<Begin Segment 33>

TI: But they could not overturn the court-martial because that was something they couldn't do, and they said you'd need to go to the judge advocate general to do this.

SK: Yes. See, that's when the records came and we found the name of the military police officer, but where to find him?

TI: But before you even decide that, so after Shiro's rank was restored, the fines rescinded, who wanted to keep going? Was it important for everybody to keep pursuing this and get the court-martial overturned or was it enough for Shiro and Louise, or what were they thinking?

SK: Well, I was not satisfied. I was not satisfied so I wrote again to Patsy Mink saying that this is what happening so far. Kashino got his records cleared, but his court-martial conviction is a more heavier problem than we thought. So she did write to the judge advocate office, but, anyway, we were told to find the person, Suro.

TI: The MP officer who was hit.

SK: Yeah. So where to find him? We didn't know. Fortunately -- I don't think you've met Clarence Taba. He was our first sergeant at one point. Anyway, he, he was the executive officer for the banker's association here, and they had a banker's association, banker's convention here and so it just so happened that a banker from Puerto Rico came. And (as) Clarence Taba (was) talking to the Puerto Rican banker, Clarence found out that this banker, Puerto Rican banker, knew Lieutenant Suro. So when he went back he made arrangement to meet with, or to call back Clarence Taba, you see. But in the meantime Clarence Taba had business down in Puerto Rico so he went down himself and met with Lieutenant Suro. He was a retired colonel at the time and the colonel assured Taba that he would do his best in order to help, you see. So he made his statement and we sent this to the judge advocate.

TI: And right at the point when you got the affidavit from Suro, unfortunately, Shiro passed away about the same time.

SK: That's right. I really felt bad. With all the work done up to that point and him not knowing that he was really freed from his conviction, but at least he knew that we were trying very hard to get to that point, you see. So for that I'm happy, too.

TI: So this package with Suro's affidavit was sent to the judge advocate general.

SK: Uh-huh.

TI: What happened next?

SK: He sent a very nice letter. The general sent a very nice letter saying that upon looking through the records, (he felt) that (Kashino) was wronged, something like that, anyway, and that his court-martial conviction would be erased. Yeah. And there's a personal note, too, by his own handwriting, the general's own handwriting (...), saying something like, "Kashino was a soldier's soldier and he should be respected as such." So we were happy that everything got cleared, but this Bill Thompson, as I said, you met him, I think if it weren't for him, this (problem) would have been dragged some more, too, because during my period of frustration (...) everything just stopped. We couldn't go forward and I was telling my frustration to Bill. Bill said, "Oh, let me help." And by golly, he dug into records and made research here and there, called his friend in Washington D.C. to look for records and stuff like that. Oh, he was of tremendous help, I tell you. If it weren't for him, we would still be working on this (problem).

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.