Wesley Sakaguchi

Contrary to history books the United States did not drop explosive bombs on Japan before the atomic bombs. The bombs used were incendiary bombs to burn homes in the Tokyo area where the Emperor lived or to release leaflets that encouraged the Emperor to oust the Commanding Officer Tojo and to rule Japan.

Since we had their Navy and Air Force eliminated, Japan could not take supplies to their troops on the outer Pacific islands. They were literally defeated, but Tojo would not surrender. He ordered Japanese citizens to harass any enemy who came on the mainland of Japan.

With our troops moving up to take over Japan, the MIS influenced the controversial decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The targets were chosen because those cities had no industrial plants, which would be needed in any reconstruction effort. The bombs were dropped to encourage Japan to oust Tojo and have the Emperor take command of Japan. As the Emperor announced that he was taking control of Japan, Tojo killed himself and the war ended.

The MIS group was stationed in Manila at this time. Six of us flew to Tokyo to take over the NYK building and clean it up with Japanese laborers for those MIS troops moving in from Manila. As we all moved in, the group became identified as ATIS (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section).

General McArthur assigned me to help a group of officers and enlisted men from the Philippines investigate the Japanese development of radar controlled ocean minefields. After a few sessions of interrogating Japanese scientists, I saw that they were getting no info on. (suggested that the interrogators avoid court type questioning, but they would not listen. I threatened to quit as their interpreter. The Brigadier General of this group called me into his office and we discussed the problem. I explained to him that MIS schooling and training taught us to use leading questions and then let the Japanese talk After the discussion the commanding officer allowed me to do the interrogations. We were able to acquire all the information they had on the radar controlled ocean minefields.

This interrogating group did not want to return to the Philippines, so I suggested the commanding officers release our findings slowly while we investigated the location of contraband. For this project I was given a Jeep and driver, who also functioned as my bodyguard. We got permission from General McArthur and our commanding general to enclose the Jeep with plexiglass sides adorned with pin-up girls. We felt that if the Japanese people recognized the Jeep, it would make the cleanup of contraband in the countryside easier.

My intuition in detecting contraband worked great. My Jeep driver could not believe some of the places I asked him to stop and inspect. All the Buddhist temples were hollow under Buddha with contraband hidden underneath. We found old useless swords, guns, small cannons, and other contraband. One cave in the mountainside was filled with tons of junk contraband. We did not do the actual cleanup, but requested that the citizens remove the contraband before we returned. In the case of the cave, all the contraband was dumped in the ocean near cliffs, where the ocean is deep. The rumor of our Jeep and cleanup mission spread quickly and we just drove around and got things cleaned up.

Before my commanding general went back to the Philippines, he wanted to go to one of the local fancy nightclubs. He knew I visited these local places despite the fact they were off limits to GIs. We arranged a party for him and had a blast. Soon after the party the general returned to the Philippines, we wrecked our Jeep, and my driver and I returned home.