<Begin Segment 6>

[Translated from Japanese]

I2: The report has discrepancies right from the beginning. Can we move on? "I ordered the Japanese to lie on the floor in the WRA office. They refused, so I hit my Jap with my fist."

I1: It could be a mistake.

I2: It could be. It is terrible if it was my Jap. "I hit the Jap with a fist. He fell but was still conscious. XX hit his Jap..." Here it comes again. "He hit his Jap in the head with the baseball bat. He fell on the floor. He sat down there and leaned against the desk. XX tried to push him with the baseball bat three more times. The bat hit the desk diagonally and only brushed the Jap. He aimed at the Jap with the last stroke, but ended up hitting the desk and broke the bat. The Jap screamed, 'Don't hit me anymore.' He didn't lose consciousness from being hit. Several WRA officers and about twelve other people witnessed the incident, but I don't know their names. I think Albert Cole was there." Skipping ahead and, "We left the three on the floor with WRA officers watching them. XX, XX, Delbert Cole (I think) and I left the office."

TY: I never lay down on the floor. I was standing against the wall with my arms over my head.

I2: You didn't refuse either.

TY: No.

I2: Did the bat break on the desk? [Laughs]

TY: The desk had nothing to do with it. The desk was far away.

I2: You didn't lean against the desk either.

TY: No, no.

I2: It is important to have an accurate statement about how the bat broke. If it broke by hitting someone, that means the person was hit with a strong blow.

TY: I was like this [standing straight with hands up and back on the wall]. The bat was long. If you swing the bat it would first hit the wall instead of hitting the head directly. The wall first. The person who hit him was a big white guy like a wrestler. Small Japanese person would fly in the air and lose consciousness if he is hit with a fist by those guys.

I2: You didn't lose consciousness?

TY: No. We were fighting between surviving and dying. We were desperately trying to survive. We couldn't do anything. We couldn't fight back. We were not armed. They were a bunch more than ten big guys. Everyone laughed as we got beaten up. They were laughing and watching.

I1: It does not make any sense that they didn't know who was there.

TY: I remember there was this person but cannot remember his name. Not necessarily a police officer, but a WRA security officer was among them. He was sent to the hospital by Mr. Best to let us know that we were unconditionally released when we were hospitalized during our hunger strike. He drove me back to my room on seven in his Jeep and said to me, "Stay out of trouble." After a few days, he caught rabbits and brought them over to me. "They are delicious. I caught them." [Laughs] "Wild rabbits are delicious." There was someone like that too.

I2: The report continues. We stopped at the part where they left the WRA office. It goes on and then, "Delbert Cole asked who the Japanese leader was when they came back. XX answered, 'I didn't know anything.' XX grabbed the shirt and swung the broken bat again. He said 'Tell us now.' XX said, 'I didn't know' once again." He must have meant "I don't know."

TY: What does that mean? Who the leader was?

I2: They asked who the leader was...

I1: They asked you or your friend.

I2: And one of you must have said, "I didn't know anything."

TY: We had nothing to do with it.

I2: You wanted to tell them you had nothing to do with this incident.

TY: Yes. They repeated, "Confess, confess," and tried to make us guilty for the warehouse disturbance. We said, "We don't know anything. We heard that there was a riot at the warehouse and were asked to bring people back to the residential section in the camp. That's all and nothing else."

I2: "The army lieutenant said, 'hit him.' XX followed the order and hit XX in the head with the broken bat. XX fell and collapsed on the floor. He lost consciousness for a little while. I reached out to him and shook him until he regained his consciousness. I pulled him toward his legs. I never kicked him." It goes on and then, "He refused to provide information. XX started slapping his face and then hitting him in the head and on the face with the fist. It wasn't severe enough to lose consciousness." It goes on and then, "XX was behind the desk but leaned forward and said, 'Tell us, or I will make your eyes come out of your head.' XX refused to talk. XX hit him in his eyes severely. He hit too hard that he injured his fist." The violence goes on so Mr. Murawaka must have decided not to translate, but "It is true that XX was hit severely. Hatred toward XX was heightened. That is because XX was the Japanese leader who had beaten up XX." What is this part?

I1: I didn't translate this part.

I2: Did Mr. Kume do this part?

I1: I think so.

I2: We will skip ahead. It continues, "Furthermore, I never heard that some other Japs besides XX were beaten up or tortured." It goes on and then, "We ended the meeting and violence with XX at 2:30 in the morning on November 5, 1943." I assume that means they ended the torture. It sounds like they went to another room. "XX and other Japanese hostages were sent to the hospital by soldiers." "Sent to the hospital"? [Laughs] "I think that those who needed treatment got appropriate treatment. XX's head was badly swollen from the beating. He must have received some medical attention. I don't know what happened to them after they left the office." The report ends right here. It was reported by the FBI on February 18, 1944.

TY: By whom? Is this a report from that American?

I2: Yes. It is a report by the FBI.

TY: I noticed discrepancies. But as I said, they clearly admitted that they hit us with the bat.

I1: Did you notice any incorrect statement about locations?

TY: Torture continued until about three in the morning, and we were being beaten and kicked. We were tortured while kept in the same position (standing straight with hands up and back on the wall). Todoroki was brought to the room later. Rather, Kobayashi was brought in. He was asked to take the same position. He refused and said, "I didn't do anything wrong, and there is no reason to obey you." Martin, a big officer, immediately hit Kobayashi. I clearly saw the bat breaking into two pieces. Tom Kobayashi was right next to me. And Todoroki was here. There was almost no space between us. Three of us were put close to each other. We were left without any medical attention until the morning. MPs came in the morning and we were handed over to them. There weren't any soldiers while we were being tortured.

I2: WRA?

TY: Only WRA officers.

I1: Security officers from WRA?

TY: They must have been security officers at WRA.

I2: It is strange. He says, "It is true that XX was hit severely." I don't know who was most severely beaten, but the report states the hatred toward XX was heightened, "because XX was the Japanese leader." I'm wondering if this Japanese person beat up a security officer.

I1: Among us three?

I2: It appears that way in the report.

TY: That must be Tom Kobayashi.

I1: Right. He was a big person...

TY: He got into the fight with the guys who came to the warehouse to steal the food.

I1: I see.

I2: That means this person knew the people who went to the warehouse to steal.

TY: That must be it.

I2: So, they weren't completely strangers. We can read from this that one of the security officers was involved in the stealing.

I1: They might have thought Kobayashi was the person who dared to fight against them.

TY: As time went on, the story was formed where Japanese did something wrong. We were just defending ourselves and our family. That was the environment. They tried to blame Japanese for everything.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright (c) 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.