INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1001', 'Aka', 'Raymond Y.', '1916-12-13', ' Wailuku, Maui, HI ', '1941-10-8', '1947-5-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1002', 'Akune', 'Harry Masami', '1920-5-20', 'Turlock, CA', '1942-12-0', '1946-1-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1003', 'Akune', 'Kenjiro', '1923-7-3', ' Turlock, CA ', '--', '1945-12-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1004', 'Ariyasu', 'Masaru Jimmy', '1941-6-0', '', '1940-0-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1005', 'Baerwald', 'Hans H.', '1927-6-18', ' Tokyo, Japan ', '1945-9-10', '1949-1-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1006', 'Burden', 'Alfred John', '1900-11-14', 'Tokyo, Japan', '--', '1945-0-0', '
Purple Heart, the Order of Three White Doves ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1007', 'Dirks', 'Dempster', '--', '', '1941-0-0', '1946-0-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1008', 'Fudenna', 'Harold', '1918-4-3', ' Centerville, CA ', '1941-3-0', '1946-1-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1009', 'Furuiye', 'Nobuo', '1918-4-21', 'Lafayette, CO', '1942-1-12', '1945-12-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1010', 'Hamano', 'Shunji', '1913-6-0', 'Los Angeles, CA', '1941-6-0', '1945-11-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1011', 'Hamasaki', 'Charlie Hideyoshi', '1917-8-5', ' Los Altos, CA ', '--', '1945-0-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1012', 'Hara', 'Minoru Robert', '1922-10-24', ' Terminal Island, CA ', '1942-11-21', '--', '
Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster; Asiatic-Pacific Medal; Bronze Service Stars; many other medals/honors ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1013', 'Harada', 'Raymond Kosaku', '1918-5-1', ' Honolulu, HI ', '1941-0-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1014', 'Hayashi', 'Richard Kaoru', '1919-0-0', ' MacDonald Island, CA ', '1941-6-4', '63-1-31', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1015', 'Hayashida', 'Tetsuo', '1917-7-31', 'Berkeley, CA', '1944-4-7', '1946-0-0', '
Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1016', 'Hazard', 'Benjamin H.', '1919-10-25', 'South Lancaster, MA', '1942-12-15', '1946-7-29', '
Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster; Asiatic Pacific Medal; Philippine Liberation Medal ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1017', 'Higa', 'Takejiro', '1923-4-0', 'Waipahu, HI', '1943-7-0', '1946-1-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1018', 'Hirabayashi', 'Grant Jiro', '1919-11-9', 'Kent, WA', '1941-12-10', '1949??-0-0', '
Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster; various service medals ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1019', 'Hirashima', 'William', '1916-3-20', 'Summerland, CA', '1941-2-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1020', 'Iwai', 'Gero', '1905-11-3', 'Honolulu, HI', '1931-8-19', '1957-6-30', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1021', 'Kanemoto', 'Wayne Masao', '1918-3-9', 'San Jose, CA', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1022', 'Komori', 'Arthur', '1915-0-0', 'Lihue, HI', '1941-3-0', '1952-0-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1023', 'Koshi', 'George M.', '1911-6-16', 'Greeley, CO', '1942-3-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1024', 'Kozono', 'Ard Aven Kiyoshi', '1916-5-12', 'Yolo, CA', '1944-0-0', '1946-8-6', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1025', 'Kubo', 'Hoichi Bob', '1919-7-21', 'Puukoli, Maui, HI', '1941-6-30', '1945-11-30', '
Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster; Combat Infantryman's Badge; Good Conduct Medal; American Campaign Medal; American Defense Service Medal; plus 3 more medals ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1026', 'Kuwabara', 'Henry Hideo', '1919-4-0', ' ?, ID ', '1942-11-0', '1963-1-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1027', 'Masuoka', 'Frank Yoshio', '1923-3-13', ' Geyserville, CA ', '1942-12-0', '1970-7-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1028', 'Matsuda', 'Tatsuo', '1918-1-26', ' Watsonville, CA ', '1941-7-7', '1945-11-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1029', 'Matsui', 'Mitsue Kono', '--', ' San Francisco, CA ', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1030', 'Matsui', 'Takashi', '1917-1-20', 'Hood River, OR', '--', '1954-1-0', '
Reserve Medal; Overseas Service Medal; American Campaign Medal ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1031', 'Matsumoto', 'Roy Hiroshi', '1913-5-1', ' Los Angeles, CA ', '1942-11-12', '1909-5-17', '
Bronze Stars with Oak Leaf Clusters; numerous medals ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1032', 'Midzuno', 'Kiyoshi Robert', '1922-3-13', ' San Francisco, CA ', '-n-a', '-n-a', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1033', 'Miyasaki', 'Tateshi', '1913-9-20', ' Rexburg, ID ', '1941-2-0', '1945-0-0', '
Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1034', 'Mizutari', 'Yukitaka Terry', '1920-5-3', ' Honolulu, HI ', '1941-0-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1035', 'Mori', 'Tadashi Tad', '17-8-1', 'Fresno, CA', '41-10-28', '45-12-23', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1036', 'Morikawa', 'Eddie', '1917-9-0', 'Sacramento, CA', '1944-12-0', '1953-5-0', '
Korean Service Medal with 5 Bronze Campaign Stars', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1037', 'Nagano', 'Patrick N.', '18-11-17', 'Morro Bay, CA', '1942-11-0', '1945-12-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1038', 'Nagao', 'Norito', '--', '', '1943-0-0', '1945-12-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1039', 'Nagase', 'Satoshi Bud', '16-6-9', 'San Fernando, CA', '1943-11-0', '1976-6-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1040', 'Nagata', 'Mac Nobuo', '19-5-27', 'Sacramento, CA', '41-2-26', '45-10-9', '
Good Conduct Medal; ', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1041', 'Nakahata', 'Yutaka', '--', '', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1042', 'Nakamoto', 'Ben I.', '19-3-9', 'Fresno, CA', '1942-3-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1043', 'Nakamura', 'Akira', '1919-5-0', 'Parlier, CA', '1941-7-0', '1946-1-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1044', 'Nakamura', 'Akira', '26-10-21', 'Oakland, CA', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1045', 'Nakatsu', 'Dan', '--', '', '43-3-18', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1046', 'Neishi', 'Torao Pat', '17-3-12', 'Oakland, CA', '42-1-5', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1047', 'Nishio', 'Frank', '20-1-18', 'Parlier, CA', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1048', 'Nomura', 'Sho', '18-10-1', 'Arcadia, CA', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1049', 'Oda', 'James', '14-7-14', 'Stockton, CA', '1942-11-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1050', 'Oji', 'Sukeo Skeets', '18-2-24', 'Sacramento, CA', '41-11-6', '1963-11-0', '
Bronze Star with Commendation Ribbon', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1051', 'Oka', 'Don Shikara', '20-1-5', 'Watsonville, CA', '42-2-12', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1052', 'Okada', 'Peter Kazunori', '19-5-23', 'Los Angeles, CA', '1943-0-0', '--', '
Other medals', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1053', 'Okamura', 'Shinji', '--', '', '41-10-16', '45-11-28', '
Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1054', 'Okubo', 'Donald S.', '--', '', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1055', 'Sameshima', 'Ko Stanley', '21-12-6', 'Long Beach, CA', '1944-12-0', '1953?-0-0', '
