<Begin Segment 25>

TM: One interesting thing in that was one time I was looking for a witness, and I happened to go to Tokyo, and very close to a sumo kaikan, there was a hospital. And I was looking at all the names on the beds, and I found the bed occupied by general of the army, Iwane Matsui. So I said, "Oh, this must be the famous General Matsui that marched into Nanking," you know, where the "Rape of Nanking" took place, and he was held responsible for that. But anyway, he was in bed, so I said in Japanese, "Matsui-kakka desu ka?" "Sir, are you General Matsui?" And he was lying down, and all of a sudden he woke up, says, "Who are you?" I said, "My name happened to be the same, Matsui. I'm an American citizen, and I'm helping the defense of the war crimes." And he said, "You are the first person who called me 'kakka' for long, long time." And he was so happy. Gee, he sounded like a child. Kakka doesn't mean all that to me, but to him, it was important. I think he was a taisho, which is a four-star general.

MU: Oh, really?

TM: No, three-star. Three-star general. And I thought that was kind of silly, but...

MU: It was an interesting story.

TM: [Laughs] Interesting, yeah. He was happy.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.