<Begin Segment 20>

TI: And so after three months in the Big Apple, New York City, what happened next?

KY: Well, at that time, they said, "Hey, there's a language training type thing going on at Harvard, and it's called the Civil Affairs Language Training Program at Harvard. And you guys' background shows that you're capable, qualified to join this program." So it was a chance to go to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Harvard, of all places. Said, "I'll go." So of the three of us, I was the only one that went to Harvard.

TI: And did the other two return back to Colorado?

KY: I have no idea after that.

TI: Okay, so you went to Harvard --

KY: At the time, I probably knew, but...

TI: And so what was it like at Harvard? So back, now you're a teacher again, you're an instructor.

KY: Teacher again, right. Right.

TI: And so who were your students at Harvard?

KY: Students at Harvard were Navy and Army officers, probably Marines, too. But the intent was that we, the U.S., were very confident that we're gonna win the war and we're gonna occupy Japan. In order to do that, and do it successfully, we need leaders, officers type people that could co-relate and understand the Japanese, work with them, gain their cooperation, confidence, and do a good job in occupied Japan. So, in other words, the general term, civil affairs, all sorts of... and then good for, in other words, general Japanese things, cultural things.

TI: So you were essentially helping to train the leadership of the future occupation force in Japan.

KY: Right, right. In Japan, yeah. That's why it was called general Civil Affairs. So, and we were teaching, as I say, primarily Army, Navy, Marine.

TI: And how long did you do this?

KY: This was for a year.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.