<Begin Segment 14>

BT: Like Matsuda, you know, well, in the end, I guess he felt relief, knowing what had happened to Kash could happen to him, too, when he applied for his records, knowing that he could probably get his conviction repealed, too. But you know, throughout all this, I feel so sad for Beanie Hayashi's mother. She got the news he was in the stockade, and that was the last letter she got. And next news she would get was that he died in the battlefield.

LK: His life was, it was, that was a needless... his being killed was needless, because they should not have been taken out of the stockades and put onto the battlefield. And they all willingly went without any hesitation. But he made the supreme sacrifice. And I feel very, I felt very bad for them, especially like his brother that wrote to you. I bet they felt like, "Oh, gosh, what an injustice that he had to lose his life over the whole thing."

SK: Because if a soldier is convicted of something, he's kept in the stockade. Well, I don't know for how long, but then he shouldn't be sent out to combat again, because he's a prisoner. But yet these three guys were sent out, four guys were sent out, to fight again. Unfortunately, Beanie got killed. What if Matsuda had gone, gotten killed?

BT: Yeah. [Laughs]

SK: I'm making a joke out of this with that. We have no evidence that he...

BT: No.

SK: That's right.

BT: But this is where another quirk of fate enters the picture. Matsuda did not return to I Company. He went to Headquarters Company, right?

SK: That's right. Yeah, that's right.

BT: Yeah. He didn't return to the rifle company, I Company. Matsuda went, he was transferred to regimental headquarters. So it's just a lot of...

SK: Funny thing, huh?

BT: Yeah.

SK: Very strange.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.