Densho Digital Archive - Howard H. Furumoto Interview (denshovh-fhoward-01-0012)

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LD: What was the most effective thing you personally were able to do? What particular thing do you feel, you remember? Was there a particular thing that you were in position to do?

HF: One particularly dangerous mission that I still remember, and I don't know how I got involved in this, but one day I was asked to lead a scouting patrol, you know, because interpreters were at a premium at that time. Why the platoon leader asked me to lead a patrol on a scouting mission was beyond me. But here I was, and I was not about to say, "No, I can't go, because I'm more valuable back here." I did lead the patrol on a scouting mission. And one realizes that in Burma, there's no way around the beaten path. In other words, we are bound by the jungle to stay on the path, otherwise we'd be flayed in the jungle by the overgrowth of trees and bamboo in particular. The bamboo especially was thick. So then we could be booby trapped on the path or ambushed as we approached. Fortunately for me and for the scouting troop, this did not happen. And our assignment was to enter a Kachin village that was occupied by the Japanese. And we had reports that the Japanese were active in this area. Then with fixed bayonets we entered the village expecting the worst, but much to my relief, the Japanese had already retreated. So that was about the scariest experience I've had.

LD: You were serving with the Kachins...

HF: Kachins were, yes, serving with us under the very able leadership of Father Stewart, a Catholic priest of the Columbian order.

LD: You had a lot of different kind of men in this unit.

HF: That's correct. We had, as support troops, the Chinese combat command, particularly the 88th and the 89th regiment of the Chinese combat command. And we had the Kachins as our jungle guides because they were familiar with every foot of the terrain. And we had the good services of this very, very valuable person by the name of Father Stewart. And we also, in a remote way, had support from the British, the Chindits under Wingate.

LD: How were you and other fellows being protected? Was there any special protection that you were given, precautions that were made to prevent you guys from being mistaken for the enemy or captured?

HF: Yes. Of course, you know, the Japanese to a person is notoriously poor in their pronunciation of certain syllables. The Ls and the Rs and the THs. This then, their weakness in pronunciation of the English language served as the basis of our password. So we would conk out such terms as "lots of luck," which the Japanese can't say "lots of luck," you see. Or "lady luck" or "lollapalooza." And obviously if a Japanese would, say, come up to our listening post or lookout post and try to use some kind of a password, this then would become very obvious. So this was a protection for us. But, you know, among the Nisei interpreters, about half of them were Kibeis, that is to say that these Niseis had received their high school or college education in Japan, and in most cases spent a lot of time in Japan. So their English pronunciation wasn't that hot, and they were in the same boat as the Japanese. So we had to use all these precautions this way.

LD: Any other precautions?

HF: We had a, kind of a buddy system, because the needed buddy was, of course, the foxhole buddy who worked in tandem as interpreters, one strong in English and the other strong in Japanese, so that was our built-in protection.

LD: Do you think there was any big difference, or what difference was there between the Kibei and the non-Kibei Nisei in how they handled themselves or how they handled the enemy besides the language?

HF: Well, you know, in our particular situation, all of us were volunteers. And one makes a commitment such as that in the face of tremendous odds against casualties, one is really committed. So there was no question as to their performance and as to their loyalty. So we were as one.