<Begin Segment 32>

SK: Then we sent the records to the Records Department. They turned it down (first), but there was a little hope. This guy (wrote Kashino) saying that if you can get affidavits from (witnesses) there might be a chance.

TI: An affidavit either from the chaplain or the person who actually hit the MP officer.

SK: Yes, yes. Chaplain (had already passed on) so we met this guy Matsuda (...). I met him three times. The third time he said, "Okay," through the insistence of his wife, too, so he consented to make a statement. We went down to the Patsy Mink's office. She wasn't there, of course. Her aide took the statement down and made a copy for us and he signed it. We made copies of it and sent (it in), and, of course, I got affidavits from other people, too, who were there.

TI: And how resistant was Matsuda to doing this at first?

SK: Oh, gee. At the beginning he (said), "No, I don't want to see you." He's our own man, our own platoon member, and, "I don't want to see you. I want to forget the whole thing. I don't want to talk about it anymore." He was really hard-headed. Even one of my friends who helped me, Bill Thompson, talked to him on the phone. Matsuda just gave him the works saying, "To heck with that. Who are you to tell me what to do?" Things like that. But finally I took one of our platoon members, one of the sergeants, down with me, too, and at that time he kind of softened up and that's when he said he will write, make a statement. And, of course, in the meantime, I asked (our) platoon members if they could send me affidavits, notarized, (addressing it): To Whom It May Concern, what had happened, and I wrote a long (statement) also. I think these are the records that gave proof that Kashino was not entirely wrong, you see. So, as far as the records were concerned, they gave him back his rank and the back pay.

TI: So you sent the package to the army board for correction of military records.

SK: That's the one.

TI: You sent a package and they restored Shiro's rank back to staff sergeant.

SK: That's right.

TI: And rescinded the fine that they had.

SK: That's right.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.