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A PLAIN OLD TRAITOR
Captured wounded, dressed in a Japanese uniform, and wandering alone in the mountains beyond Baguio, American Nisei Richard Sakakida never stood trial for his war services rendered to his Japanese Kempei Tai masters. Military Intelligence (CIC) imprisoned him at Old Bilibid Prison, and interviewed him, not in a friendly manner, but as an enemy. During the conduct of these hostile interrogations, he entirely failed to point out a number of claims he would make later in his life - claims of his remarkable works against the Japanese, of his messages sent directly to MacArthur's HQ in Australia, of his role in organizing the mass prison break at Muntinlupa. Things weren't going too well for Sakakida at GHQ. He was, as they say, "under the gun" for treason.
But GHQ was in a real bind. There were pressures to get the War Crimes Trials going, cells full of Japanese suspects, and a lack of Japanese translators.
The arrival of Sakakida's old pre-war buddy, Art Komori, would change all this. Although they hadn't seen each other since before the surrender on Corregidor, and despite Kamori having nothing but Sakakida's own story to go on as to what his friend had been doing since 1942, Komori assured GHQ that Sakakida was loyal and trustworthy.
There were formal reports written, of course, and they remain classified. In 1996, Jim McNaughon, Command Historian at the Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language Center, viewed them, and wrote a paper which cautions historians against relying on Sakakida's later claims of derring-do, most particularly the sending of messages through the guerilla networks and the prison break at Mintinlupa. He believes that Sakakida remained loyal.
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D E C O N S T R U C T I N G A L E G E N D How is it that one can accuse Lt. Colonel Richard M. Sakakida, wearer of the Japanese uniform 1942-45, an inductee into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame (1988), and nominee for the Medal of Honor, of treason? A legend is tradecraft term describing the complete cover story developed by an intelligence operative. Sakakida spun a legend to the Japanese, not because he was on an active operation, but to keep himself alive. Captured by US forces in 1945, he spun another legend to the CIC, telling them that he was working for military intelligence all along. He built the remainder of his life and professional career around this second legend. But was there any basis in truth for the second legend? "No," says Parsons, "his work for the Japanese was not a part of any deep or supervised operation. He was operating skin of the teeth freelance, simply keeping himself alive. He did nothing to the benefit of the United States during those intervening years. He participated in trials run by the Kempei Tai, going so far as to heavily strike witnesses. He attended mass executions, the result of trials in which he had played a role. He was unable to point out the mass grave of a dozen people at a war crime site at which he was a witness, personally present. His memory needed to be jogged by an officer pulling a gun on him and threatening to shoot him on the spot. Is that a man who was bearing true faith and allegiance?" "I went back to what he did during WWII and eliminated the clutter by excising everything he said about himself that wasn't verified by an independent document or arms-length participant. This eliminated from consideration a great deal of what is said in the later books about him. These books rely for their authority upon earlier books, which themselves have only paraphrased what Sakakida had published of himself. It was like popping a balloon," says Parsons, "the only thing left were the shriveled traces of stories. " "Sakakida was clearly a very persuasive person," says Parsons, "but in the end he was brought undone by his own braggadocio. In embroidering the details of his legend for his brother in law's book, he assumed that no one was left alive who could cast doubts upon him, or who might be motivated to check his facts to the ultimate degree. He was wrong on both counts." Read AMERICAN HERO OR TURNCOAT by Louis Jurika. ___________________
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FOOTNOTES
Stamp image courtesy of Mario Feir/Asian Rare Books, Ricardo Trota Jose, and MacArthur Memorial
The Official Story of Sakakida is contained in the History of the Counter Intelligence Corps Volume XXIII, by Maj. Ann Bray, published in October 1959. (Web Version | Adobe pdf Version) The contents in as much as they relate to Sakakida only, are based upon an interview of Sakakida by Maj. Bray 18 March 1955. Maj. Bray appears not to have had prior access to earlier reports upon which a later report was written by James C. McNaughton, Command Historian, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, December 1996. The latter report, a copy of which we have in draft form only, is not released to the general public in a final form. It notes that Historians and interested persons should treat the 1959 Official version with caution in relation to Sakakida's post-interrogation claims of connections with the Philippine Guerillas, radio messages to MacArthur, and the claims of involvement in the mass jail break.
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