<Begin Segment 8>

DM: There were some other very big turning, or important turning points in the case. Would you talk about those as well?

BT: I think after Kash... after the thing started falling into place, I think Matsuda must have had a change of mind. He did listen to you and request Patsy Mink to find his records, yeah. So I think he himself, finally, I think opened up a little bit, yeah. My thought is that what happened between he and the MP Officer is strictly, actually it was something that shouldn't have happened, but happened. But you blame Matsuda for doing this, but the MP officer didn't act properly. So you know, you think, guys have to suffer because of something that shouldn't have happened that happened, and they agreed that they shook hands and say, "Okay, everything's over." And then still the court-martial happened. It's almost unbelievable.

We told Matsuda that if his record comes in, good chance for his court-martial maybe eased or, actually, it should have been eliminated. There was no accuser for any of the one that were at the trial. This is American justice. You have to have some someone accuse you. And they only mentioned the MP officer's name. They didn't say he was the accuser. Again, looking at that, there's something wrong, went wrong with the system.

LK: I feel that James Matsuda suffered over fifty years with this on his conscience, that maybe he should have done something, but that's why he kind of ostracized himself from the group. I don't think the group ostracized him. But he stayed away because of a little bit of a shame. And the boys tried to make it up to Kash for that first reunion, when they invited him over for an all-expense paid trip. And when they had the first reunion in 1953, and you know, we were struggling along, our kids were little and we wouldn't have been able to afford to have him go to the first reunion. But he wanted to go very badly, but he happened to be out sick for months just before the reunion started. So the boys sent him this ticket, and they, all-expense plane trip. I guess everyone must have chipped in?

SK: Yeah, I guess so.

LK: Yeah. And so he had this wonderful trip. So he told his boss that even if he had been out sick for several weeks, he still wanted to go on this vacation, because of the way this trip came about, where they, I mean offered him a free trip. So he just felt he had to go. And I think the boys did that for him because they're trying to make up to him for some of the suffering that he went through.

SK: Could be.

LK: Do you feel that? Did you think that was...?

SK: Yeah, I think so.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.