Densho Digital Archive - Shigeya Kihara Interview (denshovh-kshigeya-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

gky: And what was it like when you started the school, when you started the new school there? How much of, how much of the old, old curriculum did you transfer from...

SK: We transferred the curriculum lock, stock and barrel. The original teaching materials on stencils were reproduced in a sufficient, sufficient copies for the new students. New dictionaries had been published by Harvard University and by the University of California Press, so there was a complete set of textbooks ready for our students. And after Pearl Harbor courses in Japanese geography, in Japanese documents translation, in prisoner of war interrogation had been established, and courses in Japanese field operations based on a Japanese manual called Sakusen Yomiuri, and then another one called Oyo Senjitsu, meaning applied tactics, were reproduced in sufficient copies for the incoming students, and the training was very, very intensive. Regarding interrogation of prisoners, the only experience that the United States could look for was an experience of the British army in their different wars with different people in Europe and throughout the world, and the British theory of interrogation was to be very positive, to use strong armed tactics and procedures in interrogation. And this type of interrogation was taught to our students reporting to the Solomon's Guadalcanal Campaign, and they found that if they used positive, strong armed tactics, the students, the POIs would just clam up and some of them would bite their tongue and commit suicide on the spot. They refused to respond to positive tactics. And so they --

gky: Hold on just a second. Let's wait 'til the train goes by. Okay, now what were you saying about positive -- oh, wait a second. What were you saying about positive tactics?

SK: Positive tactics of interrogation, for instance, grabbing an individual and twisting his arm and calling him bakatare, "you damn fool, answer or I'll hit you," and tactics like that. That positive tactics of prisoner of war interrogation just simply boomerangs. The POIs wouldn't answer. And so the opposite tactics of meeting prisoners of war and saying, how are you? Do you have a headache? Would you like an aspirin? Would you like some water? Do you have any other ailments that we can help alleviate with medication? Are you married? Where do you come from in Japan? How is your wife? How are your children? Are they being provided for? And they, the prisoners would begin to cry at this tactics and say, "Thank you very much. I haven't heard from my family, but I understand they're alright. I have a headache. Can I have an aspirin or two?" And then they would begin to talk. So this information was relayed from the Solomon's back to Colonel Rasmussen and then that new tactics of interrogation taught in the classes.