<Begin Segment 28>

TK: Can we go back then, to Fort Bliss. And, so you received this letter saying that they wanted you to be interpreter for a general court-martial. Would you talk about that particular time and that particular incident?

MT: Uh-huh. At that time, when I reported in to the headquarters for the general court-martial, we were brought into the court-martial room and I was on one end of the room as an interpreter. But they had two guards on me. And I think there were twenty-three witnesses from Lordsburg, New Mexico that were Issei, Japanese on the other end of the room. And they had three or four MPs watching them so we couldn't talk to each other or visit with each other. And, but they said well, "Min, they're enemy alien Japanese and they're from Lordsburg internment camp and you are to interpret to them. But we want you to remember that if you thought they, in interpreting, you thought they said a wrong thing, and you re-interpret it in English and that, just to help 'em out, and we find that out, we will court-martial you. So we want you to interpret exactly what they are saying and nothing, no differently. And we want you to understand that." And so, I said, "I understand that." And so, they started the court-martial and whenever the witnesses were called in I went in and interpreted for them as best I could with the Japanese that I'd learned in Kent, Washington, at the Nihongo gakko there. So I got to use it.

TK: What was the purpose of the court-martial in the first place?

MT: Court-martial was, later I found out, after about the third day, the MPs would no longer guard me, or guard the Isseis and they'd run off to coffee. I was able to talk to them but the upshot of the whole thing is they were being transferred. I think it was 134 were being transferred from another camp into Lordsburg, New Mexico. And the train stopped about a mile-and-a-half from the compound and they were to detrain and line up to march there. But before they detrained, the leader of the Japanese contingent told the lieutenant there that there were two Isseis, that were Japanese, that were ill and not able to travel the one and a half miles to camp so if possible would they get a ambulance to haul them in. And so the lieutenant said, "Well, no problem, but after all, they are enemy aliens so we will have to have guards, MPs left with them," which they said, "Fine."

In the meantime, the lined all the Isseis up, four abreast in a hundred and some group, and they lined them up. And they all, only two Isseis were left behind and the MPs were left with 'em. And they marched all the way, the Isseis all marched to the compound, a mile and a half, and went into the compound and were settled into the, their compound there, living facilities. But the leader of the Japanese were quite worried and so they went to the camp commander and said that these two people were ill. And the lieutenant had said that they could come in by ambulance. And so they wanted to see these two patients. And so the camp commander said well, "No, they're very bad, they're ill and you can't see 'em." So they asked the next day and they said they were in bad shape, they couldn't see 'em. And the third day, I think, they said the same thing; the commander said that they were not in any condition to meet anybody. And so the Isseis just let it go at that.

But what really happened, from what I understand, is these two GIs went to the tavern in Lordsburg, New Mexico, and at the tavern, they really got tanked and they bragged that, "We killed a couple of Japs." And they passed the hat around and they collected money and it was a real serious situation. But what was very serious to, as far as the camp commander was concerned, is he had told them that they were sick and so when that word from Lordsburg, New Mexico got to the camp, he immediately notified the general at Fort Bliss, Texas. Fort Bliss, Texas notified Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C. through the War Department went through Red Cross and through Switzerland, and they said they notified Japan that two enemy alien Isseis had been shot and killed. "But we will have a full, United States Army general court-martial, and so please don't, do nothing drastic." And so they promised that we would have a court-martial. And that's why the witnesses and I were there to hold a general court-martial.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.