Leslie B. Mason, Junior was born in 1926 in Montevideo, Minnesota. He did not stay there long. His father worked as a coach and athletic director in Anoka, Minnesota. Mason grew up and went to school there. His mother went to MacPhail School of Music [Annotator's Note: now the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota] after she left high school. She sang in the Brownie Trio and traveled around by railroad to do that. He had a cousin there who grew up to be a mail dispatcher. Mason graduated from high school on D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He decided to join the Navy but was partially colorblind and could not get in. He went to work for the Twin Cities ordnance plant in New Brighton [Annotator's Note: Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Ramsey County, Minnesota]. He delivered .50 caliber shells [Annotator's Note: ammunition for Browning M2 .50 caliber machine guns]. He was drafted in January 1945. He went to Fort Snelling [Annotator's Note: in Hennepin County, Minnesota]. He had wanted to get in the Navy because the war was going strong, and some friends had already joined. He enjoyed swimming and wanted to see the ocean. Mason drove an electric truck in the ordnance plant. He did that until he was drafted on 17 January 1945. His first day at Fort Snelling, he was made CQ, or Charge of Quarters [Annotator's Note: an enlisted man designated to handle administrative matters in a unit especially after duty hours]. He had to keep the stoves burning at night. He then moved to Jefferson Barracks [Annotator's Note: Jefferson Barracks Military Post in Lemay, Missouri] and got his uniforms. They decided he was a good fit for field artillery and went to Fort Sill [Annotator's Note: in Lawton, Oklahoma]. His buddies went to Fort Hood [Annotator's Note: in Killeen, Texas]. He was in fire direction control for field artillery in basic training. Around May [Annotator's Note: May 1945], he got a delay en route [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] back home.

Basic training was not too bad for Leslie B. Mason, Junior. His dad was an athletic director, so he was used to doing exercises. He had to go under barbed wire while .50 caliber shells [Annotator's Note: ammunition for Browning M2 .50 caliber machine guns] were shooting over his head to get used to being under fire. He went home for a little while and then to Fort Sill [Annotator's Note: in Lawton, Oklahoma]. He was shipped from there to Fort Ord [Annotator's Note: now Fort Ord National Monument in Monterey Bay, California] where he had training in using bayonets and in combat for a couple of weeks. While there, he was told to be careful of poison oak [Annotator's Note: climbing shrub related to poison ivy], but he got into it. He was shipped to Port Anza [Annotator's Note: Anza, California] and went overseas. He got seasick with poison ivy on his legs. He was on a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] with 29 others on 14 July 1945. They went near Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and were pushing to the Philippines when the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] was dropped. That saved his life because they were going to invade Japan. His mother asked him if he heard the noise of the bomb. Mason landed in Samar [Annotator's Note: Samar, Philippines] and then boarded an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] for about a week where it was about 120 degrees temperature. They boarded another LST to Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines] and Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] where they rode around in six-by-six trucks [Annotator's Note: two and a half ton, six by six truck, also known as deuce and a half]. They were just replacements with no assignments. He went up to Baguio [Annotator's Note: Baguio, Luzon, Philippines] where Mason went into the 33rd Infantry Division, 6th Army, under General Krueger [Annotator's Note: US Army General Walter Kreuger]. They were getting ready to invade Japan and then Japan surrendered. They went from the Lingayen Gulf [Annotator's Note: Lingayen Gulf, Philippines] and were in the Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] typhoon. He got seasick again on the Barnstable APA [Annotator's Note: USS Barnstable (APA-93)]. They landed and got on Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] to go on the beach. There was not a soul there in Takayama [Annotator's Note: Takayama, Japan], near Osaka [Annotator's Note: Osaka, Japan]. They walked to Otsu [Annotator's Note: Ōtsu, Japan] for guard duty. He then went near Kyoto [Annotator's Note: Kyōto, Japan]. Most of the guys went home on the point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. Mason then went to Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan] for an aircraft artillery outfit for a week or two. From there he went to Sugamo Prison [Annotator's Note: In Tokyo, Japan] where they had Tojo [Annotator's Note: Hideki Tōjō; former Imperial Japanese Army General and prime minister of Japan] and Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname for all female, English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda during World War 2] and became an MP [Annotator's Note: military police] and guard. He eventually became a jailer. He was only at Baguio for a little while. It rained every evening. They played volleyball for entertainment. They were there to prepare to invade Japan when Japan surrendered. They then boarded a ship to Japan. They would watch movies at night. One night a sniper shot and killed someone. They did patrols in the Philippines. That was the closest he had to combat. There were snipers and they were not safe anywhere. The Filipinos were a very controlled people. At 18, he knew he could be going to his death and was prepared.

