<Begin Segment 8>

TI: And then...

SK: And I'm assigned -- well, in the meantime, I'm the liaison, I'm selected -- in addition to my teaching requirements I'm selected as the liaison officer for the school, which meant that once a week, usually on a Friday so that I could avoid the need to participate in the parade, you see -- I would go down to Washington in civilian attire, driven by a uniformed driver and I would hit the Pentagon and then hit the FBI and then the national CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia. And I was doing that until December '66, when I was called on my, one of my visits to Pentagon. I was informed that they had me slated for the biggest job of my career, that of taking over the counterintelligence job for the United States Army, Vietnam, which meant that nominally, I would be the head of -- all counterintelligence efforts in Vietnam. And as it turned out, I was assigned to the G-2 office, working under G-2 directly. (On my last visit to the FBI, I was given an autographed photo of J. Edgar Hoover which still hangs in my hallway.)

TI: Now, at this point, what was your rank? Were you then...?

SK: Lieutenant colonel.

TI: ...lieutenant colonel.

SK: And I was a senior lieutenant colonel. And I was also in charge of the daily operational requirements of a military intelligence detachment, commanded by a lieutenant colonel, who reported to me on a daily basis. And we were concerned with the security requirements for the headquarters, of course. And I was doing that for one whole year. And, oh, this is Vietnam. And my need for use of the Japanese language had expired with World War II, of course. And here in Vietnam, this lieutenant colonel in charge of the military intelligence detachment came in one day and reported to me that, that one of his men is having difficulties controlling, or understanding one of his informants. And I inquired, and I found out that this informant is a former Korean officer of -- from one of the Korean infantry divisions, that had been assigned to Vietnam. And he had gotten out and had become an informant for the Americans. So I asked, "About how old of a man is he?" When he told me, I thought, "Well, maybe this fellow...? I didn't tell him, but back of my head, I thought, "Maybe he understands Japanese."

TI: Because it was a situation where this officer didn't understand or speak English, and the American officers didn't speak Korean...

SK: Enough Korean, right.

TI: ...and so you recognized that this...

SK: Because if he's an old, old fellow, chances are very good that, in the old days, every one of them spoke Japanese.

TI: Because the Japanese occupied...

SK: Japanese controlled, occupied Korea...

TI: ...Korea.

SK: ...so many years, see? So I went along with the agent. And sure enough -- oh, the Korean's eyes lit up, he was so happy to hear me speak Japanese [Laughs] 'cause he understood Japanese just like any Japanese. And so I interrogated him because I had -- already talked to the agent, and he wanted to know certain things. So, when I got the answers, I interpreted to him right then and there in English. And my agent wrote it up in English, signed it and forwarded it. So I had to laugh later on that, here I was in Vietnam, and I had to use Japanese to interrogate an informant.

TI: Well, it -- was it unusual for the head of counterintelligence to do almost this field work, this...?

SK: Oh, yes. [Laughs]

TI: ...this sort of...

SK: That's right. But it was a very pleasant break for me.

TI: Because your position, as head of counterintelligence, was a high position.

SK: It was, yeah.

TI: And were there any instances or cases where people were surprised that a Japanese American was in such a high position?

SK: Oh, yes. Because you see, I'm occupying an office, the door of which is open because we want to -- every possible chance to get the air through that building, and I'm seated behind a big desk. Oh, I don't know how many feet long. And everybody who comes in has to walk in front of that open doorway to get to my shop to get briefed and oriented and fingerprinted -- as a new, incoming individual.

TI: So every, every soldier or every officer?

SK: Every officer. Now, therefore, when the officer comes in, he casually glances my way, he notices the fact that there's an Oriental seated behind a, behind a big desk. And then he goes in and gets briefed. And I'm sure he asks, "Well, who's that officer, or who's your officer?" Or my personnel voluntarily says, "You passed in front of our CO." And then when he gets finished, on his way out, he doesn't just walk straight out in front of -- front of my office, but he's looking at me every step of the way as he walks in front of my office on the way out, because now he knows who I am. So it was a live moment.

TI: Well, how knowledgeable were army officers about the MIS during World War II? Did...?

SK: In Vietnam area they knew because, invariably, they would say, "My boss, Colonel Koyama, blah-blah-blah-blah," you see -- "wants this, wants that or whatever." And I toured various parts of Vietnam twice on helicopters and in jeep convoys. And that's the reason why I think today that I was exposed to Agent Orange. And well, maybe you can see. You see these red marks?

TI: Uh-huh.

SK: These are Agent Orange red marks. Can the camera pick that up?

TI: Uh-huh.

SK: I have these red marks on both my legs. And 'bout two weeks ago I had my back inspected, but none on my back -- just my two legs and my arms. Agent Orange -- doesn't itch, nothing, just there.

TI: That's interesting.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.