Robert HIsatoshi KitajimA

Robert Kitajima had a uniquely special role overseas in occupied Japan: He was one of the Nisei responsible for locating the epicenter of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima where today the memorial plaque stands. Inducted into the U.S. Army on February 26, 1942, Robert was assigned to the Military Intelligence Language School at Camp Savage and served in the U.S. Army Air Force at Pensacola, Florida, Hawaii, Guam and Japan in 1945. In Japan, he was on the Atomic Bomb Survey Team. In this detailed and at times graphic interview, Robert recalls seeing firsthand the affects of radiation on the bodies of Japanese civilians, sharing in detail the horrors of what the bomb did to people. “When I saw Hiroshima, I just was just sick. I said, why in a big city like this?” This interview was conducted in April of 2003. Robert passed away in March of 2005 at the age of 85. 

Can you start out by telling me when and where you were born?

Okay. I was born in Honolulu. June 28, 1922. We was born on Makahiki Way on King and Beretania Street. And my father was a contractor, and he was in masonite. And he was a top masonite man. He built the Bishop Museum and all these big buildings that have that big rock. During the Depression, he made $20 a day when people are getting $2 or $3 a week. That's how good he was, you know? And this is how he made a lot of money. And then he went back to Japan and he built a house. 

And so then my mother was with us in Honolulu, and then she figured, well, maybe best thing for her to go back to Japan. So there was Katsumi, Takanobu, she took both of them to Japan. And then she left me, Sunao Fred and my oldest brother, Hiroshimatsu behind. So actually, I never had a home life. I was 8 years old. We had to clean house, wash clothes, whatever. In Hawaii we were always barefoot. Then when I was 12, they say for me to go to Japan. For two years in fourth and fifth grade. 

Was that a surprise when you went to Japan? Did you have a hard time?

Well, yeah, a little bit, yeah. And since they used to like me because the way I speak Japanese is way better than regular Japanese. Oh, so they used to like me on that. So they never did forget me, you know. Anyhow, then my brother came to get married then he says, you want to go to the United States? I said, Yes. And that’s when I came here.

That’s why you were there for only two years.

Yeah. Then we stayed in Los Angeles, here and there, you know, Venice.

Did you stop going to school then?

No, no. I went to high school. Junior high school and high school. Yeah. I didn't finish high school because living with my brother and his wife, you know, I just couldn't stand it anymore, so I left.

Why couldn't you stand a day?

Oh, well. I guess because they have their ways, and I have my own ways. Yeah. So I left and I went to Los Angeles.

On your own? Now, how old are you here? Your only like-

I was only about 18. So I went out there and I worked in a market, but before I worked in a market, you know, there were hardly any jobs. So I went out to the country. Picking beans and stuff.

This is in the late ‘30s then?

Yeah. So after my vacation, I came up here. [Oakland] Then two days later, I had to report to the draft board. Later they sent me a greeting card, so I had to go in the Army and I was inducted in Monterey in February right after Pearl Harbor. So, I went to Camp Robinson in Arkansas. Most of the Nisei people went over there.

I had my basic training there, and by that time I didn't know where my relatives were, you know? So after finishing basic training, I went to Camp Crowder, Missouri. After Camp Crowder, we went to a Kansas camp to open this camp. It's a brand new camp, middle of nowhere, you know, in a desert. So we were at headquarters, and we were taking care of the camp, and the 100th Battalion started. And then they came over and they're going to start the 442nd, so they came over and asked us to go and train the 442nd from Hawaii.

And a few days later they overrode my orders and they told me to go to Camp Savage Language School. So after I graduated we were G2, you know, camp's average was G-2. Intelligence. Then they sent us to Florida, Orlando Florida Air Force Intelligence School, and that consisted of nothing but officers. And 15 of us were a bunch of sergeants. So we had to go to the same school and do whatever that we had to do. So this is where I met that guy, George, that I told you that he was in the service. 

