<Begin Segment 3>

TI: Okay. So I want to talk about your role as, and how being Japanese American affected that. So let me ask first, were there very many other Japanese Americans in the foreign service at your, the time that you served?

LH: Actually, very few. There were very few non-Ivy League members of the Department of State, especially in the foreign service. Let's say... I'll take a figure off the top of my head, let's say today there are thirty thousand members of the Department of State, but only maybe a select four thousand are foreign service offices, those that we generally call diplomats. And those are the key individuals, and I think we just have to look at it from the standpoint that when I entered the foreign service, most were not only Ivy Leaguers, but most were WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants). Of course, some were Catholic, and a few Jews, and maybe a sprinkling of blacks and other minorities, but very few. And I feel very fortunate that I was able to pass the foreign service exam, and did very well in the orals. I think the orals are the critical aspect of the examination, and I guess you just call that quick on your feet. And others may call it other words, maybe somewhat derogatorily as being, you know, a spin-meister or someone who's able to skirt the fine line of truth and falsehood, but I don't buy that. It's just an individual who can think quickly and express himself correctly.

TI: And so with that kind of origins in terms of when you entered, very few minorities.

LH: Oh, very few.

TI: So very few Japanese Americans, and serving in Tokyo or Japan, how many other Japanese Americans were there?

LH: Well, in the embassy, maybe one other, in any given, one time. Two at most. And there were any number of Nikkei, Japanese Americans, that I also talked to on an official basis within our own government, within the Central Intelligence Agency, the military intelligence groups, and other elements of the U.S. government.

TI: So in general, how did the foreign service view placing someone of the same ethnicity, so a Japanese American, in Japan? Was that viewed as a positive?

LH: I would say it was neutral. It was not... there were more senior foreign service officers that preferred, say, Nikkei, not to serve in Japan. Because the line of thought was that they may be overly sympathetic, overly empathetic towards the Japanese since most of us were, in that period of history, Nisei, children of immigrants. Not that they doubted our loyalty, but may have felt that we may see things in a different color because of our ancestry. And I would say, basically, that's not true. I think only of the positive aspect. That the Nikkei that I knew that were involved in the occupation at that time, and I was there during the latter part of the occupation, that they were able to work more closely with the Japanese because the Japanese looked upon them as someone that could understand their culture, their history, and their motivation. And I knew any number of Nikkei that were involved in the war crimes trials, and involved with Japanese that were being investigated for what they may have been doing during the war. And I know a number of them that became very close friends of the families of those that were put on trial. And I think in that case, and in all the cases that I know of, it wasn't because they showed favoritism towards the Japanese, it was only because they were, had more insight into the Japanese and were able to give them a fairer "trial," so to speak.

TI: So you thought Japanese Americans were able to, to find that line in some ways. That they had further insights, maybe understanding, but yet they realized that they were Americans and their role wasn't to necessarily cross a line by doing favors or anything like that.

LH: That's right. And I think you also have to look at it from the standpoint of even though I was hired as a foreign service officer diplomat, not as an interpreter or translator. And a large number of Nikkei were first involved in Japan in the occupation through the Military Intelligence Service of the U.S. And they were able to speak Japanese to a high degree, and were utilized in positions maybe -- not maybe, somewhat different from my approach to my relationships with Japanese, because I spoke very limited Japanese. I either worked or talked to Japanese who spoke good enough English or a mixture of the two, or in certain negotiations I would use an interpreter. And, of course, that lessens your effectiveness in the sense of building up a closer relationship with Japanese. And that's why I feel so many of the other Nikkei that were there, especially during the war crimes trials, were able to draw themselves very, very close to Japanese nationals, because they had the language.

TI: So what I hear you saying, so you think it's a positive. So if the foreign service were able to, they would have Japanese-speaking diplomats in Japan, who had a good sense of the culture, the country, the people.

LH: Oh, absolutely.

TI: And they would be more effective.

LH: Yes. There have been more and more over the years, not a majority. But I think of people like Dr. Reischauer, Ambassador Reischauer. He was a Japanese expert at Harvard, he was married to Japanese-Japanese of a very high-class Japanese family. And so he goes to Japan speaking Japanese, knowing the Japanese culture and history, married to a Japanese, and yet he was extremely effective. And I can't think of anyone that ever spoke derogatorily of him being overly sympathetic to the Japanese because of his background. And I could relate that, I think, correctly to Nikkei, as well.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.