<Begin Segment 13>

MU: What happened there? How come you didn't stay there?

GK: (...) There were myself in the office and (...) four translators (which constituted MIS section. Later this section was enlarged.) The War Department in Pentagon was too small to accommodate this extended MIS group. So we were moved to Camp Ritchie, Maryland. A new section was organized -- (...) what did they call it?

MU: PACMIRS.

GK: PACMIRS. So we went to Camp Ritchie to organize the place. And then receive the rest of the people that came in.

MU: Who were they that came in?

GK: Oh, they all came in from Camp Savage or Fort Snelling.

MU: Nikkei?

GK: All Nikkei, and there were two or three hakujin officers. And then Itami-san, you know Itami?

MU: No...

GK: He was a famous man. He was a leader who came (...) from Savage -- well, by that time it was Fort Snelling.

MU: Uh-huh. What kind of work did you do there?

GK: I was still (in) Order of Battle (section).

MU: Order of battle.

GK: (Our section kept track of the Japanese military organization) on the strength, number, and the type of equipment assigned to company level, and the regimental level, and battalion level, and area level. So we knew exactly... if you said that, "(...) The Thirty-Four Regiment was going to Iwojima..." when we got that information, (we) had all the information: how many people, "23,000 men in the unit," and how many howitzers, how many machine guns, how many rifles (this unit had.)

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.