And that's where you met George, and you became buddies?

Yeah. And well, after we graduated from AFTHC, the unit got shipped to Honolulu. They left two of us behind because we had to go through a thing called the full weight security. Air Force, Army, Navy, FBI. The reason why I got left behind, I went through Japan in 1941, just before the war. So they wanted to check up on that. Then they okayed me. So from there, they shipped me to Utah because they've got to ship me to Hawaii. So I was in Utah there for about five days. And then to Honolulu. Then I got orders to go to Guam. I was in Honolulu for I guess about three or four months. And when I went to Guam, to be a radio man.

Oh, you became a radio man.

That's what they said. We say, “We don't know anything about radio. They said, “Never mind, you're a radio man.” So what is it, the radio man? It’s voice, intercept, intercept. A voice over the shortwave radio.

Intercept the Japanese?

All Japanese. So our hours were six hour on six hour off, six hour on six hour off. So actually, we work 12 hours. But the way it was supposed to be, after two months, they were supposed to give us up and go to Australia for a rest. But we never did.

That's a harsh schedule.

Essential, you know, And shortwave, you have this earplug. And what you hear: “SHHHHHH.” And so this is what we had to do and were attached to the Nimitz headquarters with the Navy in Guam.

And are you always fooling around with the dial?

Always turning the dial. It's so slow that you don't know if it's moving, you know, then all of a sudden you hear that voice, you know, then we tape it, then translate it and then we send it off to headquarters. And so what the Navy did to us, we're in the middle of the jungle.

In Guam?

In Guam. And they have a Navy compound, you know, square like this. And every corner there's a guard. And later, they told us to broadcast to Nagasaki, saying that on so and so day, so and so hour, they're gonna drop another atomic bomb. So we broadcast that for so many days until the last – 

Oh my gosh.

And so that was that. And after the war, some of us got shipped on a ship to Japan. But I flew to Japan to Tokyo. And then from Tokyo. The name was U.S. Bombing Survey Unit.

Was there a similar broadcast in Hiroshima to warn Hiroshima?

No, no. Nothing with Hiroshima.

Just in Nagasaki.

It was all silent. But Nagasaki we did broadcast. And when I went to Nagasaki, when we surveyed the bomb damage, well, I didn't feel so bad because they were building ships there. And we interrogated a lot of people and officers in Nagasaki. And we found out that all the people that work in the office, they all took off.

In the military office?

You have the radio. See, but civilians don't know, they don't have radio so they don't know anything. So like one person we talked to, he says when a bomb hit here he was pulling a horse cart, him and a cart, an old wooden cart. And they got blown over a block away. That's how bad it was.

And he survived that?

Yeah. And he survived.

Oh, my gosh. Did you get sick from the radiation or anything?

No, no. Well, they were saying that nothing's going to grow and everything, you know. But here we saw all the weeds coming up and stuff. And then we made our headquarters and we went here and there, surveyed, you know, figured out the damage, and then I'd say, see, I like to have a pass because I like to see my parents. They say okay, so they gave me a four day pass. And I went home.

Were they surprised?

Oh yeah, naturally. So after that, we were supposed to go to Hiroshima, and so we got on a train and we got to Hiroshima. And there's no place to stay. So they brought a destroyer from wherever to stay. And then the next couple of days, we went over there to figure out where the bomb dropped.

And we figured out, “Well, this is approximately here,” and the bombardier wasn't there, so we had to wait for him. He was one day late when he came and they figured out this is where the bomb dropped.

So you met the actual bombardier who dropped the atomic bomb. Oh my gosh.

We figured the bomb dropped 500 feet up in the air. And that's where it exploded.

And you were in this part of this team that figured all this up?

Yeah. So we marked that space and that's where they have the statue there. You know where the bomb dropped?

Yes. Ground zero.

Yeah, we went to the hospital.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh when we went to the hospital, it was so sickening, you know, because all the radiation burn, anybody who wore black. It just went right through, you know?

