Henry J. Muller, Jr. born 7 April 1917 just one day after the US entered World War One. He was brought up on the Philadelphia Main Line [Annotator’s Note: informally delineated historical and social region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] to a prosperous family. His father had inherited a large brewery. In 1920, Prohibition [Annotator’s Note: United States – nationwide constitutional ban on production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages, 1920-1933] closed the brewery, followed by the Depression which pretty much did them in [Annotator’s Note: He laughs]. Muller was lucky and was still able to go to college. He graduated from UCLA [Annotator’s Note: University of California, Los Angeles] with a degree in petroleum geology. He was a second lieutenant in the US Army Reserve after having had ROTC at UCLA. The draft had not begun, but he was ordered to a year of active duty with the 1st Infantry Regiment, Fort Warren, Wyoming. Although ROTC [Annotator’s Note: Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] had taught basics about the Army it did not prepare one to actually command a company. He went for training at Fort Benning [Annotator’s Note: Fort Benning, Columbus, Georgia] that was very rigorous and from dusk to dawn for three months. From there he went to basic training at Camp Walters, Texas. The Army was building cantonment [Annotator’s Note: military garrison, or camp] areas all over the country then. By the time Muller left Infantry school, the draft had started. He was assigned to the 60th Training Battalion, Company A and had 200 recruits for 13 weeks. There was a company commander and three lieutenants – the lieutenants did all of the training, sometimes assisted by non-commissioned officers. After about 18 months, Muller decided he wanted to be in the paratroopers.

Henry Muller was a second lieutenant training new recruits shortly after the draft began. He was wondering what his career might be after serving for one enlistment in the US Army as it was clear he would be mobilized for some time as the war heated up in Europe. In 1941, the Army was short a number of officers. There was an 11-hour written exam for the reserve officers like Muller, to try and become a part of the regular Army. Muller was able to get a regular Army commission. Muller liked the Army and a career was appealing to him, so he was delighted. He applied for parachute troops. His first company commander had done so and his enthusiasm for it inspired Muller to follow suit. Muller was not quite prepared for the intensive training, but he made it through and got his wings. Muller was accepted to attend the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. After leaving there, Muller made a choice of career path that turned out to be very fortuitous for him – intelligence. He then attended specialized training in the G-2 slot [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position, -1 stands for personnel or manpower; -2 stands for intelligence and security] of a division or corps.

Major Henry Muller was the adjutant of the 511th Parachute Infantry, which became one of three regiments of the 11th Airborne Division. Shortly after, the G-2 [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position, -1 stands for personnel or manpower; -2 stands for intelligence and security] was injured in a parachute jump and had to leave the US Army. Despite being young, Muller was interviewed by the general. He was made the acting G-2. A few months later he was made permanent. He traveled through the Pacific Theater of Operations and at the end of the Luzon Campaign [Annotator’s Note: Battle of Luzon, 9 January – 15 August 1945, Philippines], he was called up to Eighth Army G-2 section to help plan for two major operations against Japan. The first was to establish some air bases on Kyushu island, Japan. The next was Honshu, Japan and was to dwarf Normandy. The Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth Armies were already in the Pacific Theater, and they were to be joined by the First Army. They intended to drop five airborne divisions on the first day. The surgeon general’s report expected the losses to be 300,000 American and three million Japanese casualties. Muller thought to himself that was three times the population of Nevada. The dropping of the atomic bombs made this necessary and Muller thinks it was worth it with regard to the potential losses. Once the Allies were able to see the Japanese defense plan after the war ended, they realized the initial estimates of 300,000 Americans lost was far too low. Muller was transferred from the 511th to the G-2 section of the Eighth Army and began the occupation of Japan after the surrender.

