and was sent to Camp Savage for Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS): "My command, if you want to call it that, of the Japanese language was quite nil, but it seemed to me that, at the time, that this was the only way to get out of the artificial, depressing atmosphere, the environment of camp life."
<br><br>During a visit to the camp after he'd graduated from MISLS, Nomura discovered his mother had been taunted by some internees who scoffed at the idea that a Japanese American would volunteer for U.S. military services.
<br><br><BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They said, "How can you allow your son to do something against your...against Japan? And when they said "against Japan" they thought we were going to be spies or do some undercover work or something like that. And they called them "you parents of a dog..."
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<br><br>Ironically, as Japan began to lose the war and the Allied Forces gained more momentum toward victory, some of the sons of these very internees volunteered for the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and fought loyally for the U.S. side.
<br><br>In 1944, Nomura and four other Nisei became members of a linguist team assigned to a special military group known as the Dixie Mission. Their main objective was to be American observers of communist-related activities in northern China, where Communist leaders Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai were taking fort. The Dixie Mission formed a unique group comprising members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and the State Department. Many of them spoke fluent Chinese. Nomura and the other Nisei, George Nakamura, received an assignment to interrogate the 90-100 Japanese who had been captured by the Chinese Communists. Nomura recalls at times, the Communists allowed their intelligence officers to help the MIS men in return for the Nisei's sharing of information that they had gathered. The intelligence helped the Communists in planning their guerrilla attacks while the MIS were able to keep abreast of Japanese troop movements using the information supplied by the Chinese. As Nomura remembers, the atmosphere there was relaxed and informal: "Never in my wildest dreams, did I think that I would one day rub elbows with the likes of Mao Tse-tung, Chu Teh, Chou En-lai, Yeh Chien-ying, et al."
<br><br>Nomura remained in China until the end of the war. In 1978, prior to normalization of relations with China, Nomura and others of the Dixie Mission had a chance to revisit the former Communist headquarters in Yan'an (Yenan). The reunion proved to be a joyful one, as former members recounted old stories and shared postwar experiences amidst countless banquets and parties hosted by the Chinese government.
