"Speaking
of the Yamashita trial--our alumunus as of July 28th -- Major Harry Pratt has
been getting some more publicity. He is
shown standing beside General Yamashita in the AP photo of the General hearing
the death sentence pronouncement. As
head interpreter Pratt was supposed to be merely a supervisor. However, the nisei boys assigned to the
actual questioning were so bad on English that the major had to take over the
job personally. (He wrote this in a
letter to Mr. Ozamoto one of our instructors.)
It seems that Yamashita told Pratt that he couldn't understand his
Japanese -- or, at least made some complaint about it. Pratt mentioned the incident in his letter
and added 'That's all right, I couldn't understand his either.' "
-- Letter from my father, Boulder, Colo., to his family, Bloomington, Kans., Saturday,
December 15, 1945. General Yamashita was
executed on February 23, 1946.
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