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JD: So you got involved in war crimes trials, and this is, you were interrogation and translation service?

RM: Yeah, so that's later on, come along, but...

JD: Can you tell us a little about that?

RM: What happened was when I was in China, see, we received maybe once a week or so in the mail, and L-5 come down there and drop it, mail. So we have a mail call. And one day, "Sergeant Matsumoto," that's me, then mail, and I looked through mail looking for me. It was my mail returned, then addressed to Camp Rohwer in Arkansas, and I had a girlfriend there, I was corresponding. But says, "Deceased," then a doctor's signature there. So all of a sudden, she died. But it was my mail came back, but before that, she had tuberculosis, consumption, so she's in the hospital with it and she told me, "Doctor says now cure." Then good family and those things, she wrote. But next letter I didn't receive it, she died. So I lost a girlfriend, so no more. But anyway, then dropped a bomb on Hiroshima, on southern part of China. And they said they dropped a bomb, that's the radio, see, we heard. Tree and grass grew up for seventy-five years, then they were flat, that's what the radio said. Well, I found out it was the other way around. But anyway, I had a chance to see that about a year later, but when I went there, already grass and tree was growing there, so that was wrong. But anyway, the place was flat. And so happened that epicenter, I saw it, was two block away from where my folks were living. But at the time, I knew, they said it was flat, that means I knew I went to high school in Hiroshima, and my father's studio was two blocks away from where they dropped the bomb, so I know it's all gone. The way they said, it's all flat, nothing there. Well, only thing, K.B. Ginko there, Hiroshima bank, it's a brick I mean, a stone building, that was standing there. But otherwise, all the things were flat. And so I knew, to me, they didn't suffer, they just wiped out instantly. But anyway, I didn't know what happened, but that's war, and I didn't expect that they'd drop the bomb in Hiroshima, but nothing I can do about it anyway. So I know it's gone right away, that's what I thought.

Then what happened was war gonna end, so what I did was my bio mentioned this, but place called Lunjow, in Japanese Ryushu, in Chinese, Lunjow, and incident there. This incident is that some people killed, in other words, massacre, so we want to go out and find out, so we hiked a few days, couple days, get there, then saw the place, then dead people all over there. What happened was that, not Japanese didn't do it, we thought the Japanese did, but the Nationalist Army, Chiang Kai-shek's agent was staying there, then killed, collaborator, helped the Japanese. So this is revenge, I suppose. But, see, when occupy, you have to follow their orders, so can't help it. But they think these people collaborated with Japanese and killed. And I called it, myself, that Lunjow incident. That was, at the time, a secret, everything we do. But anyway, that's what it is, and never came out, I never saw the article, this incident, but I was there and saw, they stick a cigar -- you know, Chinese, even the women smoke a cigar. Instead of mouth, put 'em in [inaudible] place, and ripped the clothes up and stabbed, knife and everything else. It's real, what do you call... anyway, they commit mass murder, and some of 'em tie the hands behind, and all kind of things, naked. It was summertime, it's August, and down in the south, and we're a day later, so it's fly flying all over, and unsightly, the visible. But then they said look like a Japanese, since we dropped the bomb there, look like the Japanese gonna surrender. And then that was about the 6th of August, they dropped the bomb, then 15th, they finally surrendered.

