<Begin Segment 8>

gky: Roy, how did you feel being a Nisei in Japan after the war?

RT: Well, I felt that we were doing good for the Japanese people by our presence there, and being able to communicate between the Americans and the Japanese. It was a -- I knew that the Japanese didn't look too kindly upon the sons and daughters of immigrants, Japanese immigrants, but that didn't bother me. We were there to do a job for the U.S. government, and regardless of our individual feelings, regardless of their feelings toward us, we did our best to promote the best interests of both countries.

gky: How do you feel that the military service, being in it when you were pretty, at a pretty impressionable age, it must have influenced you because you stayed in the military until 1966, for twenty-four years; how would you say the military intelligence service most influenced your life? [phone rings] Now you want to go back to the question about the Japanese?

RT: Yeah.

gky: Okay.

RT: There's one bit of information I'd like to give regarding my Japanese relatives. I have a cousin in Hiroshima Prefecture, his name is Takoro Takai. He's a paternal cousin of mine. His father and my father were brothers. He is the only surviving son in the family. His oldest son was lost at sea as a merchant marine, his second brother was a Japanese army lieutenant who was killed in Manchuria, his third brother was a kamikaze pilot and he died in the South Pacific somewhere, I don't know where. So there were four boys in the family. Out of the four boys, three died for their country. The only reason Takoro did not serve is because he was too young at the time of World War II, and Takoro told me this when I visited him. None of these cousins of mine were killed in Burma, China, or India. It's true that, like me working for the American army, they work for the Japanese, and there of course I had some feelings for the family, but while in combat, or in wartime, you don't really think about that unless you know that a close relative, like a brother, is in the Japanese army, you know. So I really felt bad for the family.

gky: That's really -- it's really hard. I mean it's hard because you are, you do need to be kind of objective about this, and yet, it's your family.

RT: Yeah. Well....

gky: Even if you didn't know them well.

RT: You asked me why, what attracted me to stay in the U.S. Army for twenty-four years. I, seriously, in 1946 thought of getting out of the army and taking a job as a federal employee in Washington, D.C. However, my boss at the time, who was also my boss at SEATIC in India, offered me a civilian job in Washington and he, however, said -- I was also contemplating on returning to college at that time -- and he said to me, he says, "You don't want to become an engineer. My brother's an engineer, and all he does is work over a drafting table all day long. Why don't you either stay in the army or take the civilian job I'm going to offer you?" About that time, a friend of mine had just come back from a special assignment in Japan, and he told me and my friends that they were so in need of people in Japan to work for the U.S. Army. So he said he was going back and he encouraged us to go back. So I decided to go to Japan to take a look at what kind of work they were doing in Japan, and after I got to Japan, I realized that I could do more good, probably working in Japan, and in the army than by getting out and either going back to school or working as a federal employee, civilian federal employee. So I decided to stay in the army.

gky: Roy, I have one more question for you. How would you like, you know, when you talk to generations to...

RT: Talk to who?

gky: People who are much younger than you.

RT: Oh, uh-huh.

gky: Sansei or Yonsei.

RT: Uh-huh.

gky: What kind of thing would you want them to remember about your service with the United States government in with military intelligence, about the time that you served?

RT: Well, I'd like them to remember that even in time of stress, even when there was a stigma against Niseis who volunteered to fight for their country, against the country of their parents, although the government did many wrong things to you by incarcerating you in camp, taking your liberties away, that we were able to surmount these difficulties and keep loyal to our country, and to serve the best interests of the United States. And I would like them to remember that if they were faced with a similar situation, that they seriously think about their loyalty to one's country.

gky: Okay, thank you very, very much, Roy. And I just want to get on the tape -- Roy, retired as lieutenant colonel; he served from 1942-1966. Thank you, Roy.

RT: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2000 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.