Leslie B. Mason, Junior was on MP [Annotator's Note: military police] duty for a while and then became a jailer [Annotator's Note: at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan]. He had to serve them [Annotator's Note: the prisoners] food. They ate a lot of rice, seaweed, and octopus. He had to get them in to get baths and shave. Mason was tall and thinks that was why he got picked to be a jailer. He had to guard them in the showers and watch them carefully so that they did not commit suicide while shaving. Mason then became a clerk typist where Tojo [Annotator's Note: Hideki Tōjō; former Imperial Japanese Army General and prime minister of Japan] and the different war criminals were housed. He could look out the window and watch Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname for all female, English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda during World War 2] combing her long hair. He saw Tojo and got his autograph on a ten yen note [Annotator's Note: Japanese money]. Mason was a clerk typist until he got out of the service. In September [Annotator's Note: September 1946], his number was up, and he went to Zama [Annotator's Note: Zama, Japan] near Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan]. He boarded the Wheaton Victory APA [Annotator's Note: SS Wheaton Victory] and went to Fort Lawton near Seattle [Annotator's Note: now part of Fort Lawton Historic District in Seattle, Washington]. He took a train to his parent's house in Park Rapids, Minnesota. While in Japan, he went to the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization], rode bicycles, and played table tennis. He got "whomped" by the Japanese who said he was pretty good. Mason was only in the service for a little under two years. He was discharged at Fort Sheridan, Illinois [Annotator's Note: in Lake Forest, Illinois].

Leslie B. Mason, Junior did morning reports and accounts of the prisoners [Annotator's Note: at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan]. He also typed letters. Colonel Bob Hardy [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Robert M. Hardy] was over the prison. Mason interacted between the Provost Sergeant and him. Mason would have been promoted if he had stayed, but he did not want to stay. A little bit later, the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] started, and he would have been in that. The prisoners were pretty good people. Mason played the harmonica at night sometimes as torture. [Annotator's Note: Mason laughs.] He would go to parks and see the cherry blossoms. He took streetcars into Tokyo and went to the Ernie Pyle Theater [Annotator's Note: Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, renamed Ernie Pyle Theater, after Ernest Taylor Pyle, American journalist and war correspondent, from 1945 to 1955, in Tokyo, Japan]. He went to the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization], and he took rickshaw rides. The Japanese were very docile, and he had no problems. They could only take their trench knives [Annotator's Note: M3 fighting knife or M3 trench knife], not their guns, when they traveled. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Mason to describe the layout of Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.] There were three levels of prisoners. Tojo [Annotator's Note: Hideki Tōjō; former Imperial Japanese Army General and prime minister of Japan] had his own big cell. He would meditate and would do artwork. Mason got out in 1946, and Tojo was not hung until December 1948 with about seven major criminals. Mason did not tour the prison. He did see where the hangings were done. He talked with the prisoners as much as he could understand. He had an interpreter if there was a need. He knew a lot of the prisoners were good artists. He has some of them still. They were generals and admirals. Other communication was just about their food or showering. He would ask them to draw him a picture. One was of Ann Sheridan [Annotator's Note: Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan, American actor and singer]. He did not talk to them about their family lives or anything, nor about the war. He learned a few words in Japanese and read some Japanese letters. Just basic stuff like how to count to ten. The interpreters taught him. Some lady dancers would come into the Sugamo Club, and they would teach him some things. The Sugamo Club was a little place to have a beer and cigarettes. It was just a place to get away like you see on MASH [Annotator's Note: American war comedy-drama, 1972 to 1983]. Mason watched the prisoners get on and off of the bus to go and come from the trials. He did get a few signatures [Annotator's Note: autographs]. He only saw Tojo one time but did not talk to him.

