Richard Lafleur was born in December 1926 in Bemidji, Minnesota. He was there until he was about 15, when his parents moved them to the Twin Cities [Annotator's Note: common name for Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota] where his father found work. His father was a laborer and was unfortunately uneducated and could not read or write. Lafleur went to a Catholic school for eight years and then to high school. He left there and went to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] to live with his brother. He was going to night school there when he was drafted. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Lafleur if remembers where he was when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He was ice-skating at a sports arena when the announcement came over the public address system. He was shocked but had no idea of where Pearl Harbor was. The school gave them information regarding it. A lot of acquaintances were of the right age and in the National Guard Unit which was incorporated into the military immediately. His older brother was in the Combat Engineers. The military sent him to Purdue University [Annotator's Note: in West Lafayette, Indiana]. Lafleur was afraid of putting his life on the line. Many young guys did want to go fight the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese], but he did not have that urge. He was drafted when he came of age. You were required to report to the draft board on your 18th birthday. He went into the service at the beginning of 1945. He reported to the draft board and was put on a train to Fort Sheridan [Annotator's Note: in Lake Forest, Illinois] where he was inducted.

Richard Lafleur went to Fort Riley [Annotator's Note: in Geary and Riley Counties, Kansas] for basic training after about three days at Fort Sheridan [Annotator's Note: in Lake Forest, Illinois]. He went by troop train, and it was terrible. He had to sleep in the aisle. They stopped in a town and the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] brought on coffee and donuts but wanted to be paid for it. The Salvation Army [Annotator's Note: Salvation Army, a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England] came on with free coffee and donuts. It was challenging for him to adjust to military life. Close order drill was a kind of comedy. He adjusted quickly. The most difficult part was getting up at five o'clock in the morning to a bugle. Lafleur followed the war, but rumors fly in the Army. It was rumored they were going to the Pacific in the 1st Cavalry [Annotator's Note: 1st Cavalry Division]. There was a horse cavalry there and they bivouacked [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite] with them. Those guys were tough. Most of them were hillbillies [Annotator's Note: an unsophisticated country person, associated originally with the remote regions of the Appalachians, often considered derogatory] from around Tennessee and were good soldiers. He has never forgotten basic training. Bayonet training was most impressive. He could not visualize himself sticking someone with bayonet or being stuck by one. He made up his mind to shoot anyone coming at him with one. That is what guns are for. Another experience was training with booby traps. The military was anticipating combat in the cities of Japan, and they trained them to look for booby traps [Annotator's Note: an apparently harmless object containing a concealed explosive device designed to kill or injure anyone who touches it]. They used half a house so the other troops could watch a cadre go through. One booby trap did not go off until the cadre went to check it. The man's hand was in shreds. It was not planned but effective training. He also experienced the setting off of a Bangalore torpedo [Annotator's Note: M1A1 Bangalore torpedo], the precursor of the pipe bomb. It was used mostly to clear barbed wire. They would be in a trench, and one would be set off. He never felt such a concussion. Some guys got nosebleeds from it. His ears rang for weeks afterwards. He will remember it as long as he lives. Incorporated in his training was radio school. After basic, they went into advanced radio. That increased their speed in Morse Code [Annotator's Note: a method of telecommunication encoding characters in a system of dots and dashes]. He was a 25-word-per minute copier. It was fun learning that. They had a guy born in China who is still a friend. He was the top Code man in the class. Joe Kwon [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was his name, and he became the troop clerk. Cavalry were not in companies. They were troops and called troopers, not infantrymen or soldiers.

Richard Lafleur was not assigned to a unit after training. He knew he was going to be in the 1st Cavalry Division. After a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] he was transferred from Fort Riley [Annotator's Note: in Geary and Riley Counties, Kansas] to Fort Ord [Annotator's Note: now Fort Ord National Monument in Monterey Bay, California] and then to Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington]. They got on the Marine Serpent ship [Annotator's Note: Marine Serpent (T-AP-202)] to go overseas. The trip took 13 days with a lot of seasick guys. They went past the Aleutians [Annotator's Note: Aleutian Islands, Alaska] to Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan]. About 20 miles away from Japan, the Merchant Marines said they would be docking. You could not see land yet, but they could smell it. Japan stunk then. The war was over. He had been in Fort Riley when the bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped. There was a big celebration and they put the officers in the showers with their uniforms on. The officers were relieved. Often in war, the training cadre went overseas with the people they trained. Kansas is a dry state so there is no liquor. A guy named Don Enlow [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was from Kansas City [Annotator's Note: Kansas City, Missouri] and had a car. He made a trip every weekend and brought back booze. He made a fortune running the booze. Lafleur rode with him several times. Kansas City had a service club that had dances that the local girls would come to.

