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gky: Do you remember what your first interrogation was like?

DO: Well, it was pretty hard at the beginning, but after I talked to him in Japanese, they felt more relaxed and then they started to... in the beginning, the kind of hesitate to talk. But I told them that this was for their own good and, "Help us to save you boys, too, so give us all the information." And he started to give me some information and we asked whatever we wanted to know.

[Interruption]

gky: Would you describe an interrogation?

DO: The first thing I asked was the troop information, the troop, who's the commanding officer, and how long they been there, and also any kind of sickness there, and about how many men, in your opinion, were in the island, in other words, how many soldiers were camping on that island. And whatever they know, of course, not accurate, but they get some idea about the strength of the troop over there and how long they been there, and any kind of sickness that happen, any kind of sickness there, too. Most primarily, where they landed, when they came, what boat, and how long they've been there.

gky: Did the nature of the interrogation change after a while, or were you trying to get different information?

DO: Depending on the condition or situation, too, yeah.

gky: So you were mostly getting tactical information?

DO: Yes, for that particular time, our troop can use that immediately, that information was the vital information.

gky: Where were you when the war ended?

DO: War ended, I was in Kwajalien taking care of several hundred prisoners. And I was in the prisoners camp when the emperor said on the radio, said, announced that Japan was surrendering.

gky: And, what was that like?

DO: Well, to be honest, I'm glad, I was happy, but a lot of the prisoners were really sad and some of them were crying.

gky: Was it because they were hearing the emperor for the first time or was it because they --

DO: Yeah, that Japan surrendered after all they went through.

gky: How did you feel about the prisoners now and Japan?

DO: Well, I thought, frankly, the prisoners, they were very cooperative, you know. So I can very proudly say that our government, as far as those prisoners under my jurisdiction were treated well according to the League of Nations prisoner of war rules, and they were treated real good. And they were very happy to be with, that they were prisoners of Americans than of any other country, prisoner of any other country.

gky: Would you describe psychological warfare?

DO: Psychological warfare, you see, the Japanese, as a whole, they were already trained not to go home alive, so they don't give up too easily. So we try to psychologically, well, make them feel like homesick and love for their family, and they want to go home, and we told them that already that the war has, the fighting has stopped. But then again, they don't really believe until they get an order from the command post. So it's very hard to convince them psychologically -- and we set up, they're used to loudspeaker, a loudspeaker was set and Japanese music, and all that thing make them feel homesick. And we had a few Japanese soldiers that escaped from the group and joined our, and came to our ship. So I used their service and had them announce to the buddies on the island and telling them that they don't have to worry, that, "We are treated well and medical treatment," and whatever is necessary, so to come out, but lot of them didn't come out. So we weren't too successful in psychologically -- we hardly got anybody. And we drove out around the island for many hours just protesting to them and giving them all the info, you know, make them homesick.

gky: Do you think -- you said you didn't think you were too successful. What did you measure your success by?

DO: Well, we expected a lot of them to come out. But only two or three came out.

gky: How about civilians?

DO: Well, there are no civilians on those islands, only military.

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