Oral History Interview with Kenji Yanagiya, April 15, 1988 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Kenji Yanagiya, April 15, 1988

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Kenji Yanagiya. Yanagiya served as a warrant officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy and flew over 100 missions. He describes serving as a fighter escort for Admiral Yamamoto when the admiral’s plane was attacked. He observed the bomber carrying the admiral’s staff go down in the ocean and saw the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto go down into the jungle. Yanagiya also mentions seeing a P-38 trailing smoke. The interviewer states the P-38 was flown by Lieutenant Raymond Hine. Yanagiya tells of the Japanese flight commander reporting the incident to the commanding officer after the attack.
Date: April 15, 1988
Creator: Yanagiya, Kenji
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Clarence Mast, October 15, 1989 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Clarence Mast, October 15, 1989

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dr. Clarence Mast. Mast had finished medical school in 1942 before joining the Navy. While serving at Camp Sampson, he treated an outbreak of spinal meningitis. He was then attached as a medical officer to the 112th Naval Construction Battalion and went to Quoddy, Maine before going to Hawaii to serve as a surgeon at Kaneohe. His next station was at Tinian, where his unit built very long runways for B-29 bombers. he was aboard an LST during a typhoon at Okinawa. He was there when the war ended and was discharged the following April.
Date: October 15, 1989
Creator: Mast, Clarence S.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Kenji Yanagiya, April 15, 1988 transcript

Oral History Interview with Kenji Yanagiya, April 15, 1988

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Kenji Yanagiya. Yanagiya served as a warrant officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy and flew over 100 missions. He describes serving as a fighter escort for Admiral Yamamoto when the admiral’s plane was attacked. He observed the bomber carrying the admiral’s staff go down in the ocean and saw the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto go down into the jungle. Yanagiya also mentions seeing a P-38 trailing smoke. The interviewer states the P-38 was flown by Lieutenant Raymond Hine. Yanagiya tells of the Japanese flight commander reporting the incident to the commanding officer after the attack.
Date: April 15, 1988
Creator: Yanagiya, Kenji
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Clarence Mast, October 15, 1989 transcript

Oral History Interview with Clarence Mast, October 15, 1989

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dr. Clarence Mast. Mast had finished medical school in 1942 before joining the Navy. While serving at Camp Sampson, he treated an outbreak of spinal meningitis. He was then attached as a medical officer to the 112th Naval Construction Battalion and went to Quoddy, Maine before going to Hawaii to serve as a surgeon at Kaneohe. His next station was at Tinian, where his unit built very long runways for B-29 bombers. he was aboard an LST during a typhoon at Okinawa. He was there when the war ended and was discharged the following April.
Date: October 15, 1989
Creator: Mast, Clarence S.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Forrest Biard, August 15, 1984 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Forrest Biard, August 15, 1984

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Forrest Biard. Biard graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934. From 1939 through September 1941, he completed full immersion in Japanese language and culture training in Tokyo. Biard was a cryptologic linguist, serving in all three Navy codebreaking units during World War II. In September, Biard was stationed at Pearl Harbor as a senior linguist for Station HYPO, the codebreaking unit at Pearl Harbor where he served as a language officer until August 1943. From February to May 1942, he was assigned to USS Yorktown (CV-5) as the radio intelligence officer under Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. Biard’s translation and decryption work on JN-25 contributed to Allied efforts in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. From August to October 1943, he was sent to the codebreaking unit OP-20-G in Washington, also known as Station Negat. From November 1943 to April 1945, he was sent to the Station Cast codebreaking unit at Melbourne, Australia. While in Melbourne he deployed on several ships operating in the South Pacific. He worked in Melbourne to decrypt and translate captured Japanese Army code books for Douglas MacArthur, then used to accelerate the island-hopping …
Date: August 15, 1984
Creator: Biard, Forrest
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History