<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Before we go there, I kind of want to go back to the 26th Division. How well did the Brits treat the Nisei linguists?

HN: Oh, I was treated fine because I was working with the, working with the intelligence unit, mobile unit, they treated us, they treated us, gave us similar food as the officers. We didn't have to resort to the army's K-ration, C-rations, the GI rations. We ate with, they cooked the food for us.

TI: Oh, so even though you weren't officers...

HN: No. But we got the officer treatment because we were doing the military intelligence...

TI: Now, when you were with the Britons, were you ever put into any combat situations?

HN: Well, we didn't really, we were not a riflemen like the 442. We weren't up in front shooting rifles, we were just doing the prisoners and the captured documents. Whenever the prisoners are brought in or documents are captured, then they come and get us and we have to interrogate them, tactical information you want to know. Right away you want to know, so they would wake you up middle of the night. You're in the foxhole, then you have to go to the command post and then look at, talk to the prisoners or the documents. So one night I was coming back after that, then the Hindustani guard, because we got to have a guard, you know, "Password." Password, you got to give a password. It's dark, you can't see. But there were guards all around. You got to have password to go around. But he didn't want just password, he wanted to know what I'm doing up here walking around. I could understand the Hindustani, but I thought, if I start to stumble in my humble poor Hindustani, it may arouse suspicion that, "This guy is maybe a Japanese soldier," if I start fumbling around with their... it might arouse suspicion. It might be dangerous. So I told him, "Wait." That's the one word, "wait," and he understands. I thought I better not try to engage in conversation, he might... so I backtracked, backtracked to the camp. It was dark, you can't see where you... but I backtracked, I told the British officer, "Tell the guard here," I told him what happened. So the guard got dressed down. Because I gave password, that's all you need. You don't have to ask me where I'm going, what I'm doing, you know, that kind of thing is... anyway, so he got dressed down. So they took me back. But that was the one scary...

TI: Good, okay.

HN: Of course, I got my letter yet, but you can't avoid that.

TI: The reason I ask is that I know some of the other MIS were, especially in Burma, they were assigned to people like Merrill's Marauders...

HN: Oh, did you talk to any Merrill's Marauders?

TI: Yeah, and they were actually in the jungle, so that's why I was curious.

HN: Oh, I was in the jungle, too.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.