Henry Muller did a great deal of physical training to become a paratrooper. He says the US Army has been jogging ever since and that is when it first started. They would drop you from a 200- foot tower to learn how to land. Once you made five successful jumps you got your wings. It was a very difficult course, and many dropped out. He spent around three months in training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He joined as the adjutant for the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division at Fort Benning, Georgia. The 511th later moved to Camp Toccoa, Georgia, known for Currahee [Annotator’s Note: Currahee Mountain, Stephens County, Georgia; training site for the 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division stationed at Camp Toccoa, Georgia] and the 506th “Band of Brothers” [Annotator’s Note: 2001 war miniseries based on 1992 book of same name by Stephen E. Ambrose; chronicles history of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, US Army] who came after they did. Colonel Orin Haugen [Annotator’s Note: Colonel Orin Doughty Haugen, commander 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division, US Army] was the first man to go up Currahee and back. Haugen formed all of the officers up and had them all walk up and back. Haugen was killed at Nichols Field [Annotator’s Note: Nichols Field, 5th Air Force, Pasay, Luzon, Philippines] in Luzon by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. Muller was with the 11th Airborne Division at Camp Mackall, North Carolina when he learned he was going to the Pacific. He went to Camp Stoneman [Annotator’s Note: Pittsburg, California] and then to Dobadura, New Guinea. They did six-months of training there. Being a G-2 [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position, -1 stands for personnel or manpower; -2 stands for intelligence and security] in the South Pacific was very difficult in those days, especially compared to being in Europe. He realized later that was what the six months training was for. He also received an 11-man language team, interpreter-interrogator team, order of battle team who knew all about the Japanese organization. They also had a book from a captured lifeboat that contained all the Japanese officers and their assignments. They also had a photo-interpreter team. They had a counter-intelligence team that operated behind enemy lines in a manner similar to the modern Green Berets [Annotator’s Note: United States Army Special Forces]. They were mostly information gathering but they were used tactically later when liberating the prisoners at Los Baños [Annotator’s Note: Los Baños Internment Camp, Los Baños, Philippines].

Henry Muller was in Papua New Guinea undergoing intensive training. Shortly after arriving, Muller was concerned about being an intelligence officer in the Pacific Theater. General MacArthur’s G-2 [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position; -2 stands for intelligence and security], General Willoughby [Annotator’s Note: Major General Charles Andrew Willoughby, General MacArthur’s chief of intelligence], ordered Muller to headquarters in Brisbane, Australia for a briefing. He was there for a week to ten days. General Swing [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Joseph May Swing, commander 11th Airborne Division] did not know why he was asked to go down. Muller got to see the whole operation before having an exit interview with General Willoughby, who he says was a character. As Muller was leaving, Willoughby gave him an exercise of listening to him say something and then having Muller repeat it back to him word for word. Willoughby then gave him a code phrase and said that Muller could not question anything he received that used it. He passed the test and Willoughby gave him a two-way communications pad that he was to lock in a safe and not disclose where it came from. Muller returned to his unit that was fighting a tough battle with the Japanese 26th Division [Annotator’s Note: 26th Division, Dai-nijūroku Shidan, Imperial Japanese Army; call sign Spring Division, Izumi Heidan]. The 26th Division was completely destroyed there but at great cost to the Americans. The American 188th [Annotator’s Note: 188th Glider Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division, Sixth Army] was kept back from the battle to protect the airfield construction at Burauen, Leyte, Philippines. 6 December 1944, which was Pearl Harbor day in Japan, a wire came in from General Willoughby. Muller got his two-way pad and decoded the message. The message was that a Japanese parachute brigade from Lipa airfield, Luzon, Philippines was going to jump on the airstrips, 7 December at 1800 hours [Annotator’s Note: 6 o’clock p.m.], which was only 24 hours away. The only unit not battling in the mountains was the 188th and they were four to five miles away. Muller was trying to figure out how to tell General Swing this information without giving his source – he had been ordered to not tell. He made up a story and put in a report, but Swing saw through it and called him in to talk. Swing did not believe the information and wanted it removed. Muller knew he had to inform Swing as to the source, but only to him. Swing insisted that Colonel Schimmelpfennig [Annotator’s Note: Colonel Irvin Rudolph Schimmelpfennig, 11th Airborne Division, Headquarters], chief of staff, be permitted to stay. Muller resisted and the Colonel left on his own. Muller weighed not revealing the source against possibly losing a lot of men. Swing did not like Willoughby to begin with, and ordered Muller to remove the information anyway. Swing received similar intelligence later that night and then became alarmed. Muller was nervous about his credibility when the time arrived. The Japanese paratroopers did come in. Muller emptied a clip from his .45 [Annotator’s Note: Automatic Pistol, Caliber. 45, M1911; semi-automatic pistol; standard-issue sidearm United States Armed Forces, 1911-1986] at one landing nearby and then went into headquarters to start sending messages. The Japanese assault was largely unsuccessful and Muller and General Swing did not talk about the intelligence as it was in both of their professional interests to keep it between themselves. Muller takes consolation in the fact that Yamashita [Annotator’s Note: Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, Imperial Japanese Army; known as The Tiger of Malaya], who was the head of the Japanese Army in the Philippines also did not realize he did not have the means for a proper attack. The Japanese were planning a two-pronged attack over two days, but weather stopped the second part [Annotator’s Note: The first raid was the one that failed at Tacloban and Dulag airfields; the raid on the second day was the one that landed troops at Burauen]. The Americans did clean up Japanese stragglers over the next few weeks. Muller wondered how the information had been gathered to begin with and thought there must be a spy in Japanese headquarters. Only after the war ended did he discover that the Americans had broken the Japanese code.

