Page 105 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

RECORD OF INTERROGATION
OF THE WITNESS YAMAGISHI KENJI

October 21, 1949 City of Khabarovsk

I, Captain P i s a r e v, member of the staff of the Office of the Ministry for Internal Affairs
for the Khabarovsk Territory, interrogated as a witness, prisoner of war, formerly Lieutenant
in the Japanese Army, Yamagishi Kenji, born 1916, in the village of Zeigon, Niigata
Prefecture, of Japanese nationality, Japanese subject, higher education, graduate of the Tokyo
Institute of Foreign Languages.

I was warned of my liability to prosecution for giving false testimony under Art. 95 of the
Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R.

Signed: Yamagishi

Question: In what language do you wish to give your testimony?

Answer: I know Russian, I can read Russian and can write Russian, but I request that I be
interrogated in the presence of an interpreter, because I do not remember some Russian words
and it will therefore be difficult for me to express my thoughts.

Question: The interrogation will be conducted through interpreter Negorozhenko, Anatoli
Nikolayevich. Have you any objection?

Answer: No, I have not.

Interpreter Negorozhenko, A. N., was warned of his liability to prosecution for deliberately
false interpretation under Art. 95 of the Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R.

Signed: Negorozhenko

Question: Tell us briefly about your work. Answer: In social origin I come from the
peasantry; before entering the Tokyo Institute I-lived with my parents, worked on their farm
and at the same time attended high school. From 1935 to 1938 I lived in Tokyo, where I
graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages. In 1938, I was conscripted for the
Japanese Army and was sent to serve in Manchuria, to Muleng Station, in the 30th Infantry
Regiment, as a private; here I served until 1941. In the beginning of 1942 I was transferred to
the Harbin Japanese Military Mission. I was appointed Russian interpreter in the Special
Investigation Division. This was the name used by the J.M.M. for the Hogoin, which in
Russian means "Priyut" ("Refuge"), camp. In the Hogoin camp were confined Soviet citizens,
mostly servicemen who for various reasons had found themselves on Manchurian territory.

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