[104-10064-10012.pdf — page 15]
# SANKEI (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) Professor Ernest P. YOUNG of Dartmouth College in the U.S., consented to an interview with this reporter on the question of the four American seamen who deserted from 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, and meeting the four seamen in a room in an apartment house in Tokyo on the 9th and 10th, tried to persuade them to return. In regard to the present whereabouts of these four seamen, he made the noteworthy statement that "those four 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 activist in the U.S., asking him to "send someone to Japan to hear the stories of the 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 and other intellectuals in Japan. It was for these reasons that I was given this assignment. I personally have never participated actively in the Of anti-Vietnam war movement so far-- When did you arrive in. Japan, and where did you meet the four seamen?Professor: I arrived in Haneda on November 8, and met the four seamen on the 9th and the 10th... The place of interview was in an apartment house in Tokyo, but I cannot say at this time where that apartment house was and who owned it. However, on both days, I talked fully with these four seamen, for more than three hours on each occasion (according to an investigation made by the public security authorities, Professor YOUNG. arrived in Japan toward 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 four persons. 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 permitted to go ashore for rest for one week. My impression on meeting these four seamen was that they were definitely not deserting for the purpose of self-advertisement or that they were giving false reasons. I am convinced that 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 Intrepid was due to sail, the four went to Shinjuku, and told the people whom they met at a bar they happened to visit, that "we are fed up with war." The Japanese who heard them sympathized with them, and at one time, the four lived with some hippies (according to this paper's investigations; they include Mr. K., a student of Tokyo University's Liberal Arts Department, and vanguard artist A., who gather at Fugetsudo in Shinjuku.) Finally.