<Begin Segment 6>

gky: Gee, sounds like you were really kept in the dark about everything.

SI: Oh, yeah. That's the army, especially the Intelligence. The only time that we found out that we were with I Corps was when the G2 I Corps, who was a West Pointer, lined us all up and said, asked us if we knew the Japanese language. We were the special class, you know. We were the best of the whole group, and then he then asked each one of us, "Can you read and write the language?" Then after that, he said, "You guys have been promoted to sergeant, and MacArthur's policy is that you've got to work up to your rank, so you're busted down one grade." So they busted us down. That was a very, very happy occasion then. [Laughs]

gky: Gee, it seems like kind of demoralizing to have that...

SI: Well, they did it. Also, most of the field officers did not understand the value that we represented. Like if you talk to some people who were in the South Pacific, they didn't know what to do with us, driving trucks.

gky: So, in other words, you had to prove yourselves?

SI: We had to prove ourselves, yes. We knew what we could do. We had to prove, we had to let the officers, the intelligence G2 know exactly what we could do. They were not aware of it. I may have told you this before, but the first thing I did when I went to, was able to get into New Guinea, was they had documents lying there and I picked them all up and took out all the military identifications and lined them up and commanders and so forth. I gave it to 'em and he said, "This is the first time I've seen anything like this." He said, "I want you to continue this." That was a first what you call Order of Battle Information, very firm information that they got. And they had no, at that time, no real collection, organized collection, of this material. The GIs would pick up a document and put it in the pocket. But then we got the CIC to issue an order that all documents picked up must be turned into the G2, so they started sending it back. Now, the Japanese felt that we had no capability to translate this material, so their security indoctrination was very slack in that area. So if you overrun a command post, headquarters, there would be documents lying around they could translate. I think, eventually, towards the end of the war they sort of realized they shouldn't do that.

gky: Can we go back just a minute to the going away party you had? Did anybody ever say to you, "You should fight for Japan"?

SI: No. See, to me, what surprised you was that it was the Isseis that had the party for us. I was in Japan during the period, of course, they were at war with China, and they have these, I guess, farewell parties for the soldiers who are conscripted. They say, "Banzai, banzai." That's what I thought of. I hoped they weren't going to say banzai and go to war. [Laughs] But that's what I thought of. I saw quite a bit of that in Japan.

gky: You really felt then that this is your country and you serve America even though you all had had your rights taken away?

SI: Well, not -- see, in Salt Lake, there was not that, the discrimination and prejudice that there was on the West Coast. Salt Lake, I went to school, and I never had an occasion to have people show any prejudice against me. I was a member of the football team and I played, well, we got along with everybody, and it was only after I heard about the situation in California. And also, when I first came back, what hit me most was, see, my uncle was in the antique business. He had a shop on Grant Avenue. So I came back in 1945 from the Philippines and landed in California. So, I said, "Well I'm going to San Francisco." I was a lieutenant, at that time, wore a uniform. I went to Grant Avenue, walked up the street and the shop that my uncle had, somebody else had some pet shop, or something like that. But then I see Chinese wearing, "I'm Chinese" sort of thing, and I'd go into a bar and order a drink. They say, "Oh, you must be Chinese." I'd say, "Hell, no. I'm Japanese American. We got a thousand of us in the Pacific fighting and it's about time you guys learned that we are fighting for the United States against the country of our forefathers." I guess I got a little boiled, but I still get boiled when I hear that.

gky: You said before that some of your team leaders, when you were assigned to teams of ten, didn't speak English very, I mean, didn't speak Japanese very well.

SI: Right.

gky: Now, you could have done any kind of sabotage. I mean, you could said, instead of this unit and this is what it's called, you could have said something about the United States, or something; who's to know.

SI: Oh, that could have been great opportunities. If we felt that we -- of course, there weren't any people like that that would have done any of these things, or the Kibeis, that felt that way. It was sort of a... to me, it was ridiculous because the officers assigned to lead the teams that they were supposed to check our work, and quite a few of them couldn't do that. And some of them, especially some of the navy officers that came through, I was on a panel testing them, they could barely speak. They were older. And I said, "By golly, well, I think the navy's fooling itself if they think that these officers could do any translation work."

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2000 Bridge Media and Densho. All Rights Reserved.