<Begin Segment 1>

gky: This is the 8th of January, the year 2001, with Kazuo Yamane, K-A-Z-U-O Yamane, Y-A-M-A-N-E, and we're in Honolulu. Mr. Yamane, can you tell me how you got into the service?

KY: November of '41 I was drafted in the forced draft in Honolulu.

gky: And where were you serving? Where were you getting trained before Pearl Harbor?

KY: We were at Schofield Barracks having our basic training.

gky: And then what happened when Pearl Harbor happened, when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened?

KY: When Pearl Harbor was attacked, we were on leave Saturday and Sunday so I was at home, and I heard the radio broadcast saying, "All military personnel to return to your post immediately," so I went back to Schofield.

gky: And, what did you find? You know, the bombing and the...

KY: Well, after 1941 there was no freeway, so we had that old Red Hill Road that goes down to slope near Pearl Harbor. And you could see all the devastation go on, the bombing, dive bombers, and we actually have to go through a road that goes alongside Pearl Harbor to get to Schofield Barracks, and boy it was something. It was a sight to see. Really devastating.

gky: How about people? What was going on? Was it chaotic, or...

KY: Pardon?

gky: Chaotic?

KY: Oh, yeah. Well, after, when we got to Schofield Barracks, we supposedly were in basic training yet, so we didn't have all the training for ammunition and all that. When we went to Pearl Harbor, the rifles were not even ready. They took it out of storage, the ammunition came out from the storage. And it was -- that night was absolutely scary. We had New York artillery in the back of us, and they were shooting, shooting at us too on the ground. It was really chaotic.

gky: Then once the attack happened and order was restored somewhat, what happened to you?

KY: The night of December 7th, Schofield Barracks and military installation usually is lighted but is completely dark, you know, you can't see anything. You can't see your hand in front of you. We went back to our tents and being only trainees yet, we weren't exactly organized, but actually looking east toward Pearl Harbor you could see all the flashing bombs and exploding, and it's really scary, yeah. You know New York artillery behind us was shooting at us and it was really something to experience.

gky: Were you treated any differently because you're Japanese American?

KY: Well, when it was certain that the planes were Japanese planes, then gradually we felt there was a certain amount of fear among the other nationalities. And for that matter, while we were at Pearl Harbor... no, while we were at Schofield Barracks, in fact, that night, all GIs of Japanese blood were pooled together in certain tents, and our own friends were outside of us with rifles, you know. Our rifle was taken away and we were just prisoners at that time. That lasted that night only, though.

gky: The night of December 7th?

KY: No, December 8th, I think.

[Interruption]

gky: So that was the night of December 8th, then what happened? When did they give you your rifles back?

KY: They gave us back that next day and we went back to normal assignments.

gky: And what was your normal assignment, or did you have to finish going through basic training?

KY: Well, we had no basic training after that, we're in state of war. So then we were sent out to the details put to put some beef into the freezer, or do all kind of work, get the provisions stored away. That's our work. After about a week or so of that, I had actually ROTC in high school, so looking at the records, all those with ROTC were sent out in the field. And I was assigned to the 298th Infantry, Company E, which was based on the windward side and were sent out on details on getting that, around barbed wire barricades, you know, NCA, that we, during the day we're patrolling, four hours on, four hours off, and we were sent out on this detail. We had one sergeant and two of us, three, who were dumped at certain strategic points on the coastline. They gave us no provision. All we had is a thousand rounds of ammunition and a rifle, and some provision. And then they told us to get to that point there and you build a bunker, you know, and nothing was furnished so you go to the neighbors' house and get the chicken coop, then we'd get lumber, scrap lumber for it, and start building, you know, more or less for our safety, barricade. Actually, at night we were going on patrol on the coastline. Day and night we were on duty for six months.

gky: So there was no difference between you and a soldier of any other nationality?

KY: No, at that time, no. But, we had one -- actually, the sergeant was Hawaiian Chinese, and another private was Portuguese, and I was born Japanese American and they felt kind of -- not the sergeant, but the other fellow was kind of, felt uneasy, you know. And, after in my own mind, I thought that being on the coastline, sandy beach, and no camouflage, no nothing, so I used to dig a hole, foxhole, so I can, if it's bombardment, I could get into the foxhole. Actually, this Portuguese private was very suspicious what I was doing, but anyway, that's the kind of incident I used to encounter. But nothing serious, you know.

gky: And they never told you the reason why, after that first night when you were guarded, that then you went back to normal operations?

KY: Well, the only rumor I heard was that the reason why, the reason why the Nisei GIs were rounded up was that there was rumors that there was a group of so-called Japanese Americans, or whatever, that they were going to poison the reservoir. There's a Lake Wilson in Wahiawa furnishes the water for the town and Schofield. So rumors were that they were going to poison the water in Lake Wilson. That's the reason they rounded us up. I don't know. That's only a rumor I heard at that time.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 2>

gky: What happened when you went to train with the 100th Battalion?

