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# 14-00000SANKEI (Full)November 21, 1967Prof. YOUNG Says Four American Deserter Seamen Not in Japan Any MoreWent to Tokyo and Tried to Dissuade Them;Probably Escaped from Japan on the 12th or the 13th(New York, November 20, Correspondent Tadashi ONODERA) ProfessorErnest P. YOUNG of Dartmouth College in the U.S., consented to an interviewwith this reporter on the question of the four American seamen who desertedfrom the U.S. aircraft carrier Intrepid. At the interview held on the 19th,Professor YOUNG clarified that the Peace for Vietnam Association (Beheiren,with Makoto ODA acting as its representative) contacted an anti-war organiza-tion in the U.S., and at this, Professor YOUNG hurriedly visited Tokyo, andmeeting the four seamen in a room in an apartment house in Tokyo on the 9thrand 10th, tried to persuade them to return. In regard to the pres ent where-abouts of these four seamen, he made the noteworthy statement that "thosefour were still in Japan, up until the night of the 11th, when I left Japan,but they are probably no longer in Japan now."Families PerplexedThe questions and answers exchanged with Professor YOUNG are as follows:-- Why did you go to Japan?Professor: Beheiren contacted David DERKINGER, a pacifist activistin the U.S., asking him to "send someone to Japan to hear the stories ofthe four seamen and announce them in the U.S." I have been in Japan twice,and I also once served as special assistant to Ambassador REISCHAUER.During that time, I became friends with Beheiren representative ODA' andother intellectuals in Japan. It was for these reasons that I was giventhis assignment. I personally have never participated actively in theanti-Vietnam war movement so far.-- When did you arrive in Japan, and where did you meet the fourseamen?Professor: I arrived in Haneda on November 8, and met the four seamenon the 9th and the 10th. The place of interview was in an apartment housein Tokyo, but I cannot say at this time where that apartment house was andwho owned it. However, on both days, I talked fully with these four seamen,for more than three hours on each occasion (according to an investigationmade by the public security authorities, Professor YOUNG arrived in Japantoward the evening of the 8th, and stayed at Hotel Tanakanwa in Shiba,Minato-ku, until the morning of the 11th).-- What were the motives for these four seamen's desertion?Professor: The desertion was completely the decision of these fourpersons. It seems that the four seamen decided not to return to the ship,when the Intrepid entered Yokosuka Port on October 17, and they were per-mitted to go ashore for rest for one week. My impression on meeting thesefour seamen was that they were definitely not deserting for the purpose ofself-advertisement or that they were giving false reasons. I am convincedthat they deserted really out of doubt about the Vietnam war.-- What were the movements of the four after they deserted?Professor: On the night of the 23rd, two days before the Intrepidwas due to sail, the four went to Shinjuku, and told the people whom theymet at a bar they happened to visit, that "we are fed up with war." TheJapanese who heard them sympathized with them, and at one time, the fourlived with some hippies (according to this paper's investigations; theyinclude Mr. K., a student of Tokyo University's Liberal Arts Department,and vanguard artist A., who gather at Fugetsudo in Shinjuku.) Finally,