<Begin Segment 23>

RP: Well what, what did you do in Japan for the MIS? Mostly interpreter?

SI: Pardon?

RP: You did interpreting for the MIS?

SI: Oh yeah, right.

RP: And, and who did you work with? What section or what area?

SI: Well, when I was up in Ibaragi I was a strictly interpreting, interrogating prisoner of war.

RP: From, were these prisoners of war from...

SI: From Russia and China. And, we, I used to take, the officer and myself we would sit like this on a table and I'd be sittin' in the middle and the interrogee would be over there, officer be over then he will ask the question, then I interpret it, and that kind of work. And then when I came back to Tokyo I was assigned to Town Plan, which was making maps. And, that's when we have the interrogees come in and we used to interrogate them and then we used to make maps. It was interesting.

RP: Maps of the territory where they --

SI: Where they were held.

RP: -- held and what they remember about the area and ...

SI: So that was very interesting.

RP: And then the CIC, this was part of the CIC work that you were doing there?

SI: Well, CIC was mostly just, like I said, we were interrogating these returnees. That's, that was the bulk of the work. Then after, then I took a civilian job over there because, well, a friend of mine said, "Oh yeah, there's all kinds of jobs here." So I took a job. I was with the historical division. And it was actually interesting, too. Then after they, the office closed, I went back to ATIS and I was with the reproduction section. Then after a couple years, then I came, I went home. I should have stayed with them.

RP: And what did they do? What, what did reproduction involve?

SI: Well, mostly like captured stuff, like we, I don't know how they ever got a hold of those things, but we had, we used to make reproduction of all the stuff that was in China and Russia. I mean, I guess they, one way or another they had those and we used to make drawings of those things. We were compiling. That was interesting, too.

RP: Was there any particular people you interrogated or stories that you recall about the interrogations? The prisoners?

SI: Did I do what?

RP: Is there any particular prisoner that you interrogated or a story from them that you remember?

SI: Not really.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.