KY: When?

gky: About six months later, you went to train with the 100th Battalion.

KY: Well, we're out in the field -- actually, I was with 298th Infantry Hawai'i National Guard for six months, and actually, while we were staying out in the field, we got a sudden call from company headquarters that all men of Japanese blood should report to company headquarters which was at at Waiole School, and not saying any why, and we were driven back to Schofield Barracks. And when we got back to Schofield Barracks, all the arms were taken away. We just got our uniform and a duffle bag with supplies in it already, and no time even to see, no time even to call home. They said, "Get on the train, you're going to be shipped out." So the train went to Honolulu Harbor, and that night we shipped out. And at that time I heard rumors that there was a battle at Midway. So, that was the reason that I thought, and I found out later that that's the reason that all the Nisei soldiers, took our arms away.

gky: Okay, so this must have been June of '42.

KY: Yeah.

gky: Battle of Midway. Then you got shipped out of Honolulu to Wisconsin?

KY: Well, that's a strange tale again, because we were on the transport, the old SS Maui, and we had, see, when we left Honolulu Harbor it was at night, always at night, we left Honolulu Harbor at night, and there was a destroyer who was escorting us. That night it was all times that we went out from Honolulu Harbor, and daylight came and there was no destroyer. We were out at sea just by ourselves, just the transport itself. And we had an incident where I think a Japanese submarine had sunk one of the ships, you know, one entire ship so we were kind of leery or so that they might come and get us, you know, get the ship, transport. But lucky we didn't encounter that, so we were alright. And we were out at sea going zig-zag, you know, they don't go straight course, they go zig-zag, and we didn't have the slightest idea where we were headed for or what. We asked the shipmates over there where we're headed and they wouldn't say anything. So one dark, one night slowly we got into harbor, which one was open, and we arrive about midnight again. And when we got off the ship, they split us in three. We went from the transport, we went straight on to the trains waiting there -- there's three; one was taking the northern route, one the central route, and another the southern route. And I went on actually the central road, and then we went straight central, and the only stop that we had was in Nebraska that I recall. All our blinds were, we were ordered to put our blinds down. And we stopped in Nebraska. It was leaking. And while we were there, we got, you know, we had coffee break, they had USO already and they served us coffee and, actually, the people thought we were Filipinos. They said, oh, "You just had the battle of Manila," and this and that. But we just went by. From there we proceed to where we didn't have any idea, we asked the what you call it, boys on the train, and they didn't tell us. They didn't know other than that, I guess the military so, you know.

gky: All of you on the train, all of you on the ship were Nisei?

KY: Yeah. These are all Nisei, all GIs of Japanese blood.

gky: About how many?

KY: I think total was about 1,500, roughly 1,500.

gky: And when you were divided into these three routes...

KY: Well, they were a company.

gky: ...did all of you wind up in the same place?

KY: No, you see, that's the story that I told you about nobody knew where we were going. Either we were going to a POW camp, or certainly not training, because our arms were taken away. So, actually, the three trains converged into, let's see, La Crosse, Wisconsin. Sparta, Sparta is where the U.S. Army Camp McCoy is, so we... no, actually, our train got into Camp McCoy at night again. Always at night. And slowly, as the train proceeded into the camp, actually in the darkness all we could see is stockade, you know, with the tower where they had guards, armed guards in each tower, and all of us in the train said, "Boy, I think they're going to put us in the POW camp like a stockade. And we were there for about an hour or so, and I try to make preparations for our own way to stay. In the meantime, I don't know what happened to the other two trains, but they must have converged before us or after us, you know. But our train, the central route, we stayed there for an hour, then after the train moved and they assigned us to another area, which was, looked like a military camp. [Laughs] So that's how we ended up in Camp McCoy.

gky: Then you were training with the 100th Battalion there?

KY: Well, see, at that time we were no, no name. We were 298th Infantry. 298 and 299 is Hawaii National Guard, but we were not known as the Hawai'i National Guard anymore. We were known as the Hawaiian Provisional Battalion. No designation. We were at Camp McCoy; we were under, see, the patch we had was General Headquarters. Kind of like a fuzzy unit designation, you know. But, in time, after we were training, then we got word from Washington that our unit was known as 100th Battalion, that's the 100th Infantry Battalion. Oh we, we really were trained. We used climb the bluffs in Wisconsin and just marching and marching, you know. They didn't know what to do with us, I suppose. In the meantime, the West Coast, you know, all the mass evacuation was going on. So we found that they still didn't know what they wanted to do with us. It was getting kind of monotonous walking up in the bluffs of Wisconsin, we're all trained already. And just about the fifth month or so, there was a team that came from Camp Savage, a Major Dickey. He was fluent in Japanese, and he... first he asked for volunteers to go to the linguist school. Actually, in my mind, I used to... prior to my drafting, I was in Japan for, going to school in Japan, university in Japan, so I used to come home every summer. And naturally, immigration station they have all your records. So they wanted volunteers. I felt that, "Well, I might as well volunteer," because there's a paper trail on my action going back and forth to Japan, so I volunteered.

gky: Why did you volunteer? I mean, one way you were going to be going to Europe, one way you were going to be going to the Pacific, or did you not know that was your choice?

