Densho Digital Archive - Paul Bannai Interview II (denshovh-bpaul-02-0004)

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AI: Earlier in our interview you mentioned how the Japanese soldiers were never trained about being prisoners of war.

PB: Right.

AI: And so when you asked them questions, they would give you information. Well, I, how did they react to seeing you, you as a soldier interrogating them, seeing you as really the same facial features...

PB: Right.

AI: ...ethnically Japanese, but not serving...

PB: Right.

AI: ...in their forces. How did they react to you?

PB: Well, it depended on the individual, but many of them were very, very surprised that -- as Japanese Americans -- that we would be fighting for the United States. And after the initial reaction and surprise by many of them because we were Japanese Americans and of the same national race as they were, they became more cordial. As a result, I think that this was good for the American army. Had we been white soldiers talking in Japanese to these people, I don't think we would get the same reaction and the same cooperation that we got because of our racial features, Japanese-looking, and speaking Japanese to them. So I think that right at the beginning I said that the United States military, when they said, "We have to have Japanese-speaking individuals do this," that they began to realize immediately that it was something that they, would help in the war effort to shorten the war. And later on, you know, there was a comment made by one of our generals that the fact that we were as Japanese Americans -- as I told you, about 5,000 of us serving -- that we did help in shortening the war in the Pacific. We served in every unit. As I say, I was by myself in various units, naval units, Air Force units. The people, if you've interviewed other people, you might know that they served in the China-Burma-India theater. I have one friend, incidentally, that was not with the interpreter group, but he was in Boyle Heights and grew up with me, and he got a medal. He's a, of Mexican descent. But he is given credit in Saipan because he spoke Japanese, he lived with a Japanese family...

AI: Oh, you did mention that yesterday.

PB: Yeah. And he is given credit for talking at least 1,000 Japanese to surrender. So he was given credit for Japanese -- [laughs] -- giving, getting that many prisoners of war. So I think language was a very important thing. When we were in school, we had some Chinese, we had some Koreans, and we had some Caucasians. But they never, never did as well as the Niseis. The Chinese that were in my class could read the characters and understand them. The Koreans also to a degree, but for whatever reason, they never attained what the Niseis did in language and being able to conquer that. In fact, at the surrender ceremony in Timor, where we held one of the first ones, a Australian officer of Chinese descent came up to talk to me and -- naturally in English, because that's what you speak in Australia. But in speaking to him, he was brought in as a language officer because they thought that being of Chinese descent -- and there was a lot of Chinese, not a lot, but many of them in Australia. But he could not speak Japanese language too much. So they had him along as a officer to help us out, but that was about it. On the other side of the fence, when we had the surrender ceremony in Timor, I met a captain of the Japanese army, and he represented the Japanese army as an interpreter at the surrender ceremony. And after the ceremonies were over, I got to talk to him. And I asked him, "Gee, you're way up in rank. I never knew that a Nisei could become a captain in the Japanese army." He said, "Don't tell anybody, but I'm a private." And he said, "The Japanese would be embarrassed if they had a private in there as an interpreter in the surrender ceremony." And so they gave him captain's bars, and he officiated along with me in interpreting. But that was, that shows you some of the importance of language in all of these things.

The surrender ceremony was conducted English and Japanese because the Japanese normally don't speak English, and the Australians who accepted the surrender ceremony, we had to speak English and Japanese both. But it was interesting, and I still remember and I have some mementos, and I have a couple of Japanese swords. Each time the Japanese surrendered, they would bring a sword and give it up. Most of my swords that we got were sent to Canberra, Australia at the national museum there. I've never been there, but they tell me that a lot of Japanese swords are there. But the general was kind enough, he says, "Oh, we got all these swords." He says -- I was a sergeant -- "Sergeant Bannai, why don't you take a couple of them home?" So I did bring them home. And I still decorate my den with the Japanese swords that I got from the Japanese surrender ceremony.