<Begin Segment 14>

KK: Last year when I was visiting Hana, I came across a letter that my brother Stanley had written in 1944 while he was serving with the Military Intelligence Service, U.S. Army. And he was in the India-Burma-China Theater. And he was writing a letter to my brother Robert, who I think at that time must have been in Chicago, but had just graduated high school and had been released from Crystal City camp, where in Crystal City we were held for deportation. Anyway, there had evidently been an article that Robert had read in which Stanley was quoted, in which the situation was that brothers were on opposite sides in a war. And I guess the writer had asked Stanley what he would do, and Stanley had said if it came to that, where he would have to meet his brother on the battlefield, he would do what he had to do, and that would probably have to shoot, right? And something about that had disturbed Robert, so Robert had written a letter to the editor and expressed a different point of view. That point of view was a very mature, well-written piece, and Stanley had read it and felt he needed to respond to Robert, so he wrote this letter, from which I will quote a few times. And it's a very respectful letter in that he does tell Robert that... you know, he remembers Robert as being a little kid when they last saw him in Amache, Colorado, in camp, because we were separated after that. So here, Robert is now eighteen, a young man, waiting to be drafted or to volunteer for the navy, writing this letter to the editor. And Stanley sees that it's a very well-written piece and tells him that. He says that he thought that, quote, "I cannot say frankly that I agree with your wholly. Though your debate was brilliantly expressed, it's lacking in many things which you may not have understood or your comprehension of the problem is rather distorted, by whom I shall not even try to guess," unquote. So then Stanley goes on and tries to explain his point of view, and he mentions the case of the Schumann-Heinks, Madame Schumann-Heink, and this was a German family that had a similar situation. And let me just quote this at the end. He says, quote, "I shall respect the enemy, why he fights, but I shan't pity him nor give him any odds when the time comes to meet him. We Americans shall victor for what and why we fight is right. I hope that you shall see the light and join the fight as an American soldier who is proud of why and what he is fighting for," unquote.

LD: This was directly related to the fact that in that family, in your family you had exactly that situation.

KK: Right. The brothers didn't know where their older brother, my oldest brother Buddy was in Japan, was of age to be in the army. They didn't know if he was in the army or what he was doing. Most likely he was in the army. They didn't know if they would meet him on the battlefield or not.

LD: Here's Stanley saying...

KK: If he did, he'd have to do what he had to because he was an American.

LD: And Robert was saying what?

KK: And Robert... I don't know what... see, I don't have Robert's letter, so I couldn't say. But I would think that Robert would say, "Would you meet your brother, would you probably try to save him or do something?" You don't know, you know. And you never know until you're tested what you would actually do

MM: But he quoted the Bible, it says.

KK: Yeah. But what he quoted we don't know. There are a lot of holes because we don't... that's one of the researches I would like to do, is go find out who this, where these letters appeared. They must have appeared in some...

LD: You don't have Robert's letters. You'd like to find it.

KK: I'd like to find it.

LD: I can see why. It must have been some letter. It's interesting the two brothers battling it out in publications. [Laughs]

KK: Right.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.