KY: No, there was no choice because we just went to Camp Savage which was the Japanese linguists school, language school.

gky: No, I mean, but if you had stayed at Camp McCoy, you would have gone to the Pacific. If you went to Camp Savage, then you were going to go to -- I'm sorry, you would have gone to Europe. Camp Savage, you were going to go to the Pacific.

KY: No, at that time at Camp McCoy, nobody knew as to what they were gonna do with the 100th Battalion after that, you know. So, actually, we were a segregated unit and we have to train as an infantry unit, you know. And we never knew whether we're going to Pacific or we're going to be discharged. In fact, in Hawai'i itself, the Territory Guard, for instance, it's a unit of University of Hawai'i students, and they were disbanded. And we were treated even in Hawaii, we knew where we stood. And then we go to Camp McCoy, we see all this mess, mess of this whole evacuation. But, actually, we were... many times we had officer from Washington, D.C. come by and evaluate the 100th Battalion. They thought it was an excellent, excellent fighting unit. So, that's all.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 3>

gky: Was Camp Savage difficult for you?

KY: Camp Savage? Well, you see, the only thing new and different was that we had what you call "heigo," which is military Japanese, you know. Of course, they went all the basics of Japanese, and so they had classes, one to, I don't know, forty I think. We took tests and they classified you according to that. Then, after taking the test, I ended up in Class 1, is the highest class. And so those who... there was some strong in English, these were Japanese, there are some strong in Japanese, the English, and they teamed them up together as a team. Strong in Japanese and strong in English and put them together and they get one whole language specialist, you know. That's the way it was done.

gky: So, were you -- you never went over to the Pacific though. What happened?

KY: Well, I mean, I was asked to go to the Pacific, not asked to go the Pacific but, after VE Day in Europe, when I was in Europe, they wanted to send me to Sweden, I think it Sweden on a special mission. That I declined because my father was very ill and the Red Cross cabled me my father's ill. When we were out in Prague, VE Day, we were told to get back to Supreme Headquarters, Eisenhower's headquarters, come back for shipping immediately to the Pacific. At that time, of course, as I said, my dad had a stroke and he was only... we had four sons and four of us went in the military, so there was no one in order to take my father's place, so being the oldest of the sons, then I see that I have enough points for discharge. Eighty-five points was the number of points you had, you can ask for a discharge, but I had over 100, so I asked for discharge.

gky: When were you born?

KY: When was I born? I was born December 8, 1916.

gky: Tell me about how you got over to Europe in the first place.

KY: How I got into Europe? Well, I'm moving kind of forward, but actually, when we went PACMIRS, which is Pacific Military Research Center [Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section] we were just about to be started, and we were in the Pentagon, we finish our mission, and I guess the general staff had the idea of starting a similar unit that they had at the European Theater of Operations intelligence unit section was in Camp Ritchie.

gky: I'm sorry. I'm a little bit mixed up. I thought that you'd gone to Europe, and then after that you came back to PACMIRS , but that's not true. You went...

KY: No, no. I went from Pentagon...

gky: ...to Savage to Pentagon? Get chronologically then.

KY: Yeah, that's why I said I'm moving forward. From McCoy, Savage, Pentagon, and Europe. That's the order.

gky: Okay.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 4>

gky: Let's go to the Pentagon then. How did you wind up being part of the first team that went over, the first team of Nisei that went to the Pentagon?

KY: Well, you see, we got our furlough after our graduation from Camp Savage, and as soon as I got back from furlough, I was one of the first to be called. I went over to Mr. Aiso's office, he's a director over there at Camp Savage, and he said, "Well, you better pack up. You're going to go on a special mission." So not knowing who else was going, he just called me in there and said, "Get ready to ship out tomorrow." So we had a team of four: one man, one sergeant, tech sergeant from Los Angeles, one from San Pedro, and the third man, he's from Hawai'i originally but lived in Los Angeles. The four of us went on the train. Orders read get on a certain train. We went on the train and... so we don't know whether it's overseas or what, you know. To our surprise, we end up in Washington D.C., the Pentagon. When we opened the order, they specifically, you know, report to Fort... gee, I forgot the name of it. Anyway, it's right next to the Pentagon building.

gky: Myer?

KY: Fort Myer, which is a very exclusive camp there for general officers and so we lived there, you know, and the camp, the barracks, were men who were stationed at the Pentagon. We were assigned there and lived there, but our duty or mission wasn't spelled out. I was to report to the Pentagon and we kind of surprised them; we ended up in the Pentagon.

gky: What was it like being one of the first Nisei in the Pentagon?