Henry Muller was G-2 [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position; -2 stands for intelligence and security] in the 11th Airborne Division. They landed on Leyte, Philippines from New Guinea as reinforcements. Once the Japanese realized what was going on, General Yamashita [Annotator’s Note: Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, Imperial Japanese Army; known as The Tiger of Malaya] started bringing everything he could into the area, as did General MacArthur [Annotator’s Note: General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. A terrible typhoon hit as they arrived, which slowed everything down. After the storm passed, the unit was ordered inland to protect two airstrips that were to be used for the campaign against Luzon, Philippines. As they settled in, a message came in labeled as B-2 – probably true and from a reliable source – that the 26th Japanese Division [Annotator’s Note: 26th Division, Dai-nijūroku Shidan, Imperial Japanese Army; call sign Spring Division, Izumi Heidan] was landing on the other side of the mountains from them. General Swing [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Joseph May Swing, commander 11th Airborne Division] agreed with Muller that it was correct even though it made no sense. They sent out reconnaissance patrols and gathered information regarding trails or roads going through the mountains who said it would be impossible. They also captured a Japanese map that said the same. Muller went up in a spotter plane and saw that it was true that the Japanese had landed. A Japanese aircraft streaked by right in front of them. Muller’s pilot dropped straight down into the valley and was able to evade the Japanese craft. Muller knew they had to identify what division this was. He told Colonel Haugen [Annotator’s Note: Colonel Orin Doughty Haugen, commander 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division, US Army] to try and get prisoners. They captured some pilot documents which had some Japanese paybooks that were for the 13th Regiment of the 26th Division so they knew the intelligence had been correct. It turned into a terrible battle under the worst possible conditions, but the 26th Division was completely destroyed. Afterwards the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division, was taken to Mindoro, Philippines.

[Interviewer asks about the planning of the operation at Los Baños Internment Camp, Los Baños, Philippines] Henry Muller says that nobody had planned an operation on Los Baños, as it was not in anyone’s area. The Leyte operation [Annotator’s Note: Battle of Leyte, 17 October – 26 December 1944, invasion of Leyte, Philippines by Americans and Filipino guerillas] had ended around Christmas 1944. The 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division was not to take part in the campaign for Luzon [Annotator’s Note: Battle of Luzon, 9 January – 15 August 1945, Philippines]. Generals Swing Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Joseph May Swing, commander 11th Airborne Division, Sixth Army] and Eichelberger [Annotator’s Note: General Robert Lawrence Eichelberger, commander Eighth US Army] put pressure on MacArthur [Annotator’s Note: General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] to use them by sending them in south of Manila, Philippines to hold high ground. General Kreuger [Annotator’s Note: General Walter Kreuger, commander Sixth US Army in the Pacific; rose from private to general rank] was coming down into Manila from the north and could not see having 11th Airborne Division in the south. Eichelberger did not like the airborne divisions. A Filipino plantation owner from Mindanao was getting some medications in Manila for his wife. In Leyte, he told some soldiers he had information and was taken to Muller for questioning. He told Muller of the prison camp and conditions at Los Baños. Muller wanted to be part of liberating that camp. He sent his report to headquarters. Eichelberger had prevailed with getting the 11th Airborne Division assigned to his Eighth Army. They were ordered to go in at Tagaytay Ridge, near Manila and hold the high ground. They were ordered not to leave the ridge and to not take part in the attack on Manila. The 511th landed on the ridge and the rest of the division went to Nasugbu near Manila Bay. They fought their way up the hill to join the 511th with only light fighting. Reconnaissance troops were sent down the only road to Manila and reported the road clear. Muller reported it to General Swing, who told General Eichelberger, who then asked MacArthur for permission to attack Manila. MacArthur said to go, which dismayed Muller. General Yamashita [Annotator’s Note: Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita, Imperial Japanese Army; known as The Tiger of Malaya] had already ordered the evacuation of Manila, declaring it a free city and the Japanese moved east into the mountains. The Japanese naval commander, Admiral Iwabuchi [Annotator’s Note: Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, Imperial Japanese Navy], opposed Yamashita and decided not to evacuate the city of naval personnel. There was a big naval port there. He formed a Butai [Annotator’s Note: Japanese for “mobile force”] out of the sailors to fight like infantrymen. They fought hard and used anti-aircraft guns as artillery. Muller had to wire Sixth Army to get maps to them of the area for battle plans.

