Oral History Videos

Harry Akune
Interview Length: 2:00

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
I think what I was doing was trying to pick up anything that was possible for higher echelon work.  In other words, interrogation depends on where you are and what you're looking for.  In this particular case, you're looking for something that might suit army intelligence rather than battalion or company intelligence.  So I did some of that.

I had an interesting experience there with a native Dutch-New Guinea boy.  The prison camp was across the lake, so we need to get on a duck and go across the lake and then ride a jeep over to the camp.  On our way home one time, I remember I was standing there.  There was one other GI there and myself standing there.  And this native boy comes up to me and says, kind of sly like, come up and say, "do you want to go see your friends?"  And I go, “who's my friends?”  “Oh you know, Japanese soldier.”  “I'm not Japanese soldier, I'm American soldier.”  And the native kid looks at me, he says, “no, you Japanese soldier.”  “No, I'm American soldier.”  Then he goes over to the GI, he's a Caucasian.  He asked him, "him Jap?"  And of course the GI says, “no, he's an American soldier.”  And that native looked at the American guy and he looked at me.  And he just shook his head and walked away.  It was really almost comical.