KY: Well, you see, my understanding is that they needed some good Japanese linguists. They were using other nationalities like Chinese, Korean, so they didn't get what they wanted, and they were still not sure about the Niseis' loyalty, so they were using them. But in time, after, you know, the excellent record of the 100th, maybe, I think, they could use the Nisei for that type of work. And actually, being in the Pentagon is very highly secretive. Everything is top secret. So, I guess the army must have really checked us out. And four of us were there for almost a year and a half.

gky: And what did you do?

KY: Well, actually, our special mission was this: see, General MacArthur's forces had, and the navy, I suppose, had found a box, a crate of Japanese documents floating in the Marianas, Battle of Marianas. And they picked the box up and it was taken to General MacArthur's office at General Headquarters. So General MacArthur's headquarters had his team of linguists over there, they're known as ATIS, A-T-I-S, Allied Translating and Intelligence Corps [Allied Translation and Interpretation Section]. And they made a fast translation of this book which was, listed executive officers, Japanese imperial army officers' register.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 5>

gky: This is tape two with Kazuo Yamane, January 8th, the year 2001, in Honolulu. Mr. Yamane, you were talking about the secret mission that you had at PACMIRS?

KY: Uh-huh.

gky: Can you talk a little bit more about that mission?

KY: The same Japanese army officers' register that was translated at General MacArthur's headquarters in Australia was for technical purposes only, fast, you know. And that book listed the officer's name, rank, his unit designation, and all the details in hard line form. That document actually was requested by general's staff in Washington, the Pentagon, and our mission was to make a translation of that in Japanese. The names of the Japanese officers, you see... one thing about Japanese names is hard, it has various ways of reading it, and if you don't look at the character, the Japanese character, we cannot get the true, correct designation. So our mission was to index I think about forty to fifty thousand Japanese officers. This is official register and it listed active and reserve officers, and we were to index a unit designations and have the names of all the officers in both English and Japanese, all translation of the Japanese names with the original Japanese on it. And on that card file would list the unit designation. So, based on that, I suppose the general's staff would have a breakdown of all the battle. I think, if I remember correctly, I heard the comment made that that was the first time that the Japanese army was really known in every minute detail. It actually took us almost a year and a half to index it. And just about the time, our mission was accomplished, so the idea of having a duplicate intelligence section of the Pacific area. The one at Camp Ritchie was for European Theater of Operations, and since VE Day, why they start to fade out, so the whole battle was to be shifted to the Pacific, major emphasis. So the idea at Pentagon was to create the Pacific Military Research Intelligence Section [Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section]. And we were sent as a nucleus, four of us, were sent as a nucleus to organize that section under -- at that time, we weren't organized. All I know is that a Colonel [S. Frederick] Gronich was to be our commanding officer, and there were some transfers of some of the personnel who were at the Far East Intelligence at the Pentagon, who were transferred. Four of our team was transferred to Camp Ritchie.

gky: At Camp Ritchie, you found a, in a box of crates, you were looking in, like eighteen crates, and someone told you to look at the documents and see if there's anything worth translating. Can you tell that story?

KY: Yeah. When, actually, when we were transferred to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, we were trying to get the office organized, you know. While we were there, still we were not even set up yet, and of course, the commanding officer for us at that time was Colonel Gronich. And he was asked by the commandant of the European Theater of Operations that they had received fifteen crates from the navy at Pearl Harbor, of Japanese documents in which they had no idea -- the language is not their forte, so the general, the commandant asked Colonel Gronich to send one man over to review the documents because they were sent by the navy with the understanding that this had no significant military value, so it would be used for training purposes. So the general, which is a good call on his part, I think, he wanted one more last final review before he classified that as for training purposes. So Colonel Gronich said, "Oh, we'll look at the fifteen crates." And about second or third crate, I was going through the documents and it all battered up and some shrapnel, torn off and all that, but there was one book all stained and wet from water, stained from water, and I was looking at the table of contents, he said, "Thing looks like a textbook," you know. He said, "Take a book about two-inch thick." When I looked in the table of contents, boy, I was surprised the way, the listing of very top secret information. It listed the manufacturers of the weapons, it listed the munitions plants, it gave you the address. It listed an inventory of what they had and spare parts, whether they had spare parts, how many they had, every weapon that the Japanese army had was listed from what I see in the table. I looked at it only about half an hour and I knew this was a very hot document, so I didn't go into detail, I just flipped through, saw the pages inside and by golly it listed all the military equipment of the Japanese army. So I called the colonel, and I told colonel, "Boy, I've got a hot document here." So he came up immediately, and I explained to him. So he took the book and went to his office. He had the three others of my team were there so they looked through that and they explained to the colonel the importance of the listings of the document, and he really took action on it. From then on, not too long after that, the colonel called me up and said, "We have another special mission. I want you to go." He didn't say where. He said, "Special mission is a top secret mission and I want you to, I'm going to assign you to that mission." So I didn't stay at Camp Ritchie long. He said, "This is overseas mission." I said, "Well, in that case, I might as well get married then." So I asked for furlough before going, and then, from that point on, I don't know what happened to the document, but I heard later, years later, that the team, the whole team, they had sent actually a special team from Camp Savage to make immediate translation of the entire book.

gky: You said this was after VE Day, so it must have been after, sometime between -- after June?

