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TI: And then describe the trials, or some of the trials that you were involved with.

GH: Unfortunately, in the two trials I was involved, one was the Western Army case, the other was the Kyushu Imperial University vivisection. And the people were both involved in the Western and vivisection. So I, at this late date, I get the people's name...

TI: But just in general, just, can you explain what the Western...

GH: The Western Army case, I think these were... I might add that this is not the "A" trial. "A" trial was the political figures such as Tojo, etcetera. The "B" class was held in Yokohama, and this is under the jurisdiction of the 8th Army. So the people we prosecuted were those who were actually involved in the crime. The Western Army case was one where the B-25 bomber pilots were tortured.

TI: So these were U.S. pilots who were...

GH: Captured, right.

TI: ...captured, and then, and then tortured.

GH: Uh-huh. And the Kyushu Imperial University vivisection trial, these also involved American POWs, where they used salt water in lieu of blood, there was some experiments going on, and also they accused a person for eating the liver of the American pilot, but I don't think that happened.

TI: And so these were trials that were going on, was there lots of publicity going on during this time?

GH: Oh yes, uh-huh.

TI: I read someplace where, that people felt that the, that people, the Japanese, some of the Japanese, especially the scientists, were let off pretty easily, given that they shared the research with the Americans. Do you know anything about that?

GH: I can't recall the name of the unit, but that's where they used, experiment with poison gas.

TI: And so that was, and that wasn't the trials you covered? That was a different trial?

GH: No, to my knowledge, it was not brought to trial.

TI: Now, were these pretty emotional trials, or how would you describe those?

GH: It is. It's very, it's very unfortunate, I mean, to talk about torture, etcetera, that was something I wanted to forget, and I tried hard to forget.

TI: So the things that came up in this trial were so, were so horrible that you just as soon not, not remember those things.

GH: Right.

TI: Okay, no, that's, that's fine.

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.