Army Commendation Ribbon; all honors with Oak Leaf Clusters', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1056', 'Sankey', 'George Kiyoshi (aka George Kiyoshi Yamashiro)', '16-12-9', 'Kauai, HI', '1941-0-0', '1969-0-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1057', 'Sazaki', 'Haruo', '19-2-21', 'Penryn, CA', '41-1-22', '1964-2-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1058', 'Sogi', 'Francis Yoshito', '23-6-9', 'Kona, HI', '1944-2-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1059', 'Soyeshima', 'Ted Kiyoshi', '20-1-7', 'Belvedere, CA', '1942-11-0', '1945-12-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1060', 'Suyehiro', 'Henry', '--', '', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1061', 'Takahashi', 'Hiroki', '15-9-27', 'Merritt Island, CA', '41-4-7', '1946-2-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1062', 'Takai', 'Roy Tetsuo', '18-10-3', 'Sacramento, CA', '--', '66-3-31', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1063', 'Takata', 'Thomas Masaharu', '20-2-18', 'Seattle, WA', '--', '46-6-15', '
WWII Victory Medal, Occupational Medal with ÒJapanÓ clasp, Philippine Liberation Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, Presidential Citation, Dist Unit Badge (?), Asiatic Pacific Ribbon with 3 Bronze Stars', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1064', 'Tasaki', 'Toma', '08-9-1', '', '--', '1945-12-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1065', 'Toda', 'Harry', '21-1-30', 'Dee, OR', '--', '--', '
Army of Occupation Medal (Japan), American Theater Service Medal', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1066', 'Tsukiyama', 'Ted', '--', '', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1067', 'Tsuneishi', 'Warren Michio', '21-7-4', 'Monrovia, CA', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1068', 'Uyehata', 'Roy Toshitsura', '17-12-9', 'Salinas, CA', '41-4-2', '45-11-1', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1069', 'Wright', 'Eugene', '13-2-23', 'Seattle, WA', '1941-6-0', '1946-2-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1070', 'Yamada', 'Gordon Tomio', '24-4-16', 'Hollywood, CA', '1944-11-0', '46-10-2', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1071', 'Yamada', 'Yoshikazu', '15-5-20', 'Honokaa, HI', '1941-4-0', '1946-1-0', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1072', 'Yoshimura', 'Akiji', '--', '', '--', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1073', 'Yoshimura', 'Noboru Nobby', '20-2-10', 'Courtland, CA', '1942-3-0', '--', '
', '');\g INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('1074', 'Yoshiwara', 'Joe', '17-7-4', '', '--', '--', '
', '');\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1001;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1002;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1003;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = '' WHERE veteran_id = 1004;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1005;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1006;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1007;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1008;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1009;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Questionnaire, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1010;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1011;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1012;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1013;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1014;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Questionnaire, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1015;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = '' WHERE veteran_id = 1016;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1017;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1018;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1019;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography, Photos, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1020;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1021;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1022;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = '' WHERE veteran_id = 1023;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire, Photos, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1024;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1025;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1026;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1027;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Questionnaire, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1028;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1029;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1030;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1031;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1032;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1033;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = '' WHERE veteran_id = 1034;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1035;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1036;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1037;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1038;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Questionnaire, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1039;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1040;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1041;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1042;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = '' WHERE veteran_id = 1043;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = '' WHERE veteran_id = 1044;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1045;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1046;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1047;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1048;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1049;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1050;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1051;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Questionnaire, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1052;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1053;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = '' WHERE veteran_id = 1054;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Questionnaire, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1055;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1056;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1057;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1058;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1059;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1060;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1061;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 1062;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1063;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1064;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 1065;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1066;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1067;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1068;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1069;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1070;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 1071;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1072;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 1073;\g UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 1074;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1001;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Harry Akune was 13, he lost his mother to an illness. Akune's father decided then it would be best to move the family of nine children to Kagoshima, Japan, to live with his in-laws. After a few years, Akune and his younger brother Ken returned to the United States to find work and send money back to the rest of the family in Japan.