KY: Yeah. VE Day, I don't exactly know when it was, but I was still in Europe at that time, VE Day.

gky: I mean, when did this Camp Ritchie document wind up being translated?

KY: Gee, I think it was...

gky: When did you find it?

KY: I was married in October. What is the question? Where did I find it?

gky: Uh-huh.

KY: It was in the crates. It was in the general, it was in the European Theater of Operations in one of their rooms, and I went to their room, in fifteen crates.

gky: Right, and what year was it?

KY: Gee, I don't recall. That was '44, I think, early '44.

gky: January, February, do you have any idea of when?

KY: Gee, I kind of forgot already. But actually, I can't remember my marriage date. [Laughs] I think October '43 or '44, I got married somebody, but '44 -- but all I remember is that we were in Europe already, that's a long story, too. But we went to Europe and when I was Prague we went on to Italy, and coming back from Italy we were notified that VE Day. So we were in Prague at that time and we were ordered to return to Supreme Headquarters immediately.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 6>

gky: Tell me about this top secret mission that you went on, the second top secret mission when you didn't even know what the mission was?

KY: Oh, Europe. Yeah. Well, we got that mission and was ordered to get ready to leave such and such date, and the team, we had only three. Not the same team that went to the Pentagon. I was the only one and there's a George Urabi from San Francisco, and Pat Nagano from San Luis Obispo, the three of us. Our team leader was a Major White. He just came back from Seattle R2 mission. Our orders read -- and the orders were similar to the navy -- U.S. Navy had sent a member of the team, a senior lieutenant, English, four of, three, four, five of us. Five of us had these order to go on this mission in a really huge C-54. C-54 is almost the size of a B-29. Only four of us on that plane. But we left New York airport. I don't know which airport, but we left the New York airport. We landed in Newfoundland, and Newfoundland, went straight to Scotland. Scotland, I think, we dropped into Scotland just to refuel, I think. And then we went straight to the French airport -- I forgot the name -- and landed. And our mission was to report to Supreme Allied Headquarters, which is known as SHAEF, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, General Eisenhower's headquarters. And we actually were attached to General Eisenhower's headquarters in the Far Eastern division. Our mission was, when Major White read our mission, he said our orders read that we were to go be attached to and train with the British commanders.

[Interruption]

KY: Our orders read that we were to attack Berlin for documents by land, air, or sea, train with the British commanders, and we were to headquarters at General Eisenhower's headquarters. That's the order. So we got to the French airport all right, and we immediately went to Eisenhower's headquarters. At that time, our section was at Petite, Versailles -- I forgot the name. "Petite" is "small" in French, the smaller headquarters, but next to the big general headquarters. And our first meeting at Eisenhower's headquarters, our team, our section, Far Eastern section was Allied makeup, you know. We had U.S. Army, we were the U.S. Army, we had the U.S. Navy, we had the British Royal Army, British Royal Navy representative. All colonels, everyone colonels, we were the lowly sergeants. [Laughs] And we had free French colonels and a free Italian colonel all in that Far Eastern section. And there was a, we were sent to General Eisenhower's headquarters all right, but the question is where are we to be billeted, where our barracks would be. They didn't provide us with any, so, finally, we had to end up at a stable where they had, where the Moroccan troops were barracking. The barracks was a stable, royal stable which, where the horses were. The first night, we stayed at the stable with the royal horses, you know. They were black Arabians, I think; I don't know.

gky: So did they billet the Italian colonel there, and the French colonel?

KY: No, there they won't officers billet, you know. We were the only enlisted men of that section, you know.

gky: Wasn't that kind of an insult?

KY: Well, you got to sleep someplace. [Laughs]

gky: Why were you there? Why were you Nisei part of this team?

KY: But, see, the mission was attack Berlin because, at that time, as you know, there was the tri-Axis: Germany, Italy, and Japan, finally, you know, and it seems they had intelligence reports that the Japanese were going to Europe by way of submarine or things, you know, and likely that there were some Japanese documents in the embassy there which could lead to someone trying to decipher some of the secrets of the Nazis at that time. See, the thing is that there was [inaudible], but I recall that, well, per actual mission, we separated in teams, and I think we had the Battle of Cologne, I think, was, they were going out in the field, so the three -- George and Pat went with the staff of the officer, intelligence officers to more or less see if there's any documents that would be of use to Far East intelligence, and I went to another route. Then in the meantime, while I was going to the southern, down in Bavaria area, southern Europe, you know, the Bavarian area... boy, we have a -- you see, we had orders from Supreme Headquarters so we could go into the British sector, Italian sector, French sector, American sector. Even American soldier, he can go only in the American section. He's not supposed to go in other nationality, other national army sections, see. And we had passes from, we want gas, we just go any station, fill up our gas, just show 'em the order and get gas. And if you could go to any town which there's no barracks facility, and we go and see the town major, and the town major go to the Germans' home and tell 'em, "You folks have to get out tonight, we have American soldiers going to stay." So we billeted in residences of the Germans, or French, or whatever. So we had a pretty good arrangement.

