<Begin Segment 24>

MU: Now, anything happen during your stay in Japan that was of interest? Tell us a little bit about how you were assigned the duty that you ended up doing.

HW: Oh, well, before we got to Japan, I was assigned to headquarters commandant -- MacArthur's headquarters commandant. And he wanted me to take care of the lodgings for General Kawabe and his staff -- totaling fourteen people that came over from Japan. Flew into, to Manila and we picked 'em up with our staff cars and brought 'em to our Rosario Apartments where they stayed. And I was supposed to take care of them, feed them, whatever is necessary. I had a staff to do it with -- was given a staff to do it with and I was an enlisted man, sergeant. One of the first things that happened was that General Willoughby came over and he wanted to talk to the general about who's gonna attend the first meeting -- preliminary meeting. And I had my staff make up a roster of these people that came in so I got a copy of that -- had a copy of that in my hand. And the general started fumbling around for something to write with and write names down, so I gave him the roster and my pen. So he marked off the names of people that are gonna attend the first, first session.

MU: Uh-huh.

HW: And my pen was a souvenir -- it was a Parker. With an ink bladder in it, you know.

MU: And he kept it?

HW: No, I got it back.

MU: You got it back.

HW: That's another story. Our house got broken into and somebody stole it along with a bunch of other things. But before that, the interesting thing, very interesting thing happened. I was standing on one side and Colonel Mashbir was on the other side, and they were coming off of the staff cars and into the apartment. And I looked at Colonel Mashbir and I said, "There's something wrong here." And he says, "I think I know what you mean." Because the military personnel all came with sidearms, sabers hanging on their side, including the general. So we assigned the general to the top room in the apartment. So Colonel Mashbir and I went up to talk to him about that. About the fire-, the arms. The general said, "Well, that's, that's uniform." I didn't say anything, excepting we just stonewalled the general. He says, "Well, I would like to have all of our officers put the sidearms into your custody." So I said, "That's fine." So, that was, that took care of that. Then I said, "What about the sword, saber?" He says, "Well, that's uniform." And we didn't say anything, we just kind of let him stew over that for a while. Then he says, "I have a thought. Would it be all right if we wore the sabers to the conference and then leave it outside the conference room?" So, I looked at Colonel Mashbir and we decided that was fine. We had to give them something, we couldn't take everything away, all away.

MU: They had to save their face.

HW: Yeah. It worked out good. Yeah.

MU: Obviously the negotiations went on all right because of the successful occupation, then.

HW: Yeah. I think they, I think it worked out all right. And then, 'course, after that they took me back to headquarters and tried to take my blood pressure. I had to have my blood pressure down before they could commission me. My blood pressure was so high and then I had to lay there, bunk for two hours before it come down. [Laughs]

MU: You mean, when they told you that you're gonna be commissioned?

HW: No, because of this activity that was going on.

MU: Oh, negotiating with the Japanese general for the surrender?

HW: Yeah.

MU: Okay.

HW: I mean, it was kinda traumatic. Me, a sergeant and... next day when he saw me, I had my bars on. The other thing that's interesting about that is, then I met the general's aide.

MU: Kawabe's aide?

HW: Yep. And I'm sorry to say, I've forgotten his name. I never wrote it down. I didn't want to. I had a long talk with him there and also, we met in Tokyo, after we got to Tokyo. Spent couple of hours talking with him. He was a Nisei from San Francisco.

MU: Nisei from San Francisco.

HW: He was drafted in the Japanese army and he came over as a cap-, Japanese captain, aide to General Kawabe, because of his language ability.

MU: Oh, is that so? And, unfortunately, you don't remember the name?

HW: Then he says, "Well, I was on the wrong side." "Well, I wouldn't say you are..." We were talking, "No, not necessarily on the wrong side. You might have been under the wrong circumstances, but you have to do what you have to do." He was a dual citizen so he got drafted.

MU: Uh-huh.

HW: I told him I was not a dual citizen so, "If I were in your case, I wouldn't have been drafted."

MU: Did he have anything to say to that?

HW: No, he didn't say -- no, he's just saying, well, you know. Nice guy. We spent two hours in Tokyo, talking, after...

MU: Did you give him your name?

HW: Maybe he remembers my name. Yeah.

MU: Oh, really?

HW: Yeah.

MU: San Francisco resident?

HW: Yeah, San Francisco.

MU: Well, I'll try to remember. Maybe we'll bump into him.

HW: Maybe somebody, think up a name, you know. I'm sorry, I...

MU: That's fine. That's fine.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.