[Annotator's Note: Leslie B. Mason, Junior served in the Army as a guard at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan prior to the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.] Putting the high-ranking Japanese on trial was the name of the game [Annotator's Note: at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan]. There were atrocities that they had to pay the bill for. Mason saw pictures of their hangings in the newspapers [Annotator's Note: after the war]. He had seen the gallows, but it was two years after he got out of the service. He was in school at the time of the hangings and did not think about it too much at the time. He kept some of the newspapers. He did not react too much to it. They did not want anyone to know where he was cremated and buried at sea. He did not know them personally; they were just prisoners. They were found guilty of crimes and that was it. He heard they tore the Sugamo Prison down in 1972. He was never anxious to go back to Japan. He got out in 1946 and got married in 1955 at age 29. He read about the atrocities and thought they were terrible. At 19 or 20, you do not think too much about it. He was not too sensitive about it. He did not know about the Bataan Death March [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war in April 1942]. His wife's half-brother was on Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Corregidor Island, Luzon, Philippines] when General Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, IV] surrendered. They were taken in hell ships [Annotator's Note: unmarked Japanese ships used to transport Allied prisoners of war to and from Japan under hellish conditions] to Japan. He was glad to get out of Japan.

Leslie B. Mason, Junior was told he could stay in the Army, but he had no desire. He got home in September [Annotator's Note: September 1946] and was discharged in November 1946. He was only in the service a short time. The atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] saved his life. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to go to school at Saint Olaf [Annotator's Note: Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota] where he majored in economics. His junior year, he went to the Surf Ballroom [Annotator's Note: in Clear Lake, Iowa] where Buddy Holly [Annotator's Note: Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley, American singer-songwriter] played with a couple of girls. Mason had an old Ford [Annotator's Note: automobile], and something went wrong. They did not get back until morning and he was called before the Dean of Men. He did not go back his senior year. He took a job and became a painter in Rochester, Minnesota. He then became a sheetrock finisher. He graduated a three-year apprenticeship. He got married at the Little Brown Church in the Vale [Annotator's Note: in Nashua, Iowa]. He and his brother married gals from Minnesota. Mason's most memorable experience of World War 2 is getting out of Japan. He served because he was drafted. He stayed for Christmas 1944 when he got out of school. January 1945 he was drafted into Fort Snelling [Annotator's Note: in Hennepin County, Minnesota]. He got nice benefits from his service, like the G.I. Bill. Being a veteran is great. He appreciates being thanked for his service. He thinks it is important to teach World War 2 because a lot of people have probably never heard of Tojo [Annotator's Note: Hideki Tōjō; former Imperial Japanese Army General and prime minister of Japan] or Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname for all female, English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda during World War 2]. They know about the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] but that is about it. Mason had heard of Tokyo Rose before he got to the prison. He saw her from a distance combing her hair in the courtyard. He did not holler at her or anything. For an 18 or 19 year old kid, that was enough. He played basketball and swimming at Saint Olaf. His dad was an athletic director but died at 66 years old of a heart attack. Mason wound up in Rochester, Minnesota and was asked what he did [Annotator's Note: in the service]. He told them he was brain surgeon and got thrown out because he was changing everybody's minds, Republicans to Democrats and Democrats to Republicans.