But about the 8th or 9th or so, right after the bomb, Nagasaki, too, then what I did is we're going to go up to Nan-ning is the capital of Kwangsi province, that's why we're told all to go. But to me, I don't want to have the pack in back and hike for a hundred mile, so what I did was, right there is the Xiao River, and ending to Nan-ning, the capital of Kwangsi province. So what I did is there's a sampan there, go up the river and then hauled us in. So I commandeered three sampans, and I told 'em... see, we had a nationalist army, too, from Sichuan province, Chiang Kai-shek's, and we are attached to, OSS attached to this first commando battalion, Chinese nationalist army. So I get the soldier, "Let's go down." We had an interpreter. I don't speak... I spoke few words, but, so we had an interpreter, two interpreters. One speak Mandarin, then Cantonese. And one would speak Mandarin to English. So we need two interpreters to understand the nationalist army, then local people is Kwangtunese, they can't speak Cantonese. Then some people... only thing people speak Mandarin is the government official or schoolteachers knew about it, so need an interpreter, so had two interpreter. So the one that speak English, I told him I'm gonna go down there on the boat, sampan, so they told others, local people that we're gonna pay for it, so let's go down. So we rode down. And some places rapid, so I knew, see, my grandfather taught me how to handle a boat, so normally the ladder in the rear, in the stern. In the bow, go there. But what I did is, two bows facing this way, in between, one stern there, and tied together. Then instead of going forward, it's going backward, so a ladder in the front just like a bicycle, front handle, steer. And what I did is the mast, put the three sampan together, roped together, and I told 'em how to do it and they did it, so that it wouldn't tip over, going to go rapids, see. So floated down, and took two and a half days instead of walking four or five days. And I don't want to walk hundred miles, see. So just commandeered, that's one of, maybe against the rules, I don't know, but OSS do anything get by to accomplish the mission.

JD: So you were part of OSS at this point.

RM: Yeah, OSS --

JD: But what was your mission? What kind of work did you do after the Japanese war was over?

RM: Yeah, that's what I mean. See, so, but anyway, then got there, then went to Nan-ning, then Nan-nei, and we had detachment headquarter there, so the plane come down there. And I ask the commanding officer, "Could I go report to General Boatner?" I know he was in Kunming, because he was the staff officer. So he knew me personally, because congratulate me when I receive Legion of Merit.

JD: Did you know what your mission was when you went there?

RM: No, I don't know the mission, nothing. Anyway, what I did was, when I got permission, because already they're gonna surrender, so our unit... of course, we could gather anything we could do it, but it gave me permission to go to Kunming. So only way is to hitch a ride. Went to Kunming, then I reported to General Boatner, and he said -- he's the one placed me, so I know exactly where I was. But I didn't know where I was going, but anyway, I report back, he says, "Look like the Japanese gonna surrender, see, I need an interpreter. How about you come with me?" "Yes, sir." I just went without uniform, nothing, what I just wear in there, because I just left there and then went there right away. Since I don't know where I belonged to, so I just following orders, so from OSS to General, General says, "Let's go." Then also Kunming, Lieutenant Akiji Yoshimura was there. So he says, "Let's go." So he's lieutenant, so I'm his assistant.

JD: So the general needed an interpreter, but to do what?

RM: Well, go down there and negotiate. So we didn't know we didn't know what he did, but anyway, the company we went to, probably they negotiated by radio, they know. Japanese agree to send a delegate to a place called Chinkiang. Then we landed there, then the Japanese landed there, too, airport. Then we had an office there, then says, "Matsumoto, you come."

JD: This is after the surrender?

RM: No, not surrender, before. There's a surrender negotiation, preliminary surrender.

JD: So you acted as an interpreter for this general in the preparatory negotiations for the surrender.

RM: Right. So the book doesn't say anything about it but that's my experience, and what happened was, well, everybody stay out there and just you and me, the general, me, and the Japanese side was Admiral Fukuda, book says he's... let's see. Major general, but he wasn't a general, he was an admiral, navy, see. The book says general.

JD: Which book are you referring to?

RM: The Japanese, Fukuda was a rear admiral.

JD: Right. You mentioned a book. Which book are you referring to?

RM: Well, I don't have the book, but the Japanese book says Fukuda... well, some book, I don't know where, Fukuda was a mentioned name, see. But this says "General Fukuda," but he's not a general. Admiral Fukuda was a naval fleet, commanding... let's see what it says. Well, anyway, he was a fleet admiral, imperial Japanese forces, and not the army forces.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.