But while going to these missions, I was hearing reports about General Patton. He was trying to head for Berlin. By hook or crook, he was going to get to Berlin first before the Russians got there. So he commandeered diesel fuel for the tanks from all over, taking them and marching toward... and I think he was right, too, because, boy, we could see on the road alongside, a trail of German tanks battered and burned. And you could see the German POWs all with arms like this, marching, hundreds of them marching back toward the rear lines. And that spelled out what I saw, the reason why General Patton was trying to get there before the Russians, because the Russians got Berlin first. We tried to get, American army people wanted to get in Berlin. The Russians were there first and they held the key, and no American soldier would come in Berlin. You see, that's the first Iron Curtain already. So Schaffe was trying to get the Russians to guarantee our safety to allow us to get into Berlin although occupied by the Russians, but the Russians refused. So were hanging around in Schaffe all the time, you know.

Many, of course, were out special missions, so there's a big crack, big crack in the intelligence for our team, anyway, was that in Austria is a hot springs resort. The whole Japanese staff, the whole Japanese embassy staff, army attache, naval attache, about 150 of them were all holed up in a hot spring bath. They all gathered together, and I wasn't in that team because George and Pat went and they interrogated them, made a report of all that. That's amazing, outside of Berlin mission you had, that was a big accomplishment of our team going to Europe. But I asked for, actually, a mission to go to southern Europe section, Bavaria, Yugoslavia, Italy, you know, and southern France, because my brother was in the 442nd and I was in the 100th, and all my friends in the 100th were in Italy, see. So I asked that I wanted to go to Italy. So one of the British major, with our own staff car with a driver; we had a good deal, you know. So, we went. That British sector was, Venice was under the British sector, see, and Americans cannot get in, but we just freely went in. So I went to Venice and Naples and Napoli and Florence and all that area. We drove over, see. The alpines, we went to the Swiss, well, the Swiss Alps. We didn't get too far because they were neutral. Then I went to Italy and then I inquired about where the 100th and 442nd were, and they were an hour in Lake Cuomo, it's a beautiful resort, Lake Cuomo. So I met my brother there, stayed overnight there and saw my buddies in the 100th, you know, and then drove back on the way to Prague.

gky: Did you ever find, or did you hear of any Japanese documents being found in Berlin?

KY: No, we found some. I found some in Hanover, Germany, and not too many. Mostly from the -- you see, I think military attache, naval attache, and embassy all one, and they had kind of a tight security. But the loose documents that we found were from the big Japanese firms. They handled some military equipment, but not too many. The biggest find was in a group of embassy staff, naval attache, military attache. Southern Europe didn't have much.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 7>

gky: So in terms of your importance as a translator, how important is a translator in Europe?

KY: Europe, needed... actually, you see, because of the fact that Japan was an Axis partner and they must have had exchange of strategy or military equipment, you know, that type of, nothing of that phase. It's more the fact that Europe, the European war was going to be shifted to the Pacific, and they must have had some military exchanges or strategies, and I think that's the area we were at. But our mission, we were only enlisted men. So, we find the documents and then if they have translation, interrogation, they want our help, you know. But that was our extent. But in my case, when I found the document for the munitions and all that, that was something that nobody would come to look for that document. I come across that document, I tell them the importance, you know. So we evaluated and report to them. So ours was kind of a halfway, that's beyond our enlisted men's status.

gky: But you were there sort of as insurance.

KY: Yeah.

gky: What would you call that document that you found when you back in Camp Ritchie?

KY: What would I what?

gky: That document, the munitions document?

KY: Actually, the title was Imperial Japanese Army Officers' Register. No, no, that's other one, the Pentagon. The document was the inventory of armaments and munitions of the Japanese army. And that is not only the homeland's now, they had listed, I think, if I remember correctly, Korea and Northern China already. Because they were at war from 1935, I mean, Northern China and Manchuria. So I don't know from what Drew Harrington must have found out. I don't know too much about it, but Drew Harrington said that as soon as the document was translated, sent over to the high Alps where the B-29s were sent over to bomb already, you know. That I don't know. That's what I read in Drew Harrington. Drew Harrington must have found out that type of information. I don't know.

gky: How long did you wind up staying in Europe?

KY: Six months.

gky: At that time, did you think anything about, you know, you're Nisei, you're over here. It seems like you should be in the Pacific rather than in Europe, because there were only three of you guys over there.

KY: Well, the only thing is I had a choice. The rule says I can get my discharge at 85 points. I got over 100, number one. And, actually, I got four brothers in the army already, and I think we served our country more than 100 percent. But my father, he's, he was eighty-one, I think, yeah, and he had a stroke and he had nobody to help him during the war. And we ran about 150 rental units, and we had a merchandising store, and we had other retail establishments. And all our men employees were all drafted and the ladies were home, the families were all taken. So I felt that at least one, I said to myself, "The first son should be home to help," you know. That was my thinking, anyway.

gky: Did you ever talk with your parents about going to war, volunteering for Camp Savage, volunteering to go to the 100th?

