<Begin Segment 8>

TI: So you essentially sent the same package to the Judge Advocate General?

BT: No, we had to make it stronger. When we got the package back, well, the decision from the military court of -- Military Board for Corrections of Military Records, they said, "Considering everything, you got your stripes back, your fines rescinded." But they didn't say why they did that. That they believed what we wrote, I guess. So we felt that, gee, we'd have to strengthen this when we go to the Judge Advocate General's office. And when we all looked at it, there was one thing that was missing. We always said that the MP officer wanted the charges dropped. We said, "Gee, if we get this, then we have the last, the last puzzle or the last piece in our puzzle would be complete." And that's what we spent probably six months or so, trying to locate this MP officer.

TI: And this was the story -- we're going to talk to Clarence Taba later, but...

BT: Yeah.

TI: ...he was the one who located, I believe his name is Suro, and got him to write a letter. And so that was then part of the package that was sent?

BT: Yeah. It was a matter of chance, I guess, circumstances. About a week or two weeks before this bankers' convention in Honolulu, Sadaichi had made arrangement for me to appear at the I Company, Item Company, monthly meeting. So I dropped in on the meeting, and I gave them a report of what we had done so far, that Kash got his stripes back. And I said we're trying to appeal his court-martial conviction. And I kept impressing, "We got this special court-martial orders, and now Kashino finally find out, found out, who the MP officer was." And I kept saying, "This guy, George Suro Jr. We have to find this George Suro Jr." Well, Clarence was at the meeting and I guess the name stuck with him. And couple weeks later at the national bankers' convention, he bumped into this Puerto Rican banker, and he mentioned that he was looking for George Suro. And the banker just happened to say, "He's my good friend," and that was it. Yeah, our search was over.

TI: And by this time, Kash was quite ill, too. And I know he was not doing well about this time.

BT: Okay. We first... the bankers' convention was, I think, in October of '96. And November, Clarence Taba made a trip, a business trip, to Puerto Rico. And then he made arrangements to visit with George Suro Jr. And Kash was, I guess, still in good health. But it was about that time that we started corresponding with the, with George Suro, Colonel George Suro Jr., that Kash took a turn for the worse. Yeah, we didn't know about that. In May, Louise wrote a letter to me saying that Kash had been ill, in and out of the hospital. And what I did, it was a time when, I guess, she was so busy, preoccupied, that she couldn't contact us. So I have a friend in Seattle, good friend of the Kashinos, Yoshito Mizuta, I don't know whether you know him, and I asked him to check how Kash is doing in the hospital. Well, he called me back and said, "You know, Bill, Kash is in bad shape." The family had kept this under wraps. "But, because you're my friend and you had asked me to follow up," they did allow Mizuta to visit with Kash. And then he told me that Kash was in bad shape.

TI: How did that make you feel, or what were you thinking, when you heard that Kash was not doing well at this point?

BT: I was hoping that he would make it. Well, he had been ill before, so we were hoping that he would pull through again.

TI: Right, but I know in talking to the Kashino family, they knew that Suro had been found and that he was writing this letter. So that was, I know, good news that they were telling Kash, even though, when he was in the hospital.

BT: Yeah. What happened was that we got a letter back from Suro, I think this was in May. Suro said, "Yes," he recalls the incident. "Yes," he wanted charges dropped. "Yes," he shook hands with the boys, saying, "No hard feelings." And I passed that letter on to Kash, and he and Louise read that and Kash said, "Gee, Bill, I think we got it." And I said, "Heck, yes." Yeah. So even though he passed away, I think having that letter from Suro verifying what he had said in his application, that they had shook hands, and what the chaplain said that the charges should be dropped, the colonel, or the MP officer wanted the charges dropped, everything fell into place. And, here we had the most important, or most convincing, proof that was needed.

TI: So you had that last piece. And now you sent this off to the judge -- Judge Advocate General.

BT: Yes.

TI: What happened then? What was the next thing that happened?

BT: Okay. Louise called me, very sad, that Bill, we got turned down. Why don't we just drop it already? Kash is not here.

TI: What were the reasons they turned it down?

BT: Just a short letter saying, "You haven't presented any evidence to bring the, to justify reviewing the case."

TI: And how did you feel at that point, when you heard that they turned it down?

BT: Well, when they turned us down, and if they gave a good reason, yeah, I would say, "Okay, let's throw in the towel." But no reason. Just saying, you didn't provide a reason. So I told Louise, "It's not right. They should tell us why, specifically. So let's appeal that." Well, in the meantime, I had talked to the staff in Senator Inouye's office, and she had called one of the colonel in the Judge Advocate General office. And she had asked whether it would be proper to appeal the decision. And the colonel said, "Go ahead." And Patsy Mink also, when she heard about this says, "Don't give up." So we had friends in high places that were back on this. And I think that after all Kash went through we couldn't stop, for his sake, for Louise's sake, and the daughters -- no, let's go through and finish.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.