<Begin Segment 14>

JD: Let's go back and talk a little more about your Military Intelligence activities. You were still involved in that after the war was over. Can you tell us a little more about that period?

RM: Yes. What happened was, fortunately, I was the last man, Nisei, to be with the unit. And when it disbanded, I was the last seventeen men, last group of seventeen men to be evacuated from Myitkyina air strip. And instead of going to New Delhi, I was transferred into 475th Infantry because they thought they needed me, or I was still weak but capable of serving. Then what happened was I didn't go to combat from there. What happened was when I was transferred there, my shrapnel wound in the arm got infected because unsanitary conditions, then I almost lost that, so they transferred me to 14th Evacuation Hospital to be treated. Then I was supposed to receive Purple Heart but they denied it because no witnesses. But the order says I transferred, too, then also there's a picture of Noel Coward, famous British writer, but he interviewed me and did a United States Army Signal Corps photo there, but still they don't believe it. And just last year, a colonel from special forces wrote a letter to the army and still deny it, all the witness all dead, so they don't take their word for it. But anyway, I'm still kicking around, so I don't mind.

JD: So was that the end of your combat experience? Then did you move on to other intelligence activities?

RM: Yeah. No, so that's why instead of, when I went to the hospital, then Sergeant Jimmy Yamaguchi was in the 20th General Hospital, and the rest of 'em was already India, so he told me he want to join them, but he had a stomach ulcer, so army gonna send him back to stateside. He doesn't want to go back to stateside, he'd like to join the rest of the boys. So then I talked to the adjutant there, and they found me. They're looking for me, they don't know where, but I understand that General Merrill was looking for me. I didn't know why, but then I found out they're gonna, later on I found out they're gonna present me with Legion of Merit. But anyway, so I didn't go back to 475th, so my personal belongings were all left at the 475th, then the hospital, then from there, he said, "You report to General Merrill in New Delhi, India." So from 14th Evacuation Hospital, I stayed a week or ten days there, then I asked him, "Sergeant Yamaguchi want to join the people, but he's supposed to be sent back. Can I escort him?" Said, "As long as you escort him and if it turns bad, turn him into hospital, then let you know. So instead of, he was a tech sergeant, I was a staff sergeant.

JD: So what kinds of activities were you going to get involved in?

RM: Yeah, that's why I'm gonna go, send him to New Delhi. But already had an assignment with the British Royal Air Force with sergeant, Grant Hirabayashi and me, going to be assigned to Royal Air Force headquartered in New Delhi. So I have a desk job. No more bullet flying, so that's a good deal. So Grant and I, because of the top grades, so we knew each other very well. Anyway, but unfortunate thing happened, about a half a dozen guys walking on a street of New Delhi, and we spotted a general officer, British officer, general coming down the street. So here comes a Limey general, but we didn't salute. Then, of course, nearby then, "Soldiers," "Yes, sir," then everybody salute. "It's too late. You didn't salute when you saw me." So, "Disrespect for general officers. Give your names." Since the general ordered me, we have to give our name. Then after got the name there, "We're gonna court martial you for disrespecting the general officer." So we're gonna be court martialed, so we didn't know what to do. We reported our chief, then said, "No, you don't have to stand a court martial. We cancelled your assignment and sent you to China." So a bunch of us got in the cargo plane and went to Kunming. And I, Grant, and a few other guys together.

Anyway, we went to Kunming, then there says, "Oh, you made it." "What do you mean, 'you made it'?" You see, last one didn't make it. We're carrying ammunition, and aviation fuel for the return trip. Laboring, going like that, the hump is very high, high altitude, so we're sitting on an ammunition box, and we worried about it, but got there safely. Then they tell us. Then as soon as we got there, it was Christmas Eve. Then all of a sudden, the Japanese come, air raid, so we run out of there, and when there was nighttime, daybreak, that happened to be a graveyard in Kunming. Then what happened was since we went there, he was assigned to a translation section, and Akiji Yoshimura, he made a field commission, he was a lieutenant, and I'm already sergeant there. And send me to Chunking, so I didn't know what, went there, reported there. Then the officer there in charge said, says, "You go to Nangunchen and interrogate prisoners. So we saw the newly captured prisoner in China.

Anyway, we went to Nangunchen, that's the place name, that's where Chiang Kai-shek had a resort there with his mistress. Anyway, Nangunchen means "thousand hot springs," and there's a place called Heiwasong, that means "peace village" in English, Japanese is Heiwasong. That's a prison camp there, and the Japanese there, so we asked 'em, "How long you been here?" Said, "Eight years." So no use interrogating eight years old prisoner, but so when we get mad, tell the officer that, 'Wasting our time. We didn't need any training there, no use interrogating eight years old." They thought we came from stateside, so need practice, but we'd been in combat. So we told 'em, "Waste of time," then they got mad, I think. "In that case, we're gonna send you combat area." So lieutenant that was assigned to China Combat Command, CCC, and headquartered in Kunming. And me, G-2 in China Command, and sent me to a place called Kai-Yuan, it's in Yunan province, near [inaudible] border. And so happened that the unit assigned me was a Chinese American troop, battalion there. So I'm the only Japanese among Chinese Americans, and I'm Japanese American. So we go out of town, said, he don't speak Chinese, so, "You keep quiet, we order for you." And didn't tell restaurant there, and all uniform, so you didn't know it. People think that I was Chinese, too, but I don't speak Chinese, just but a few words. So then says, "This guy grow up in a Caucasian billet, so didn't speak Chinese." So they thought, they're telling other people, because they spotted, look like a Japanese, but he told them, "He grew up in a Caucasian group," so I don't speak. But they covered me up, then I had a good time.

