When Haruo Sazaki was three years old, his father took the whole family back to Japan. While the elder Sazaki returned to the United States, the rest of the family remained in Japan and Sazaki started primary school. By the time he came back to the United States, he had completed fifth grade but had to start grammar school all over again in his hometown of Penryn, California. When Sazaki was in high school, his family called to him for help on their farm, so he was not able to finish school. Soon after, the U.S. Army drafted him and he was eventually sent to Fort Ord.
<br><br>All Nisei soldiers stationed at Fort Ord including Sazaki were removed from California due to evacuation orders. Sazaki's group was shipped to Michigan and assigned to do "typical housekeeping chores." From Fort Custer they left for the South Pacific and arrived in New Caledonia. Sazaki remembers how he was once asked to go to the morgue to identify Japanese POWs who had killed themselves. He had gotten to know some of them as a stockade sergeant.
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One time we had an incident where Japanese prisoners were going to riot and escape. The prisoners stored rocks under the guard tower so they could use it as a weapon. One morning after their plan was discovered I had to go to the morgue to identify the corpse because 10 or 12 committed suicide. I knew them because I used to take care of their payroll.
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<br><br>Once, Sazaki received a letter from his brother who was interned at the Tule Lake Detention Camp. As he read the following lines, Sazaki felt pangs of frustration at the realization that camp life was extremely harsh on the Japanese Americans.
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With the outside food shortage and food rationing, our food on the mess hall table is getting steadily reduced and lacks nutritious food. Remember during the depression years....Having meat for lunch and supper during the week is very rare. Many older people with failing health have occupied most of the hospital beds.
<br><br>We noticed that there are many harmful things surrounding us. To name a few: strong wind, dust clouds, terrible smoke from coal burning stoves. Even though we are confined in a prison-like camp, we will endure this hardship with hope and cherish our belief that one of these days, we will be out of this camp and enjoying our freedom. It is like we have been placed in a wash basin with hands and feet tied, with no place to go...
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<br><br>Having received a three-day pass, Sazaki decided to visit his family at Tule Lake. His recollections of the visit are as follows:
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When I arrived at Tule Lake Relocation Center, the guard at the camp gave me a bad time and won't let me go to see my folks. They wanted to search my bags, my belongings, asking me all kinds of questions. I really got fed up--here I am wearing uniform of the U.S. Army with 3 stripes on my sleeves. The Army had machine guns on the towers and it was a terrible feeling to see my folks were placed behind barbed wire....What made me mad was that they claimed that they're protecting Japanese from outside who may harm them. That's a laugh as I could see the top of the barbed wire fence is facing inward, not outward where it should be protected so that outsiders cannot come in. They're trying [to] keep the internees inside...
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<br><br>Sazaki joined the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) after serving in the South Pacific for a time. His first assignment after graduating from MIS Language School was to teach Japanese to incoming Nisei students. After six months he was discharged. He began apprenticing at a cabinet shop but soon found himself tired of the civilian life. He decided to reenlist. In late 1946, he arrived in Korea and soon began work as an operations sergeant with the Headquarters Intelligence Detachment, 7th Infantry Division. Sazaki went back and forth between Japan and Korea during those years. For the most part, he worked as an interpreter and interrogator of prisoners and conducted other intelligence work. He also worked for a time at the Japanese Liaison Office where his work led him to lifelong ties with the Japan Defense Agency.
<br><br>Sazaki officially retired from the Army in 1964. After military service, he worked in the Traffic Engineering Division for the City of Sacramento. 
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