Densho Digital Archive - Kenji Goto Interview (denshovh-gkenji-01-0001)

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KG: Because Kiyoshi, Mr. Okubo was going to Japan. So later, I read the Hilo Times, and this is the clipping from Hilo Times. This Kiyoshi Okubo was very proud of, I think, this article that he had written in his paper. And he's written three times, because I have three clippings over here. So when Mr. Okubo took this quote back to Mrs. Tojo, well, Mrs. Tojo brought out three poems which General Tojo had written just before his death. And so I'd like to talk about those three poems. One is "Kaeri nan izaya shinyo no futokorori. "I shall return to the bosom of truth." Well, I don't know, but I guess he meant that, you know, Japan was being pressured by the United States and other countries, therefore, "I started the war because I believed that it was for the good of Japan." I believe that's what he means when he says, "I shall return," just before his execution, he says, "I shall return to the bosom of truth." Then, "saraba nari, uinofuyama kefukoete mida no moto ni yukuzo ureshii." Now I interpret this, "Farewell, I shall go over the wilderness full of changes, and I'm happy to go to live with Amitaba. Amitaba is Buddha, you know, the reincarnated Buddha. Then he also, another one is "Yume nareya bajou ni kurasu gojuunen." "It is like a dream to have lived fifty years on horseback," which means being a general in the army, and an officer, he spent fifty years in the army. So these are the three poems that Mrs. Tojo gave to Mr. Okubo. So Mr. Okubo brought these back, and I don't know how many he gave to Dr. Urasaki, either one or two, or maybe more. But that is the story.

LD: You recruited him, and you also recruited quite a few others. Could you tell me a little bit about that? When you went to recruit, what was the need at that time and then how did people respond to your recruitment? You went to recruit [inaudible] and you yourself said [inaudible].

KG: Yeah, well, like Urasaki, he came to my office in --

LD: Excuse me, Kenji, I have to tell you, my questions will disappear, therefore you have to introduce the subject. You have to say, "When I went to recruit..."

KG: Five of us were assigned to come back to Hawaii to recruit more men with language ability. And I being from the island of Hawaii, I was assigned to the island of Hawaii, that is the Big Island, and I was stationed in Hilo in the intelligence office. The head was Major Bryant. And while I was there, a Dr. Harry Urasaki came and volunteered for the language service. And after interviewing him, I found that he was a dentist, and I told him, "You are earning much larger, what do you call, income than we have been. And furthermore, you are a dentist. Why should you volunteer for the language service? Why don't you volunteer for the dental service?" However, he said that it's already, the 442nd had gone, and he said he had volunteered for the dental service of the 442nd but he was not accepted, and therefore he did not think that the United States Army would accept him. "But since you are here, well, I'd like to volunteer because I have confidence in my Japanese language." And so I accepted him.

LD: What was his background in Japanese language?

KG: Well, I did not go into that because it was a test that would prove. But I believe in those days we attended Japanese language school at least ten years.

LD: Did you ask him any... what did you tell him, what was the nature of, or suggested was the nature of what you went through? For instance, Yamane used to, when Captain Dickie came and recruited him, he said, "Would you be willing to be sent on a submarine or air dropped in Japan on a mission for your government?" That's the type of thing he was asked.

KG: Well, no, we did not have that type of instruction. It was more vague. It was more interrogating Japanese prisoners of war, and also translating captured documents. Those were the two duties that we stressed. And, well, it was only after two months of class attendance at Camp Savage, we were suddenly told to go back to Hawaii and bring back competent language men. For that reason, I really did not know exactly, I did not go through that six months' curriculum, and I was rather vague. But at least I knew that we had to interrogate prisoners of war, and also translate captured documents. So that is about all that we, that is, all I told him.