<Begin Segment 6>

[Ed. note: there were problems with the video on the original tape for the first part of this segment.]

LD: You would give an officer back his sword?

HM: Yes. To me, a sword is not a weapon, a weapon to cut, kill people. It's a symbol of leadership. In the days of samurai, yes, they fought with swords to kill each other. But today, not today, but that Second World War, Japanese soldier with a sword, many of the swords were family heirlooms. You can't buy those. In other words, to that officer who owned that sword, his ancestors are all with him together to go into combat in spirit. In Japanese, as I said, from the time they were in fourth grade, fifth grade, in spirit they will teach them unity. Whatever you do, united, we are strong, like a house divided, four walls taken apart and fall down, all the, it's Abraham Lincoln saying, but they take it up, too. See, put together, like breaking one chopstick, you can, but take ten, try and break that. You can maybe because of your strength, but it's very difficult. All this principle, and the prisoners will repeat back to us, and they learned that a long time ago.

LD: Did you learn anything like that?

HM: Yes, uh-huh, in Japanese school.

LD: What would you say you learned in Japanese school, what kinds of things?

HM: Well, offhand, I cannot say I learned this and I learned that. But when the prisoners repeat, and I know, oh, yes, oh, yes. Those things come in, but I cannot identify this and that, this and that right down the line and enumerate it, no. There are so many things.

LD: You had a feeling for these.

HM: I do. Without feeling, you can't interrogate. I would say you cannot complete. You have to be with him, for him, at the same time you're trying to extricate certain information. You're not gonna cheat him, but you're gonna outwit him. Yeah, well, it's an interrogator's primary purpose.

[Interruption]

LD: Did an officer ever try to give you his sword?

HM: No, no, no. Officers never gave me, no. Because by the time they come to me, to us, the interpreters, everything that they have in their hand or on their body, all taken away from them by the captor. They don't have anything. There wasn't a single soldier, officer that came in and tried to give my his sword. By the time we started interrogating, everything that they had was gone, taken away from them.

LD: Didn't you give them back the sword?

HM: Well, if they had a sword, yes. To them, it's a sign of leadership. Now, if you want them cooperate with you, let them behave, at the same time, we had guards around them. I'm not armed. But somebody behind the prisoner is taking down notes, Naomi's back there now, like if I'm interrogating you, then she's taking down the notes. The prisoner doesn't know that. And the officer or whoever has the sword, he feels that much more comfortable, safer, I think, because he has a sword. And they still have, I wouldn't use the word never, but it is not normally used for cutting people. But it is a sword, a symbol of leadership, so when they go charging or attacking against the United States forces, there'll say, "Follow me," or advance," the common word is susume. And when they do that, they pull their sword out over their head, and they lead.

LD: Did you finally have to explain that to the other American soldiers?

HM: Oh, yes. They were afraid because that sort, they're gonna cut each other. They can, sure. They can. Like a dog, if you corner it, a non-biting dog, and you come in and just strangle the dog, he's going to bite you or scratch you, a cat or anything. If he had the sword, he's gonna chop you. But on his own volition, he will never come in. Well, maybe I'm wrong, but attack you with a sword.

LD: You made the point of feeling a good feeling, or picking the right place to have an, interrogate a person. You would think about that.

HM: Oh, yeah. Well, I liked to have an atmosphere that was very conducive for interrogation, and not distracting. You know all the people are cooking maybe, or some people, vehicles moving back and forth? Those are all distractions. And any other diversion would take attention away, that's negative to me, the interrogator. So I would try to chase him out of here, or get him completely away, take my guards with me. And the person who would take the notes behind, then maybe side of a river, bank, bank of a river. Then go into it, slowly but surely, grabbing to each... and then weighing each answer he gives, why he gave that answer. I wonder why now. You can take it both ways or two ways or three ways, that's interrogator's decision to make, you've got to make it on the spot, and then to follow up with the next question and all that.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.