<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Let's go back to the Japanese reporter. You were -- I'm trying to think -- you must have been about ten years old or so when he was staying with you. Describe the relationship you had with the reporter.

HM: He had a son about the same age I was. And so he kind of took a delight in, to conversing with me. One of the things that was interesting was the fact that he knew he couldn't pronounce some of the English words properly so he would ask me how I would pronounce it. So we had kind of an interesting relationship. He was treating me like I was his son, really. So he took kind of an interest in what I was doing in my schoolwork. I used to like to make maps. And this was during the time period when the Germans were having extraordinary military success, especially in France and other areas, the low lands. So as part of our schoolwork, we used to make maps and show where the Germans were and all this kind of stuff. He used to look at it and say, gee, "Nihon no chizu aru no?" Asking, do we have maps of Japan? I said, "Well, there's no coverage of the Japanese occupation of China and all this kind of stuff, so we don't have any interest in that area. My school class doesn't cover that in current history." So he thought it was strange that we would just be using European data relative to our current history events and not covering China or what's happening in Asia. I guess this kind of was disconcerting to him because we lived on the West Coast and we should have primary interest in what's happening in Asia rather than what's happening in Europe.

TI: As he recognized that you weren't getting much information about what was happening in China and Japan, did he try to give you information about what was really happening there?

HM: Yeah, because he had been in China, he had been a reporter for that one group that went into Nanking. And he said there were all kinds of things that went on that shouldn't have happened. That's the way he described it. I didn't really get the gist of it until I learned later on that this Nanking incident had taken place. But nonetheless, he felt that we were completely preoccupied with European information rather than what was happening in Asia.

TI: What, through the reporter were you able to get, again you're a young boy, but were able to get a better understanding of what was happening in Japan?

HM: He would tell me about what was happening in China and the problems that... from his perspective he felt that Japan would go into China and try to get China as a member of the Co-prosperity Sphere, they used to call it that. This was the Asian coalition to help organize Asians against the Anglo-Saxons, and to drive the colonial system out of Asia. He felt that that was initially their intent, but as the military got more and more involved in the occupation and the military part of it, they ran the show rather than the foreign department of Japan. And so consequently, everything went into the hands of the military and this caused some perturbations that he was not very happy with. He was very realistic about what was happening. But he was not in a position to tell me that the rape of Nanking had occurred. He was very courteous and discreet about it.

TI: Just to finish up with this reporter, earlier you talked about him and he sounds like an extraordinary man. He was very bright, very knowledgeable about lots of things. I guess the follow-up question is, because of your experience in counter intelligence, do you think possibly that this gentleman was here for intelligence purposes?

HM: Indirectly, probably he was feeding information about what was happening in the U.S. To me, a reporter is not usually that well versed in military equipment, like being able to identify a fighter airplane, for instance. Reporters aren't that detailed in knowledge unless they had their minor or an interest in college and followed up on it, but usually they're very general interest areas. For him to be able to identify airplanes was kind of unique and I'm sure that when he went back to Japan, someone in the military probably would have debriefed him or tried to get a briefing from him.

TI: Did your family's relationship with this gentleman ever cause you or cause your family any problems later on with the FBI or anyone else?

HM: Not that I know of. And from my ability to search the counter intelligence files, I don't think there was any connection made at that point.

TI: Okay, good.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.