<Begin Segment 20>

SS: What were you feeling towards Japan and Japanese forces at that point?

HW: Well, my feelings were that I hoped that none of my relatives that I knew slightly would be involved and that the military, to my notion already was a culprit in what it was doing -- some of the things it was doin' in China anyway. 'Cause the military had taken over the control of Japan. Made it easy for my father to say, "Hey, I don't want to go back." So in that respect, I didn't have, I had a bad feeling for anybody gettin' killed, whether it was on our side or their side, you know. And we had heard about the way they mistreated the Korean troops and things like that. And we didn't know about the Korean ladies.

SS: Were you ever in any danger during the war?

HW: No, because I was at MacArthur's headquarters all the time during World War II. Later on in Korea I was in the front lines, but I was a little bit miffed because they wouldn't let me get a chance to go into the front lines. I really was. I was demanding why they were not sending me up in rotation, you know.

SS: Now, you spent the war, though, in more places than just Australia. Tell me a little bit about that.

HW: Well, as the Japanese military started to crumble down, then MacArthur, you know, when he left the Philippines he said, "I shall, I will, I shall return." Well, when he got ready to return, of course, we went with him. And so we helped transport all of our equipment over to the ships and the stevedores put it aboard the ship. And then when we got to Manila, why, we helped to haul it into camp. So, in Brisbane I drove a forklift, handled cargo. And by the time we got to Manila I said, "Hey, I want something a little bit nicer." So I asked for and got a staff car. I was driving a staff car, while we were moving. I'll never forget, I had dropped off an officer at headquarters there, got in my car, staff car, to drive back and a guy jumps on the running board, looked at him -- great big Filipino guy, he's got a bolo knife in his one hand, and he grabs the steering wheel with the other hand, and I looked at him, and I said, "Oh boy, he's figured that he'd caught an escaping Japanese soldier." And I thought, "He'd better understand English." And I started talkin' to him in English and he understood it. [Laughs] So after about five minutes he let me go. [Laughs] Those are the unexpected things that happened. You know, you think everything is fine.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.