Henry Muller and the 11th Airborne Division, Eighth US Army, were attacking Manila, Philippines. The Japanese had created a defensive position called the Genko Line [Annotator’s Note: Japanese defensive array of hardened blockhouses, pillboxes, and tunnels] that stretched from Manila Bay to Nichols Field. The 11th only had light artillery – 75 [Annotator’s Note: 75mm Pack Howitzer M1; designed for difficult terrain] and 105 [Annotator’s Note: 105mm M101A1 howitzer; standard light field howitzer] howitzers – that would just bounce off the hardened structures. General Swing [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Joseph May Swing, commander 11th Airborne Division] was nearly killed crossing a bridge. Infantrymen had to do the fighting – largely with grenades and flamethrowers. Getting through the Line cost them a third of the division but they did reach Nichols Field [Annotator’s Note: Nichols Field, 5th Air Force, Pasay, Luzon, Philippines]. Los Baños [Annotator’s Note: Los Baños Internment Camp, Los Baños, Philippines] was not in their area as it was located at Lake Taal, Philippines. Muller was gathering intelligence on the camp there. 11 February 1945, Manila was nearly cleared and MacArthur [Annotator’s Note: General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] flew down in a light plane. He met with General Swing. The US forces had just liberated Cabanatuan [Annotator’s Note: Raid at Cabanatuan, also called The Great Raid; rescue of Allied prisoners of war and civilians from a camp near Cabanatuan City, Philippines, 30 January 1945] and MacArthur was shocked by the prisoner’s condition. Santo Tomas [Annotator’s Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines] was nearby and had more prisoners still. Colonel Hack Conner [Annotator’s Note: Colonel Haskett Lynch Conner, Jr., Commander 2nd Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division] was commanding a squadron of First Cavalry Division and MacArthur and told him to go to Santo Tomas. Conner did so and liberated Santo Tomas, as well as Bilibid Prison [Annotator’s Note: Old Bilibid and New Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa, Philippines]. MacArthur said then that Los Baños had to be helped. He met with General Swing and told him to liberate it. Muller had the intelligence they needed. They got more when some prisoners escaped and told them when the Japanese guards did their daily calisthenics with no rifles or helmets. Muller planned a parachute drop using about 100 Filipino guerillas. The guerrillas came in through the jungle at night and took up positions. The guerillas and the reconnaissance platoon opened fire on the Japanese doing exercises when the first parachute opened. About 180 men of B Company, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and helped finish what was left of the Japanese. The 511th Infantry Battalion came in with 52 amphibious tractors – each could hold 30 people. It took two loads to evacuate the camp. A diversionary force was sent to keep the Japanese troops nearby from attacking. The Japanese General said later that the noise of the amphibious tractors had made them think the Americans were attacking with tanks, which made him decide to stay in the mountains. Muller had been worried the noise of the tractors would have alerted the Japanese to the operation.

Henry Muller was with the 11th Airborne Division, Eighth US Army, that liberated the Japanese internment camp at Los Baños, Philippines. He helped devise the military operation. The 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division, landed at the camp where Filipino guerrilla fighters were waiting to assault the Japanese. The 511th lost no troops in the operation. The diversionary force that had been sent down to confront any Japanese that might try to counter-attack did lose three soldiers. The operation freed 2,700 civilians without harm. As the G-2 of the unit [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position; -2 stands for intelligence and security], Muller did not take part in the jump. He was responsible for gathering intelligence and keeping track of how the operation was going. He needed to know if General Fujishige [Annotator’s Note: Major General Masatoshi Fujishige, Japanese Imperial Army] was moving or if Japanese troops were coming into the area. He had night observation planes up during the operation. Some P-61s [Annotator’s Note: Northrop P-61 Black Widow; first operational night fighter] did report a truck convoy but could not assess where they were headed. Muller just had to sweat it out. Once he learned that everyone had made it out of the camp, Muller was elated and tired. The camp was 30 miles into the Japanese lines, and they could have opened fire on their prisoners at any time - they would have given the opportunity. The surprise had to be instant which it was. Pete Miles, a civilian engineer who had escaped and given crucial information to Muller’s team, made it possible for both the element of surprise and the destruction of the Japanese rifle supply. An enemy lieutenant sitting a desk jumped out of a window when the Americans were coming up the stairs. He was shot before he hit the ground. The camp commander escaped over the fence but was killed in later fighting.

