<Begin Segment 29>

TI: When I was doing some research of your life story, there was also some mention that at Myitkyina, there were also, the Japanese used comfort women, and that you were able, you were asked to actually question some of them, to see if you could get information. Can you, can you tell me what you found?

GH: Well, one day, a guard, a friend of mine called me and said, "Grant, come on over." I said, "What?" so I went over, and he giggled and he said, "You know, we've got a catch. We have some comfort girls." I didn't know what a comfort girl was, but when I got to the makeshift tent, it was a British tent, I saw the girls. And I looked and I said, "What am I going to do with the girls?" I says, "I'm not trained to interrogate comfort girls." So I went and asked Captain Chan, I said, "Captain Chan," I said, "we have some comfort girls." I said, "I need your help." So he called Howard Furumoto and Bob Honda, so four of us went. And Captain Chan had some photos. First he asked questions, but the girls didn't know anything. So he showed some photos to them that one of the girls did recognize Colonel (Maruyama), but other than that, there was no information that was useful. But the night before they left for India... oh, I might add, during the interrogation, I saw the Mama-san who was responsible for the girls. She looked like she was pregnant, so I asked if she had something in hiding. She said, "No," she said being responsible for the girls, she was responsible for the, their earnings. And I said, "If that's what it is, I'd like to see it." So she took her sash off and presented the, it was a rupee, ten rupee. And it was just like it came off the printing because it was still warm. [Laughs] And I did finally, got enough courage to tell her that it was worthless. And, of course, she was taken aback and I don't think she believed me, but I told her that this is military script, and that the Japanese had been defeated in Burma, and it was only good with the backing of the Japanese government. And, but so I did ask her to give me a couple bundles of rupees, with which I would exchange it for some tobacco, K-ration, whatever, to souvenir-hungry GIs, and so I did exchange it and I brought it back to them. But the night before --

TI: And what was the reaction of...

GH: No, they were, it was mixed, mixed feelings. Some, those who smoked, they were very happy, and others had, I guess it was mixed feeling.

TI: And in general, could you tell how these women were treated by the Japanese? I mean, what, what came out during this, the interrogation?

GH: Well, being in the jungle, you know, I think under the circumstances, what more can you expect? At least they had their clothes on.

TI: It was very rough for them, then?

GH: Yeah.

TI: Okay, you were going to talk about the night before they, they left?

GH: The night before they left, Howard Furumoto, he had a golden voice, he's from Hawaii. Bob Honda's from Hawaii, and of course, I'm from the mainland. And so he carried, Howard Furumoto carried a ukulele all the way through Burma. [Laughs] And here you get, he's strumming away, "Aloha," and we were entertaining each other with songs. And at the end... these are Koreans, by the way, they sang "Ariran," that's a Korean love song, yeah. And then we parted. But as we parted, there were expressions of thanks and wishing us good luck, but I could see the tears running down their cheek. But when I left the stockade, I could feel the tears running down my cheek. But my thoughts were of my parents and siblings, yeah.

TI: Because at that point it was a chance to just relax a little bit.

GH: Yeah. But, and they were all (returned) to India, because I did go by the dispensary on a jeep one day, and I saw one of the girls entering the dispensary. So I hope they all got back safely.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.