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KY: About October 1944, I was already assigned to Camp Ritchie, which is Camp David now. Actually, the original four of us as a team were, we formed the nucleus for a new intelligence center in Camp Ritchie. Just about that time if I recall, I think the 442nd were assigned to Bruyeres, and that was the beginning of the Rescue of the Lost Battalion. In the Philippines, I think the invasion of Manila was imminent. In October '44, when I was stationed there, Camp Ritchie actually was an intelligence training center for the European Theater of Operations, and they were going to create a new division for the Pacific Theater, and that's the reason we were sent there. And actually the commandant of the intelligence center was a brigadier general, I forgot his name. He wanted some documents to be rechecked before they were sent out for training purposes. I believe it was about fifteen wooden crates were sent to the intelligence center. So the general called our colonel, Colonel Gronick, and asked that he send over a man to check these documents because he wanted to have it rechecked before he used it for training purposes. So the colonel called me and I went there by myself.

The crates were open so I started to look through the documents. And about the third crate or so, when I picked out this bound book about two inches thick, just looking at the title I could see the value of it. The whole fifteen crates were actually of no military value, only training purposes only, it was marked, and shipped to Ritchie for training purposes. So anyway, when I picked that book up and looking at the title, I know from the title already it must be of immense importance. Then I opened the table of contents, and boy, I couldn't believe what I saw in there. It listed all the major weapons of the Japanese Imperial Army, the size, the type, lists the location of the factories, lists the locations of the munitions dump, everything, addresses. And listed what weapons were short, what weapons didn't have parts, named where the parts could be obtained, all the full information. I just leafed through only two or three chapters from the table of contents, boy, I said this thing is hot. So I called my colonel immediately, I said, "Colonel, boy, there's a document here but you wouldn't believe it." So the colonel came right away, and then I was explaining to him, and so he called a general, I suppose. And then immediately he took the document and he stopped right there, and he immediately took the book back. He already had a staff, the staff was created from really good boys, from Savage and Snelling. And boy, they put everybody to work, whole staff went to work. Now, actually, I didn't see too much of the details of the document, just skimming through that already, I could tell the importance. So I think a few, about a week or ten days later, actually, I was assigned overseas. So the staff all made the translation and so forth, so I didn't do any translation myself, I just picked the document, evaluated it, found it important, gave it to the colonel and the colonel carried on from there.

LD: What was the use for that document for postwar? How was that useful? It was an inventory of weapons on the homeland.

KY: Homeland. Every munitions factory or whatever documents, manufactured, stored, what was stored and everything. Actually, as I said, I saw the importance of that... mind you, those documents were picked up, as I understand it, in the Battle of Saipan. And why an army unit would be carrying that kind of document is beyond me. But being, I guess, a big army group, I suppose, where they have a high placed general who would need that type of information, I don't know. But anyway, I understand that that was picked up by the U.S. Navy, shipped to Pearl Harbor, and was screened by Naval Intelligence there. And just said, made evaluation, no military value, for training purpose, and sent it to the army. And just my short glance of that, I could tell immediately the importance of it.

LD: That was a very useful translation. When they translated that inventory, it was very useful after the war, wasn't it?

KY: Yeah. Well, now, on that, from what I read in Yankee Samurai by Joe Harrington, he probably went back to Washington, D.C., checked the document, the archive and so forth, U.S. Army maybe, I don't know what. He states in Yankee Samurai that that document, as translated, was routed to the air force.

LD: Start this way: "Joe Harrington," start that way. "Joe Harrington."

KY: Joe Harrington went, well, he didn't tell me what he was going to check, but he checked these documents --

LD: Start again. "Joe Harrington, author of Yankee Samurai..."

KY: Joe Harrington was the author of Yankee Samurai. During my interview with him, stated that all interviews would be checked and rechecked at archives, the War Department, Navy Department. And what I read in Yankee Samurai, he states that the document that I found and was translated were routed to the army, navy, marine and so forth. And from what he writes, he said that that was used actually for B-29 raids thereafter. And also during the Army of Occupation, that book again was used to seize all military, the stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, and by doing so without incident. And from that standpoint, I think that document has been very helpful. Now, I don't know what happened after I submitted to the colonel, I was shipped overseas to Europe, and then from then on I don't know anything about the document. I think the best man to judge and check it might have been Joe Harrington. So that's the story I got from the book.

LD: What he was saying is that in the occupation they needed to... what's the word... remove the weapons, there's a word for that. Disarm.

KY: Yeah, disarm.

LD: Right. So one of the jobs of the Occupation Army was to disarm your enemy. Well, so then the question is how do you disarm then, right? So could you tell me about that a little bit? In the occupation.

KY: What?

LD: Just explain that.

KY: It was not my work, but it's all right to explain it. Joe Harrington explains that I think there are some other Nisei linguists over there actually did it.

LD: Did what?

KY: Did the disarming. They were the, they had an officer who would order the men to, what you call a stack arms, they stack all the rifles, and then they sent them out on an order.

LD: Sent them to walk away.

KY: Walk away or do something else.

LD: Yes, and then come back, the arms are gone.

KY: Then yeah, the arms are gone.

LD: Does that sound reasonable to you that that's what happened?

KY: Oh, yeah. Because if you see an American officer would go over there and try to seize all the weapons from the soldiers there, he'd get a battle. They wouldn't release it. Even army officer, if a Japanese army officer orders the enlisted men to stack arms, you follow the order. Then the officer will tell you, give an order to do certain things, then they'll go. Once the weapons are gone, they come back, that's not the enlisted men's fault. That would be something that they just followed ordered, then there would be no...

LD: What were your next, what was your next assignment? Okay, you were sent overseas, tell us about that. The next assignment, you were one of that rare, now, that was a very small group. You and...

KY: Yeah, Pat Nagano and George Urabe. George Urabe of San Francisco.

LD: Yeah, there was only three of you. You three were the only three that had that assignment, right? You don't know of any other MI men in Europe? You were the only three.

KY: As far as I know, yeah.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.