Dear Yuichi:

I received your card this morning ( Saturday ) concerning your CBS interview. I will contact the local CBS station on Monday morning. I hope they have not already shown your interview. There have been several news-casts about the suit during the past few days, but I have not seen any which showed you. Hopefully, the CBS broadcast ( TV ) will be later this next week.

Several friends have asked me about my feelings on the suit. My feelings are very different from the others. When I was first asked to join in on the suit , I refused to participate or to provide any money for a number of reasons.

First: I did not feel that it was appropriate for me to be a participant because , as an officer, I was not made to work on the jobs outside of the camp.

Second: I was paid by the U.S. government to do whatever was necessary while I was a member of the military forces. This would include being killed, a POW or surviving. I am thankful for survivinb.

Third: I did not feel that the suit had any chance of success because of the treaty between the U.S.A. and Japan prohibiting any future claims against Japan or the Japanese. ( I do not know the details of the treaty.)

There are the basic reasons for my feelings. I believe that I have taken a more realistic attitude towards this subject matter than those individuals, especially the attorneys, who have become so greedy for money. The attorneys are already making money on the suit.

I will take this opportunity to make some other comments and to ask you question(s?) which I have wondered about for a long time.

I believe that the only individuals who can make or have a justifiable legal claim are those who were actually forced to work on jobs which directly aided the Japanese war effort. This is in keeping with the Geneva Convention, which Japan had not signed. It stated that the non-commisioned officers and enlisted men, but not the commissioned officers, who were prisoners-of-war could be put to work on jobs which did not aid the war efforts of the holding power ( Japan in this case ).

Although nearly all of the work done by men at the out-of-camp work places did aid the Japanese war effort and was often very hard work ( especially in the steel mills and mines where the conditions were very bad ),the POWs at Omori and some of the other camps in the area did receive some benefits from the work. It got the men out of the camp; they were kept busy; they were able to steal additional food and to do some sabotage. The men at Omori were in better physical condition and their morale was higher because of the work and additional food than those in most of the other camps.

I know that the POW officers at Omori were paid by the Japanese government according to our rank and that the monies were put into a bank account in our names ( except for the Ten Yen a month credit we got in our camp canteen ); but never received at the end of the war ( it was worthless to us by that time ). I presume, but do not know for sure, that the men ( military POWs ) were also paid according to their rank and the monies deposited in their names. You ( Yuichi Hatto ), as a former Japanese Pay Sergeant, may be able to answer or clarify this question for me. Another question concerns the status of the POWs who were civilians. Did they also receive similar payments?

I also know that the private firms, or companies like Mitsubishi, paid the Japanese military for the use of the POWs as labores ( workers ) . Was any of this money passed on in any way to the POW workers? Perhaps the Japanese government did it by paying us according to our rank?

Yuichi, I realize that these questions may be difficult, if not impossible, for you to answer; so do not worry or be very concerned about trying to answer them. This letter has given me the opportunity to express (say to you ) and to clarify in my own mind ( thinking ) some of the concerns and questions which I have had for many years because of a lack of knowledge, or perhaps wrong information, about the financial matters concerning the POWs.

I am enclosing photo-copies of the photographs which Mrs.Yumiko Nansai ( Kano's youngest daughter ) sent me so that you may be able to identify some of the Japanese shown in them.

1. Martindale, Kano, Kempeitai.
2. Lt.Joe Mills, Pvt. Ito (Camp clerk ).
3. ?
4. The POWs may be Lt.Reis and Capt. James.
5. ? The person on the left may be Pvt. Ito?


M y best wishes to you and your family.

Sincerely
Bob
Robert R. Martindale


*No.117のレターには、三菱銀行の調査役西山智雄さんから届いた、大森支店の「東京捕虜収容所 村岸武雄」名義の口座についての調査結果の手紙--平成7年7月7日付--が一緒に保存されてました。


拡大写真