Richard Lafleur could smell Japan as they got close. Before long they could see the coastline. He envisioned what the United States submarines must have seen when they were torpedoing Japanese ships as they left Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan] where they docked. They took a civilian train to Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan, where he joined the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division]. His barracks was the former Imperial Guard barracks [Annotator's Note: Japanese Imperial Guard]. It was a circular building and was two stories high. The radiomen were housed on the second floor, ten to a room. Lafleur was a radio operator and is ham operator [Annotator's Note: amateur radio operator] now. About 90 percent of what they handled was International Morse Code [Annotator's Note: a method of telecommunication encoding characters in a system of dots and dashes]. They had two outposts. They were headquarters troop. They had the 7th Cavalry [Annotator's Note: 7th Cavalry Division] in their net, and they reported in every hour, seven days a week. They had two M8 armored cars [Annotator's Note: M8 light armored car; nicknamed the Greyhound] with .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. One followed Hirohito [Annotator's Note: Emperor Hirohito, also called Emperor Showa, Emperor of Japan] if they went out of the palace. Not all of the Japanese were in favor of the war. There were Catholics, Presbyterians, and other religions besides the Shinto [Annotator's Note: a Japanese religion that incorporates a belief in sacred power] religions. They figured many people died unnecessarily so Hirohito was not always safe. They also patrolled the Shinjuku district industrial area. Japan was in total destruction. There were holes in the sidewalks. The sewage disposal and infrastructure was destroyed. Raw sewage ran down the street. They had public toilets and they used the waste on rice paddies for fertilizer. Surprisingly, he ate a lot of rice.

Richard Lafleur [Annotator's Note: on occupation duty with 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division] got acquainted with the Japanese people and had a good relationship with them. They commented to him that he was an intellectual. That flattered him. He got lost once in Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] at night. A Japanese guy came along. Lafleur had learned a little Japanese by then. He said he was lost and needed to find his way back to his regiment. Lafleur offered him a cigarette which he gladly took. The man walked him back and Lafleur gave him the whole pack. He was the right age to have been in the Japanese military. People are the same the world around. They need food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. They were happy the war was over. They did always refer to the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] as the "terrible atomic bomb." 100,000 people died from one and 80,000 from the other. When he got there, the Army was anxious to get the combat veterans out of Japan. One time they went out on patrol into a neighborhood. One of the guys in the motor pool had made friends with a girl there. She came to them and said there was medicine needed for a sick baby. The doctor said he needed penicillin [Annotator's Note: an antibiotic]. They found a military base and got some. The point is that they did good work towards forming friendships with the Japanese and that was repeated many times by other outfits. They were not the combat veterans who were bitter against them. War is terrible, people kill each other, and become rabid about it. Lafleur was in Tokyo about eight months. They had a lot of work to do and not much was done it when he went home. It was still a disaster.

Richard Lafleur [Annotator's Note: on occupation duty in Tokyo, Japan with 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division] was excited to go home. While getting on the ship to leave, a Japanese band was on the pier and played and sang "Sentimental Journey" [Annotator's Note: song by Les Brown, Ben Homer, and Bud Green, published in 1944]. There were also four or five coffins on the pier. Lafleur asked the Merchant Marines what it was about. Those were people who had been killed. Lafleur got his ham radio license [Annotator's Note: amateur radio operator license] after getting home and would talk to Japanese people from time to time. He always mentioned his time there after the war. They always said to him that they had not been born yet, as they did not want to be associated with those who favored the war. They are progressive and smart. Everyone could read, write, and use an abacus. He came back to Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington] and separated at Fort Lewis [Annotator's Note: now part of Joint base Lewis-McChord near Lakewood, Washington]. He started back with two other guys, one of whom had bought a car. They got into the mountains, and he changed his mind and caught a Greyhound bus home just in time for his 21st birthday. His brother was back home and at the University of Minnesota [Annotator's Note: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota]. Lafleur had not finished high school due to being drafted. He tested and was qualified to start classes in the general college using the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. The money was a lot in those days. Books and tuition were taken care of. He did not graduate but wishes he had. He had no trouble adjusting to civilian life. Lafleur thinks the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is a good tribute to the war and the veterans. While there, a Marine band was there. A captain was the manager and saw his cap. She talked to him, and he said his wife would not dance with him. The captain danced with him. He got a picture with her and the singer. He toured New Orleans too. Lafleur thinks the country understands the war to a certain degree – at least a certain segment does. They thank him for serving and he is honored by that.