And it actually imprinted on their bodies.

Yeah, right through the body. Some of them all depending on how close they were. The radiation goes right through – 

Right through black, but with white it reflected. If you were wearing white it reflected?

Yeah. Oh my God, it was so sickening. You know. And we had someone, a newspaper reporter come, you know, from the United States. And one day they saw that and just couldn't stand it. They had to run outside and throw up.

So what did you see? What was the skin like that you saw? What did you see? What did the victims look like?

The doctor working on them. And, you know, you can see all the way their body is, you know, and it don't look like a body.

I see.

Because all that radiation burn, huh? So this is what makes you sickly.

So you're saying that the burn actually burnt through some of the flesh?

Yeah, right. And some won't go so deep. And some of them, you know, just shallow or whatever, all depend on the radiation, I guess. Yeah. And, you know, like Hiroshima Station, you know, they had a great big sign written, you know, ‘Hiroshima’ it just went right through.

Oh, the black part.

Yeah, it's hard to believe, but that's what happened, you know? And only thing standing is that bank vault, everything else is down. You can stand on one side of that city and you can see right across, you know?

Didn't it take courage to actually be there and to – 

Well you got no choice. Because we're bombing survey, we had to survey the damage.

How many of you were in this bombing survey team?

Uh, in my unit, I was just myself. See, we were all scattered.

Oh, you were assigned. So you had to do a lot of calculating. Well, you must have had scientists or mathematicians or bomb experts?

Yeah, people like that were there. But, well, we figured this is where it dropped something at 500 feet high, and that's where it exploded and that's where we put the statue. 

Did you have doctors in your team? Did you have doctors in your bombing survey team?

No, nothing like that. Because we just went around and we went to the headquarters, you know, so we interviewed more [Japanese] generals than anybody else. Whoever is in charge of that area, see?

Oh, the headquarters of the Japanese Imperial Army.

We interrogated one general, you know, and that general was in command of the kamikaze. Like he said, the day the war ended, he had to send his son out on a plane. Oh, yeah. His boy, you know, it was a good thing the war ended. Otherwise he would never have his son. And he was crying, you know.

He was actually thankful he did not have – 

His son was only 18 or so, you know.

Do you have dreams or nightmares about this or? No? You were good at taking care of yourself.

Yeah, it's just, you know, when I saw Hiroshima, I just was just sick. You know, out of all that, I didn't feel too bad. But, you know, when I saw Hiroshima, you know, I said, why in a big city like this? Because there's nothing there.

I'm just thinking back, you never went to the Philippines?

No, I never did.

So you came out of the war unscathed. You didn't have any, right?

Only thing is my ear. With the short waves.

What happened to your ear?

Well, with that short wave, when you sit 12 hours a day — one guy, he was so bad, you know, he jumped up and shook. That's what happened. So I couldn’t listen to our radio for years and years. About 15, 20 years, I couldn’t listen to the radio. I told my wife to turn it off, you know? So I went to the VA about it. But to them, a radio is a radio. I said my radio is a shortwave radio, but they don't know the difference.

It was such a mental strain having to listen so carefully hour after hour. Well, tell me about the redress movement. Did you think that the law would ever be passed and the president would have apologized? 

Well, yeah. I don't know.

Did you support this movement? Did you think It was a good thing?

Well, in a way, yes. Yes, it is. Yeah. Because in a way, I think it did help us, you know? But basically, I didn't think too much of it.

As a role model who survived a lot, do you have a message you like to give to young people?

If I had a parent I would say, yeah, you listen to your parents, do whatever they say.

I think this is it for my questions. Is there anything you'd like to add that we didn't cover?

No, not that I know – okay, well, the only thing is, I'm glad I married. Yes, she really takes care of me, you know.

Interview conducted by Grace Megumi Fleming. JAMsj thanks Grace for allowing the museum to archive and share these oral histories