Henry Muller says that the XXIV Corp, Sixth US Army took over Bilibid prison [Annotator’s Note: Old Bilibid and New Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa, Philippines], cleaned it up, and made a place for the freed prisoners of the Los Baños Japanese internment camp, Philippines. The 11th Airborne Division then moved on, but Muller stayed in contact with several of the freed prisoners over the years. He feels that everything that had to go right in the mission – and right on time – did. Murphy’s Law did not work in this case. Everything about the operation was incredible from liftoff of the aircraft to the coordination of the ground attack’s timing. The 675th Amphibious Tractor Battalion [Annotator’s Note: actually 672nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion, 37th Infantry Division, XIV Corps, Sixth US Army] was used to transport the prisoners. They had to go 12 miles in the dark of night with a handheld compass and hit the exact point to be able to extract the freed prisoners. All of it happened within a few seconds of the planned time. The prisoners themselves did not understand it was a hit and run mission and to be hurried onto the tractors. The B Company commander [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant John Ringler, B Company, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] ordered the barracks be set on fire and that got them all moving. The original idea was to have the paratroopers then join a diversionary force that was part of the operation. That was decided against as they were exhausted and did not have the strength to counter the Japanese 8th Division [Annotator’s Note: infantry division of Imperial Japanese Army] under General Fujishige [Annotator’s Note: Major General Masatoshi Fujishige, Japanese Imperial Army] if he decided to move against them.

After liberating the Los Baños Japanese internment camp, Philippines, Henry Muller and the 11th Airborne Division went into a rest and recuperation camp at Lipa, Philippines. They had lost about a third of their strength in their previous battles. They then were sent to be the first troops of the occupation of Japan. Later, an honor guard from the Division were the first Americans to accompany MacArthur into Yokohama, Japan. Henry Muller, G-2 of the unit [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position; -2 stands for intelligence and security], had been detached from them and remained with the Eighth US Army. After the atomic bombs were dropped, he became the acting G-2 of the occupation force for the first two weeks. There was not really any work to do as the Japanese had surrendered as hard as they had fought. They did not violate the treaty. Muller stayed in that position which he felt was a great job, as he got to travel all over Japan. Muller had visited a friend in the 37th Division, XIV Corps, Sixth US Army, of General Beightler [Annotator’s Note: Major General Robert Sprague Beightler, commander 37th Infantry Division; only National Guard general to command a division for entire war] - north of Baguio in the Paret River valley, Luzon, Philippines, where a Japanese regiment had retreated into the mountains before the surrender. The friend had gotten his ration of two cans of beer, so Muller and he were enjoying the beer when a soldier ran in to tell them that the Japanese had sued for surrender. They went over and told General Beightler who instructed them to pass the word along. Muller could see the progress the information was getting as tracer bullets would immediately go up into the air. He laughs thinking about what the Japanese in the area must have thought at the time.

Henry Muller was the G-2 [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position; -2 stands for intelligence and security] for the advance party into Japan after their surrender. Army headquarters set up an advance party to get things set up. He got held up on Okinawa, Japan for two days due to resistance. There were three Japanese princes who were very popular. They convinced the leaders of Japan’s military that the emperor really did want the surrender. A lot of construction was going on at Okinawa. Muller flew to Atsugi field [Annotator’s Note: now Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan; largest United States Navy air base in the Pacific] where there was absolutely no activity going on. He went to the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan – Eighth Army headquarters. MacArthur [Annotator’s Note: General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] was to be first into Yokohama itself with an honor guard from the 11th Airborne Division. General Swing [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Joseph May Swing, commander 11th Airborne Division] arrived and was told by a Japanese General that he was the commanding general of Atsugi air base and Swing told him to just stay out of his way. The Japanese general assured Swing that he had 30,000 Japanese troops to help keep the reluctant sailors of the kamikaze units in order. General Eichelberger [Annotator’s Note: General Robert Lawrence Eichelberger, commander Eighth US Army] came in and was informed of this by Swing. Eichelberger wired MacArthur and advised he delay his arrival. MacArthur refused to not give the appearance that some heroic kamikaze pilots had scared away the great general. MacArthur arrived on time and looked and acted the part of a great captain of history [Annotator’s Note: 30 August 1945]. The national anthem was played, and the American flag was hoisted over the base [Annotator’s Note: Muller’s voice cracks as he says there was not a dry eye in the house]. For Muller, that was the day and the place when the war ended.

