Densho Digital Archive - Shig Kaseguma Interview (denshovh-kshig-01-0024)

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RP: And so what were you assigned to do as part of the occupation force?

SK: Yeah, we were part of the... there was a pool in Tokyo called ATIS. And they had all the pool of all the people that went to Military Intelligence School. And I thought well, I wonder where I'd be. Well, my MO was reporter. [Laughs] So, and the building, it was big building with all the military personnel, American personnel. And they said, "You're assigned to the newspaper." Not the Stars and Stripes, not the national one, you know.

RP: What was it?

SK: It was just for the ATIS people. The Allied, the translating sections.

RP: So did you cover...

SK: I said, "What am I going to report on?" "Well, you can report on anything that happens for the personnel, then all the, what the colonel wants you to put in there."

RP: After all, you got all that great training at Fort Snelling --

SK: Yeah, then I'm doing that with English. You know, I'm doing it in English. I had to go review shows and things so I could report it back to the newspaper so that those guys could go see it. If it was good, bad, or otherwise. The Japanese things happening and the military things that's happening. And the ball games would be this and that. I'd go and interview all the players, from different sections of Japan that came to tournaments. So it wasn't the highlight of my career, is the word, I guess. [Laughs]

RP: Boy, that really followed you around, like you said.

SK: Yeah, like, I don't know. When I think back about it, I think, gee, all that training and I do that kind of stuff. But fortunately, when the whole group of us was transferred to all different areas, to different jobs, and I was on a train to go towards Hiroshima. And they stopped in Osaka and there were some people pushed out of there. And we went to Kyoto which was the next stop. And he said, "Kaseguma." "Yes, sir." "Outta here." I get my bag and I said, "Who else is coming with me?" He said, "You're by yourself." [Laughs] "Why do you want to send me out all by myself?" "Alright, your MO says you're out. Get outta here." And so I went, all by myself. I thought, "Oh my God," you know, "what is this?" And I was transferred to the military I Corps. They had a military government in Kyoto, and I was assigned to that area, to that building. And we only had about forty-five people. Enlisted men, not the officers. Though the officers were there, too, we had forty-five men. And we had nightclub, we commandeered a nightclub. And we had cooks and all that. It was one of my pleasant places to be. They gave us all the beer we wanted, every week we got a case of beer. And I didn't drink American beer, at that time, but, my job at the I Corps office was to, military government, was monitor all the ships coming in and going out. So I had to call all the different cities, Yokohama, Tokyo.

RP: Oh, that's for the entire country?

SK: All where the ships are coming in. And I was, (monitoring) everything that's coming in. And when these things got kind of hairy, we couldn't get enough report, they would send me into Tokyo, because I could speak the language. Make sure, "How come we don't get these forms?" or this and that. And I would go into town and I'd bring it back. So, I had my own freedom. But it was, you think, gee, this is war? What am I doing? Things like, but I guess it was a lot better than carrying (...) a rifle, like we were trained to do. So I was surviving, no problem.

RP: How did the Japanese people accept you and Americans in general?

SK: Yeah, in general, I don't know if they... they're very reticent people anyway. So, and they don't dare insult anybody in a uniform. It could be, that might be it. But they were very nice to us, and all of us. I wonder, if you have a Japanese face, but how come you're wearing American uniform and we can speak the language. Not great, but you know, we can speak it. And they couldn't figure out, "What the heck are you?" That was their attitude. "What are you?" "How did you get this way?" It was kind of fun, because they would always be amazed when we spoke Japanese. Of course, we look Japanese. Not like typical Japanese, maybe, because we had a uniform on. But it was quite an experience. Course, I was only in there a year in Japan. Because I was going to be, army was two years. No matter what it was, two years, you were outta there.

KP: Can I ask a quick question? One of the gentleman Richard and I interviewed, he was a "no-no," his family was "no-no" and they repatriated to Japan. And then he spent two years trying to get back to the United States and he worked for the occupation forces. Did you run across people... what were your experiences with people who repatriated from...

SK: Yeah, in our office, the women were, there were, gee, maybe about ten of them. They worked in the office where I came in. They all looked at me like, you know. And I knew one of the girls, we went to high school together in Seattle. I says, "My God, Dorothy, is that you?" She said, "Is that you, Shig?" I said, "Oh my God, what a small world." She said, "Yeah, our family got repatriated." And one of the other girls later on married one of the guys from Seattle, and she started a travel agency here in Seattle -- not here, in Seattle. She was very successful. And I recognized her when she came back to the United States. But oh, they invited me to parties. Not too often, but it was, (...) a strange world when you see those people and think, my God, these are the people I knew before the war, and here they are working for the American army. They were repatriated and they were working. Oh gosh, I thought, oh well.

RP: What a world.

SK: Small world.