KY: No, that's all my decision, and, of course, you got no choice in the army. They tell you go, you go. And that's the way it was.

gky: Did you ever think about the idea of serving your country and patriotism?

KY: What?

gky: Patriotism.

KY: Oh, yeah. Unquestionably, I am American. I was in Japan '35 to '40, and it was getting pretty bad, yeah. They had these, they started, was it the Manchurian Incident first and North China, and then China. In 1934, I went to Harbin, Manchuria, near the Russian border on the Southern Manchuria Railway, beautiful train, wide gauge. But they had armed guards on the train, mind you, even at that time, '34.

[Interruption]

gky: This is tape three with Kazuo Yamane in Hawai'i on January 8th, the year 2001. Go ahead, you were talking about patriotism, how patriotism played a role in what you thought about when you volunteered, or when you were drafted.

KY: Well, the draft -- I don't think Hawai'i had any dissenters, those who objected. I think the volunteers for the 442nd, for instance, was overwhelming, all the quota needed. And MIS was the same thing, too. So from the standpoint of patriotism, there's no doubt, you know, that Hawai'i Nisei are very patriotic, strong in their patriotism.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 8>

gky: Did it make you proud to be a Hawaiian, or proud to be a Nisei?

KY: What was that?

gky: Were you proud to be a Hawaiian, or proud to be a Nisei?

KY: Oh, yeah. We're always proud to be Nisei, Hawaiian Nisei anyway.

gky: Was there any difference between the mainland and the Hawaiian Nisei?

KY: There's some fundamental differences, you know. Mainland Nisei is, well, it's because of geographically, you know, it's a continental type, lot of land. Hawai'i is insular, small island, people are close contact. So being a insular island, the Hawaiian Nisei get in contact more on, like, say, they get closer contact. That's why they have like the kenjinkai you know, they come from certain prefecture, Yamaguchi or Hiroshima and so forth. And they kind of intermingle so their contact is more understanding. Just like the Hawaiians are more understanding with each other's culture, whereas on the mainland, they're far removed from each, the communities are far apart so they don't get that contact, so their thinking is different. That's where basically I think the Hawaiian Nisei and the mainland Nisei differ, geographically.

[Interruption]

gky: How did that translate into behavior? How did the differences in the Hawaiian and the mainland Nisei translate into behavior?

KY: The Hawaiian Nisei -- we have... anyway, the make-up of the people varied. The basic guiding, the basic guiding principle of the behavior of the Hawaiians is the Hawaiian spirit. The Hawaiian and the Polynesian culture has the basic guide to the heart, behavior of the Hawaiian Nisei, very friendly, open, giving, you know, all that. And they seem to help each other so you don't have the hardship of the weather, for one thing. We don't have the high cost of seasonal changes in clothing and things like that, where on the mainland, you have this harsh winter and, you know, but like Los Angeles, I know the Los Angeles Nisei and like the San Francisco Nisei, I notice some difference. You get in Los Angeles Nisei and the Midwest Nisei, quite different again, my observation, you know, the manner, the thinking, everything is different. So it depends on what mainland Nisei you're talking about.

gky: Is it harder or easier to get along with mainland Nisei?

KY: For my part, my wife is from the mainland, so, to me, no difference, you know. Although, a lot of the true Hawaiian Niseis, they couldn't get along. We used to have fights all the time in the 442nd, you know. They kind of got together afterwards.

gky: What do you think made the mainland Nisei and the Hawaiian Nisei pull together?

[Interruption]

KY: Actually, I take the example of the 442nd, you know, an example they, they were poles apart, you know. They just didn't get along. But from what I read in one of the periodicals, they said that the 442nd had a tour of one of the evacuation centers, and they saw, saw the hardship that the mainland Niseis were going through. And after they returned, you know, after discussing and thinking, they felt they must pull together and help the mainland Niseis, and that, I understand, is the start, they started to get better relationships.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 9>

gky: What do you think was -- you've done some, you did some unusual things during the war. What do you think was the most important contribution you made during the war?

KY: You mean other than military?

gky: No, military.

KY: Well, I think the contribution I made in the military is as explained. But during the war, after the war?

gky: During the war.

KY: During the war. Well, I think during the war, I think during the war is four years of military, so it's almost strictly military. Although on furloughs, you know, from Camp McCoy or Camp Ritchie, or whatever, maybe it's about furloughs. We made a lot of contacts with the residents over there, the area where we went furlough, you know. And I made some very good friends like Sparta, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Chicago, all in that Midwest area, La Crosse. We got to went into the families and we corresponded with them for years, you know. And their generation we understand. The parents got on real well with us, and the kids were teenagers at that time, but even today they still correspond sometimes.

gky: How do you think the Nisei, what the Nisei did during the war, helped Hawai'i with statehood?