Then all of a sudden, General Hayden Boatner wanted you to report to a certain place. So I went to a place called [inaudible], it's closer to the border there, and when I went there, then they told me, "Here, take this." It was can like a film can, 35 millimeter can, film can. I never saw this before. "What's this?" I asked him. "Don't you know?" I said I didn't know. So open up, black inside, that was opium. [inaudible] Then here's a .38, that's a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson, the pistol there, revolver. But already I had a .45 automatic. [Laughs] So I don't need two sidearm, but no, we have plenty of ammunition for this, so you take this, too. So I had two sidearm, .45 and .38. But anyway, they didn't mention there was... they didn't know what unit. They wouldn't even say secret, just the general said you would be going there. "So I'm going to take you there," so all of a sudden I left G-2, and G-2 is intelligence section in headquarters, general headquarters. And S-2 is a company grade, battalion, S-2. But that is intelligence section. [Inaudible] from there, they put 'em in a cargo plane, and [inaudible] they took me there and dropped me off. Then, now put 'em in that L-5, the liaison plane there, then some village. I didn't know where I was going, I just go there. Then there was a Chinese, two Chinese soldier waiting for me. And go there, now, says, carrying my pack, one soldier, so I carried carbine and the canteen and pistol there, and went to hike about twenty miles, got there, place called Taipin, the river, the edge there, in Kwangsi province. Then there's about a dozen people there, then says, "Are you Chinese?" I don't speak Chinese, and they don't understand English. I just follow what to go there, and went there. Then there's a Major Buchanan, Joseph Buchanan, he was the commanding officer and says, welcome you, and made me intelligence sergeant there. And they didn't even tell me this is OSS. Later on, find out. They didn't even mention that. And so secret, they didn't know where I went. I was missing there, but secretly assigned there.

What happened was General Boatner knew, he was a staff officer of Stillwell. Then they knew I was awarded Legion of Merit, so he knew I could do the job, but didn't tell me what kind of job. But happened to [inaudible] job, and one of the story, I don't mention the unit, but I have a paper that one of the, my accomplishment there, and what it is... they brought the prisoner in there, so I pretended I was a Chinese officer, and asked this prisoner, is shaking there, "Have you eaten?" That's a Chinese greeting words is, "Shi fan yu ma," just like, "How are you?" And that means, "Have you eaten?" the Chinese greeting words. So I asked him, "Have you eaten." He says, "No," and then, so I tell the Chinese cook to feed him. So he don't see anything there, then he is saying to me, "Shi shi ne," that means, Chinese, "Thank you." Okay. All right, then he finished eating, so I put my hand in a pocket and reach up and offer him tobacco and cigarette. And he took one and thanked me and says, in Chinese, "Thank you." So a few puff later, he's relaxing and he looks happy, so I ask him in Japanese, "Have you eaten enough?" "Tabemashita ka" in Japanese. He was surprised. He didn't know, he thought I was a Chinese officer. Then he'd start to cry, then I asked him what happened. He thought he was gonna be, "Fed me, and they're gonna torture and kill me." That's what the Japanese officer told him. "If you get captured, they're gonna torture you, so don't get captured." Blow himself. But he gave 'em, used a hand grenade, kill himself.

But what happened, this prisoner was, he was one of the troop going by the road, marching. What he'd do is, we had our plane, if Japanese move in there, to drop the bomb or strafe 'em, see. So they don't move during daytime. The truck moves, so they do nighttime, but we do is sabotage. Made a big crater on the road so the truck get by. Or the broad bridge, so that they don't cross the bridge to go to, from China to French Indochina at the time. It's Vietnam, but at the time, called French Indochina, and we're just disrupting. In the meantime, what we do is put the troop into labor and fix up the places, fill up the crater or bridge, or making a forward place, something like that, work as a laborer, so they're tired. And nighttime they march and come through there, take a ten minute break or fifteen minutes, whatever. But they're so tired and so sleepy, they'll fall asleep. Then quietly, guy move out, and didn't wake up, so when woke up, nobody there, alone. So they're straggler, so they hide in the Chinese field, the Chinese. But meantime, we send a message to the chief of the village there. Call mayor, but chief of the village, telling the people that, "If you're bringing a Japanese prisoner alive, we gave 'em so many thousand, ten thousand men or three thousand, I mean, not ten thousand, twenty thousand or whatever, big amount of money, even though it's occupation money, but anyway, we're gonna give it. So bring 'em in and don't hurt 'em if they cannot work. They tell 'em, put 'em on a stretcher and bring 'em in. So several prisoners they brought in, but my job is to interrogate and see what they know about it. But I used my tactics to feed 'em without telling 'em that, then they relax. The kindness, they fell for it. Then talk about, you don't directly ask 'em military intelligence, ask about the family things. The prisoner's not supposed to say the military thing, reveal it. Everything is name, rank and serial number, international law there. So anyway, treat him nice, that's one of my tactics.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.