<Begin Segment 24>

MN: So what was your assignment as part of the Manila war crimes tribunal? What were your responsibilities there?

BK: Our responsibilities were more to work in translation. There were (Japanese soldier) prisoners that had surrendered. The war had ended, but there were a lot of soldiers that were out in the jungles and lost their company, lost their fighting unit. They were loners. They didn't know where to go. Their unit was lost. And as they gave up and reported, our duty was to process and to find out if they were any of the ones that had committed war crimes against the Filipinos, and if they were cleared of any atrocities, then they were processed so that they could return home. Those that had committed atrocities were imprisoned and had to wait hearings for the war crimes. So that was part of our duties, and also translating (statements of) those that were found to have been responsible for some atrocities, we had to convert their testimony in Japanese to English, as the court was conducted all in English. So that was part of our work in doing the translation. And then the people above us would then have to read our work and make any corrections before it was submitted to the court. For us, our work was more or less to clear people of any atrocities, get them to a point where they would be free to go home. And the problem was there was no quick way to do that. It's a process of clearing them, taking their testimony, making sure that they weren't responsible for atrocities, and there was, hate to say it, but there was a lot of atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers. They became animals just like they do in every war. A lot of them that were in the Philippines were from Kyushu, and that's where my folks came from, Kyushu. So they were, came from Kumamoto and, and Fukuoka, and they wanted to get home. And so once they were cleared they were used as help for us in the camps. They worked in the kitchens and kept the bathrooms and everything clean, the grounds clean. They had no money, so us GIs were mostly (Niseis), felt sorry for them. So I didn't smoke and I didn't drink so I would take my allotment and I would a buy beer and cigarettes and take them over and give it to the prisoners because they had nothing, had nothing at all. And they put on a show for us as a kind of thank you, before they left for home. We got to know each other and they got to know about Japanese Americans. I think a relationship was established at that time.

MN: So when your time was up you returned to Tokyo and then you were, you found out you weren't assigned a table of organization. Why is this so important?

BK: Well, when we were assigned to the Philippines our orders said that we were assigned to the (...) military police (unit). However, that military police was not the ones that issued us our monthly checks. In order to get a raise in rank you had to be in a table of order, which means you had to be assigned to a group that we would report your name at your (position) every month, that you're entitled to certain benefits, and we weren't under that table of order. And it's the mistake of the Military Intelligence Service group that assigned us from Tokyo to Manila for not having set that up. And so we never got a raise in rank. We were a private from the time we left Minneapolis. They didn't raise our rank at all, and yet we were going home, they say, "Would you like to sign up for two years?" I says what for? I mean, "If we did what would, what would happen? We would wind up the same way?" "Oh no, we'll make you a lieutenant." I says, "Why aren't we a lieutenant now? What happened?" And that's my peeve and my complaint against the MIS: they didn't take care of us. Not at all. But anyway, that's what you call a goof. Army goof.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.