Densho Digital Archive
Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Collection
Title: Bill Hashizume Interview
Narrator: Bill Hashizume
Interviewer: Norm Ibuki
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Date: October 29, 2005
Densho ID: denshovh-hbill_2-01-0016

<Begin Segment 16>

NI: What were your feelings, though? Because you said that it's "kill or be killed." And of course, you're a Canadian, and you're, of course, you can speak Japanese. You can communicate and fit in fairly well, but as a young man at the time, did you have, what kind of feelings did you have about being in the war?

BH: Well, you know, during the last part of the war, they were getting ready for the invasion from the thing.

NI: From...

BH: From the Americans invading the mainland. And at one time, if the worse came to worst, heck, we had no rifles. The only thing, sure, I had that so-called samurai sword, officer's sword, gunto. That was my only weapon, I didn't have any side arm or pistols. Rifles was, you know, most of the armaments that, come to think of it, most of the armaments were sent overseas to Philippines and things like that, they were lost, or some were being shipped and sunk by submarines. Sure, after the thing, why sure, some of the divisions and regiments were well-equipped, but when it came to the navy, they were not ground fighters. Well, we were asked to be ground fighters like the infantry, but if worse came to worst, where are the rifles, where are the things? And you know, the students that, I think they're only, I was twenty-one at the time, twenty-one or twenty-two at the time, and these guys were only fifteen, sixteen, kids. Kids. But they were well-disciplined, they were well-disciplined and ready to give up their lives for thing. But how, how can you, how can you as an officer send these out, tell them, says, thing, without any arm or bullets or bayonets or rifles? And they're going to be slaughtered. And at one time, I could have, I could have... once an officer tells a thing, the order is absolute. Now, the kids, I could tell 'em, says, "Lay low, don't do anything." Probably I might, I might have taken my shirt off and raised the white flag. Now, I was prepared for that. As long as you're prepared for that, you could thing. Because after all, if you're going to take responsibility, probably you'll be, they'll court-martial you or put you in prison, hang, or make you commit suicide or something like that. That's the worst they could do. But heck, that situation never happened, never occurred, so in a sense, pretty relieved. I didn't have to give that order.

NI: What was your feeling, though, when you were in the Japanese navy -- but as far as who you were at that time? Did you feel Japanese or Canadian?

BH: Well, well, pretty well Japanesey. They train you to be that.

NI: How did they train you to be that?

BH: Oh, well, they slapped you around no problem. Make sure that you did the right thing, followed the orders, everything down to a tee. And once you step out of line, why, you got slapped. Heck, I... heck, you keep counting 'til around twenty, thirty, you stop counting because... that's, it's happening around that, disciplinary action is really good. Because sure, it's unhuman and things like that, but heck, by the time you're thing, you're afraid of nothing.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2005 Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Densho. All Rights Reserved.