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TI: Okay. Now, the time period, this is about July of 1945?

HH: Yes.

TI: And so the war is actually towards the end of the war, and at this point, what was it like? I mean, was there a real threat from the Japanese military at this point?

HH: Yes, this is the time when we, when we first got into Calcutta, we were stationed outside of an area in a compound which was... in those days, India was still part of the British colony. And so Calcutta was the headquarters of, they had a base there for all the Allied soldiers, like Australians, Canadians and U.S. soldiers. They were all stationed, they had a base there, but we were separated and away from them. And so we had to take a jeep or whatever it was, bus, from our area which was right next to the Indian town, people that are living right next to us in their homes, mud kind of housing.

TI: And the thing about your group, I'm curious, you are a U.S. citizen, and you were a GI. But the others, especially the ones who were Japanese nationals, what kind of access did they have? Were they able to walk around as freely as you were?

HH: Within the compound, yes, because that was fenced off anyway.

TI: Okay, so within the compound, how about outside the compound?

HH: No, they were not able to.

TI: And they weren't able to because they were afraid that they, why weren't they?

HH: No, I think it was, they knew that already. But I was able to go into Calcutta anytime I wanted to.

TI: So the other members of your group weren't able to go to Calcutta.

HH: No.

TI: Okay, so that made you kind of valuable, because you were able to go to places they...

HH: Well, I was able to go into town, and they wanted to supplement their meals with rice and everything else. We did have some rice there, too, but I was able to go into Calcutta and go to restaurants. They were all run by Chinese, overseas, so-called overseas Chinese, they were part of the richer, you know, they have the caste system. So I saw the difference of the caste people and the Hindus and all this. So it was kind of -- and I was able to go into movies and things like that.

TI: So you were able to go to Calcutta while the others weren't, so you could see movies. You could also go to restaurants and pick up food for the others?

HH: Yes, and then also going to the market and buy things for them, whatever they want me to buy.

TI: Now, while the group was in the compound, what type of activities, what type of work did you guys do?

HH: Well, what we did was we had a shortwave radio that we could monitor into Japan. So we would listen to that whenever it came on. At the same time, I remember one time, at that time they were contemplating on us going into China, southern part, because that was where the wartime capital was. And I think it's Xinjiang province, but anyway, we were to fly over the Himalayas into China. But they changed that idea, and that's where the U.S. Air Force people, General Stillwell, had a group there. Then also, at that time, I was able to get into the northern part of Burma, which is now called Myanmar, way up in the northern end. And I know that there was a U.S. "fighting engineers," combat engineers that went all the way down from Burma down to Rangoon. And they were ready to capture or take, neutralize that area of Burma.

TI: So those were kind of earlier plans. If you were sent to either southern China or this area in Burma, what kind of work would you be doing? Would that be behind Japanese lines, or would that be just more interrogating prisoners of war? What do you think that would have been?

HH: Well, that was so that originally, they had plans -- this is from the OSS headquarters site -- that they were going to use us to go behind the lines and pick up intelligence. That was one idea that they had, maybe going up to the Burma area.

TI: As well as China. That would have been, sort of, behind lines.

HH: Well, yes, originally. Because General MacArthur, who had control of the Pacific area, wouldn't let the OSS operate in his area, so we were under British control, general.

TI: Now, why didn't MacArthur want the OSS operating in his area?

HH: I don't know what that is, but it's like an area commander, like Eisenhower, had eastern, ETO. Pacific area, I think MacArthur didn't want the -- even though we were under the War Department, which is above all, as far as that's concerned, all the army and navy and everything else. MacArthur didn't want it because he said, "I have my own intelligence, G2."

TI: Okay, so you had to operate pretty much where the British were operating.

HH: But we said we were not interpreters, we were going to go in to help along with them. But for some reason, McArthur did not allow our OSS group to go in.

TI: So instead, so you were operating more under the British area.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.