Henry Muller was present for the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur at Atsugi field, Japan, 30 August 1945. The Japanese had gathered what vehicles they could manage, and MacArthur departed with an honor guard from the 11th Airborne Division, Sixth US Army. Muller departed about 10 minutes later. As they approached Yokohama, Japan, Muller was surprised at the extent of the damage the Allied bombing had caused. There were no houses and the factories were just twisted steel. As they came over the bridge into Yokohama, there were 10,000 Japanese trying to get on trains to flee the Americans. As the motorcade passed through them, they all turned their backs on the Americans. The Japanese interpreter kept saying that they were just being polite [Annotator’s Note: Muller laughs]. As they were setting up their operation, Muller realized that being the G-2 [Annotator’s Note: Military designation; G means general staff position; -2 stands for intelligence and security] for enemy combat intelligence, they had put themselves out of a job – no more combat, no more enemy. There were no incidents and no violations of the treaty - the Japanese surrendered as hard as they fought. General MacArthur had ordered that General Wainwright [Annotator’s Note: General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV] and General Percival [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Arthur Ernest Percival, British Army] come to Yokohama to be present at the signing of the treaty. Muller went down to the lobby as the two generals arrived. They were pretty old and frail – Wainwright was called Skinny Wainwright and Percival looked starved to Muller. Muller felt lucky to be standing right where the two generals met MacArthur on the stairs. MacArthur gave Wainwright his set of four-stars – promoting him to four-star general [Annotator’s Note: Wainwright would officially be promoted on 5 September 1945]. Part of the significance was that while he had been held prisoner by the Japanese, they had told Wainwright that the American military and population considered him a disgrace. Wainwright had come to believe it.

2 September 1945 was the official surrender on the USS Missouri. Muller had gone over to watch the Japanese go aboard when a Military Policeman told him he was not allowed. The MP then recognized him and told him he could come onto the pier regardless. Muller went up to get a good view and saw the Japanese delegation arrive. Muller said they were very melancholy. This was the first time in history that Japan had been occupied. 3 September, MacArthur Annotator’s Note: General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] gave the first order to pick up the first ten people on blacklist – the list of suspected war criminals. The first was Hideki Tojo [Annotator’s Note: Tōjō, Hideki, 1884-1948; Prime Minister of Japan; attempted suicide while being arrested, 11 September 1945; found guilty of war crimes 12 November 1948; executed 23 December 1948], followed by General Homma [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, Imperial Japanese Army; found guilty and executed by firing squad 3 April 1946 for his role in Bataan Death March]. The 441st CIC detachment was attached to Muller’s G-2 section. Muller recognized most on the list – one name stood out though, Iva D’Aquino, known as Tokyo Rose [Annotator’s Note: nickname for all female, English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda during World War Two]. Muller questioned why she was lumped in with the others and was told they wanted to find out how she knew some of the information she released. It turned out to have come through the Portuguese Embassy. The war criminals were taken to Sugamo Prison, Tokyo, Japan, to be tried. Tokyo Rose was brought to headquarters to show her off. She said she knew Muller was from UCLA [Annotator’s Note: University of California, Los Angeles]. He asked her if she was Iva Toguri and she said it was a mistake, but she was Tokyo Rose. She had been a classmate of Muller’s at UCLA. She had accepted Portuguese citizenship which made her not guilty of treason against the United States. She was tried on some lesser charge back in the US and spent a short time in prison. She ultimately ran a cleaning establishment in Chicago before she died [Annotator’s Note: Iva Ikuko Toguri D’Aquino; American broadcaster of Japanese propaganda during World War Two; called herself Orphan Ann, nicknamed Tokyo Rose; found guilty of treason 29 September 1949 sentenced to ten years in prison – served six years; granted full and unconditional pardon by President Gerald Ford, 1977, and restored to US Citizen; received Edward J. Herlihy Citizenship Award, 15 January 2006; died 26 September 2006]. Muller feels that the occupation of Japan was probably a model occupation for all times – it was so smooth. Muller thought he would return to a 25-year career in a peacetime Army which did not turn out to be true [Annotator’s Note: he laughs. Muller would serve as assistant division commander of the 101st Airborne Division as well as deputy senior advisor to Vietnamese I Corps commander, Lieutenant General Lam, during the Vietnam War. He was also a US diplomat to El Salvador, Panama, and Argentina].