Densho Digital Archive
National Japanese American Historical Society Collection
Title: George Koshi Interview
Narrator: George Koshi
Interviewer: Marvin Uratsu
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 10, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-kgeorge-01-0015

<Begin Segment 15>

MU: Now, how long did you stay at PACMIRS, or Washington?

GK: Oh, PACMIRS... until (the) end of the war. When the war ended, we were needed for occupation service immediately. So they asked for, I think it was almost the day after the cessation of warfare, the commandant at PACMIRS assembled all the people and asked for volunteers to go to Japan.

MU: Oh really? Who was the commandant? Was it a hakujin general?

GK: (...) He was a colonel, Colonel Gronich.

MU: Now, just about, just prior to the end of the war, the atom bombs were dropped. Of course, your relatives would be in Kumamoto, so they wouldn't have been hurt. But did you have any idea how destructive this bomb was?

GK: No. Of course, I didn't know anything about the atom bomb, until... (I) heard about it afterwards. I was really surprised at its effect, at the terrific power it had. (...) I'd been to Hiroshima before, so I knew how sprawling city it was -- the whole place was wiped out. (...) We heard about the, its effect, and I read about it. So I knew about it. When I was sent to Japan, the first thing I did was to go to Kumamoto to see my relatives. But on the way I stopped off at Hiroshima, and I saw the Hiroshima city. Actually, there was nothing. Went to the train station. The roof was all gone, just a cement platform with broken off steel posts (...). But there was nothing, actually. And I was really, almost felt aghast at this power.

MU: Did you, did you realize at that time what radiation did to the people --

GK: No, heard about it (later). (I was aware of it and) thought about it. I had been standing right there... not too far from the epicenter. And there might have been some effects of the radiation somewhere. (...) I went to Japan in (...) November, of 1945.

MU: '45, November of '45.

GK: But there were a bunch of people there (...)... there were, like, black market, right in front of the station. With the little shacks and plat-, tables, and they were selling all kinds of goods, not too much. Mostly bamboo products and wooden products, and vegetables. (They all looked shabby, but I saw no sign of bomb's effect on them.)

MU: Who was running all this, black market?

GK: Well, the individual people.

MU: The Japanese?

GK: Japanese, uh-huh. Service had nothing to do with it.

MU: Oh.

GK: And (they were) all the Japanese (...) wearing rags and (in) titter tatters, (what made it so sad) (...) is that so many of them looked just like my parents.

MU: Yeah.

GK: So (it) was really...

MU: A traumatic experience for you?

GK: Yes, uh-huh. And then when I first went to Japan, I was assigned to NYK Building in front of Tokyo station (right in front of the Palace grounds). And just as soon as I got there, I went out to see (...) the Palace grounds, (...) just to look around the place. And what hit me... well, hit me... very... another traumatic experience, was the young girls -- hundreds of them, just sitting there, waiting to be picked up by the GIs. I thought, "Gee is this what Japan (has) came to? Or, is this what the defeat brought about?" (...) I was almost in tears and I went right back to my quarters.

MU: It was a sad sight to see.

GK: It was a sad sight, uh-huh.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.