<Begin Segment 27>

EG: You were discharged in Japan?

TM: Yes. I went back to Zama again to be separated. But in the meantime, my commanding officer in Hokkaido said that I should stay. He says, "We need people like you. We want you to stay." I said, "No, Colonel, I been in the service for five years. This is already peace time, and besides, I think I'd find a better job in the Tokyo-Yokohama area." And that was true. They had the war crimes trials just about beginning, B-class, and they were looking for a lot of investigators, people like me. And a friend of mine said, "We need you, so come on down." So I took that job.

EG: Uh-huh. Investigator for the war times, war trials.

TM: Yokohama was a war crimes defense. And Tokyo was the prosecution. And so we lived in Yokohama and the trials were held in Yokohama. The prosecutors came down from Tokyo. Prisoners were held in Sugamo prison, which was in Tokyo. But our job was to go around, asking questions of potential witnesses, get their statement and then interview the accused themselves. They ranged from corporal to very high-ranking officers, you know, generals.

EG: And you were working for the defense --

TM: Yes.

EG: -- of these people. Who were their attorneys? Did they have their own attorneys or were they provided?

TM: No, the attorneys were assigned.

EG: Were assigned from the American military also? Both defense and...

TM: This was war crimes. International, not the Far East, the A-class. That's Tojo and others. But these were perpetrators. You know, they denied medical supplies, food, and mistreated our fliers and our POWs. And, of course, the trials were held all over, Manila and China, and all that. But these accused were already in Japan. And so it took about, gee, I don't know, about two and a half years from '47 to...

EG: '50.

TM: Close to '50 when I returned to Seattle. It took all that. It was pretty sad. When you lose a war... you never should lose a war. [Laughs]

EG: But this was in defense of the people who were being accused of having done bad things during the war. And there was trial and there was effort at justice apparently, if you provide defense for these people.

TM: Ours, our trials, too. The judges were American and others, like Australians. I didn't see any Chinese, but British, British, Australian and the American officers. I think they were all the field grade officers. So they were the judges. Our job was to defend these accused, the best we could. Some of 'em were sentenced to be hanged, others received life, others received less, lighter sentences. But pretty sad when you lose a war.

EG: Yeah, that sounds like a sad assignment.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.