KY: Well, actually, the war, the war, see, one is the war record. Secondly is the -- after they got discharged, the veterans, they got GI Bill, that is a tremendous help to the Nisei in getting the education which they could not afford before. And after they got the education, they came back, went into politics, got into business, economics, and so forth, education. After they returned, because of their war record, there was no question about their loyalty anymore. There's no doubt. And from there, we got, politics were tremendous, we got we really got fine in politics which in developed into statehood. Then you got education, you got professors, and you get schoolteachers. We just abound with schoolteachers and all the professions like attorneys, and so forth, they all spread into that field quite a bit. Before the war, in contrast, before the war, Niseis weren't accepted to take a lot of the government jobs. Only government job available, not only, but you know, the government work, that was more or less what the Nisei went into was education, schoolteachers, and so forth. Not like today.

gky: Would you just repeat that again, that truck was kind of noisy.

KY: It's going into education like university professors, so forth, doctorates, PhDs and so forth, but the political field, it's obvious that the war record, the education, the GI Bill, went into our achieving statehood. And that record, the people of Hawai'i, multiracial, other than Japanese, have more accepted the Japanese, you know. Whereas before the war, as I said, if you're Japanese, you can't get a government job. You can't get into Pearl Harbor jobs, you can't get utility jobs at the telephone company, Hawai'i Electric. The electric company won't hire Japanese. And all the good paying jobs were barred. They weren't accepted. So they had to get into the field like going into business on their own, things like small business, so forth.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 10>

gky: I'd asked you what the difference was between the attitude and actions of Hawaiians, or people on the islands, after the war from before the war?

KY: After the war?

gky: How did people's attitudes...

KY: Local people?

gky: Yeah.

KY: Well, prior to the war, you know, we had all these restrictions, I would say discrimination on job, just simply because Japan was a major power in the Pacific. And a lot of nationalities inside felt there's a conflict between, among the Japanese Americans, whether they're for Japan or for United States. A good example is the Battle of Midway, before the Battle of Midway. The army felt that they weren't quite sure as to the loyalty of the Japanese in Hawai'i, and the only one that were armed at that time was those in the army. So they went down the line and took the Territorial Guard, Varsity Victory Volunteers. They didn't have arms, but they were organized so that they called that unit off and then there was no threat, you know, as far as security. But as far as the only armed Japanese Americans were those in army at that time like we National Guard. And so actually the suspicion was still there, the loyalty. That's why they took us from the National Guard and because the Battle of Midway, in the event you don't know what might happen. Whether Japan might be victorious and get into Hawai'i to occupy Hawai'i, so the only resistance they felt, you know, to make it safe just to get the Nisei with arms out, take the arms and ship us out. And that's what they did. That type of suspicion, you know, was in the local population, certain segments of the population. Like even as I say, in my case, when I was stationed out in beach with the Hawaiian Chinese and the Portuguese and myself, see, the Portuguese, my fellow soldiers had a suspicion what I was doing, digging trenches, you know. That type of suspicion was there, see. But after the war, after the 100th Battalion and the 442nd record, and little is known about MIS, but they felt that, well, the Nisei loyalties were unquestionable, yeah. And they had to change that. That was a very, in large measure, the reason for the change in attitude, I think.

gky: How did that make you feel?

KY: Well, make us feel better, of course. So now, we can -- there's no doubt about loyalty anymore. Actually, because of that, we have some high positions like General Shinseki, and on the mainland you have Norman Mineta [former Secretary of Transportation, former Secretary of Commerce, and former congressman from California]. And I think, actually, General Shinseki has made numerous public statements and same with Dan Inouye, too, but numerous public statements that the reason he got where he is today is because of the 100th Battalion and 442nd.

gky: I just want to get this on tape. You went, you were drafted into the army November of 1941. In June of 1942, you went to Camp McCoy, and then six months later in December of '42, you went to Camp Savage?

KY: We were assigned to Camp Savage in 1942 to disembark.

gky: And then you were discharged...

KY: In June, June '43. Otherwise I can't get -- June '43, I graduate Camp Savage, and after that I went to the Pentagon. And I think about eighteen months in the Pentagon. From there I think it was Ritchie. I was in Ritchie after McCoy.

gky: And you were discharged in November of 1945 as a master sergeant.

KY: Yeah.

gky: Okay. Anything else you can think of that you would want to say about how you felt about your service and your years during the war?

KY: Four years.

gky: Four years?

KY: Yeah. I think, I mean, I can say this because I came back alive, but like my buddies in 100th... you see, the second man got killed in the 100th Battalion. I was in that position. When I went to Savage, this guy Tanaka took my place and he was the second guy killed in action. If I was there, I would have been gone. So, and all this time I've been going out to post, you know, going assignment to assignment, but I came out all right, so I feel very lucky to -- the way things turned out. Not something I worked for, but is something that destiny guided me, anyway.

gky: Okay. Thank you very much.

KY: Yeah. Okay.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2001 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.