<Begin Segment 26>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

FT: Yeah, and one of the biggest stories the we covered was the Gerard Trial. And I was lucky because I was looking through the Japanese paper, the Yomiura Shimbun. We were on the fifth floor of the Yomiura Shimbun, our bureau office. I was looking through the (newspaper), and I saw (a small) article about (an) incident in a camp in Gunma Prefecture, in which a soldier (...) shot a Japanese woman. So I picked that up and sent it in on the teletype back to the States. And that (incident) grew (...). Other people picked it up and so what happened (...), I can't remember the name of the (...) army camp (with) a firing range. (A soldier shot a woman dead. The story was that PFC) William Gerard was left to guard the equipment while the others went to lunch. And the Japanese would come and pick up the cartridges. (...) And this lady was picking cartridge, and Gerard picked up a bunch (...) and threw (them) at her and (told her there were more shells). And (she) came towards him, (...) he picked up his rifle and shot her (...) dead. And so, it (became) a big, big dispute about jurisdiction (...). And even went up to the Supreme Court, (...) decided it was a Japanese jurisdiction. Gerard's family hired one of the (best) tort lawyers, the famous one, the real famous one, what was his name? Anyway, he came and represented Gerard and they also had a Japanese lawyer, Hayashi, that (also) represented Gerard. Hayashi made (...) one of the camp girls (...) marry Gerard. Yeah.

TI: I'm sorry, who married Gerard?

FT: Yeah, Hayashi arranged a marriage for Gerard, (with) a Japanese girl.

TI: Why was that?

FT: Oh, for public opinion and whatever (...). Anyway, (this trial was) in Mayabashi, Gunma Prefecture. It's an hour away from Tokyo. And so, I would represent INS and since I understood Japanese, I'd go with a couple of reporters, and we'd cover the trial. The day that the judgment came through, he was (found) guilty (and) sentenced to three years with probation (for) five years. (...) And so, I'm the first guy out of (the court) with that. And the Asahi Shinbun had a big picture of me coming out of the courtroom jumping (...) over the steps with (my arms) up. I ran to the phone and called in and said, "Guilty. Three years. Probation five."

TI: So you had this great picture of you doing this.

FT: Yeah, it was in the Asahi magazine. Anyway, so, we beat all the other (news agencies) by twenty minutes into San Francisco. But by the time the news got (...) to New York, we were behind. I don't know what happened, but we beat the others, AP and UP, by twenty minutes into San Francisco. (...) The prosecution had two weeks to decide on whether to appeal (...). And so I decided that I better start working again, so every day I'd go down to the (...) prosecutor's office and talk to them. And I finally got them to give me their decision one hour before the others. So I got it one hour before the others. (But that I would not report the decision until five minutes before the noon announcement.)

TI: So you scooped the other guys.

FT: And so then you know what happened, INS and UP merged. And became UPI, United Press International, and so I decided it was about time to go home to Seattle.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.