When Executive Order 9066 came about, Akune felt divided between his patriotism for his country and frustration toward the forced evacuation of Japanese Americans. Still, his strong urge to show his loyalty as an American led to his volunteering for the military:

For the moment I felt action by me was more important than words....If we just sit back, let the war go by without us doing anything, we're going to come out and be a second or third-class citizen. Just the fact that we didn't do anything is a sign that we didn't care.


Before leaving Amache Detention Camp for military service, the Akune brothers visited their well-respected Japanese school teacher to bid farewell. The older gentleman, who was also in the same camp, offered these words to them:

He said, "You are like the cherry blossoms that bloom in Washington, D.C. The cherry tree origin is Japan and was brought to America, nurtured and lovingly cared for, and the duty of that cherry tree is to beautify Washington, D.C." He said that we were like the cherry blossom and we should do the same for America.


Akune went overseas at the end of 1943. From then on, he served with various units as a translator and interpreter, including the 33rd Infantry Division in British New Guinea and the 6th Army in Hollandia, British New Guinea.

In November 1944 Akune was assigned to the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team. Not only was he the sole Nisei in the group, he would also be the only Japanese linguist to parachute in for the later assault on Corregidor, Philippines--without any formal parachutist training or the proper equipment. Reflecting back, Akune attributes his safe landing to pure luck and to the fact that minutes before he jumped, another paratrooper found a carbine for him to carry.

They [his paratrooper friends] really appreciate the fact that we were there and we were very instrumental in helping them get through the war because of information...The trust and acceptance of the Nisei by American officers was probably the most one important thing in their service. Without it, their translation and interrogation would have meant nothing.


Later, he participated as an infantryman in a number of combat patrols. In one instance, his translation of a note found on a dead soldier led to valuable intelligence about the number of Japanese soldiers occupying the island and the unexpected death of their commander. As a result of this discovery, the U.S. forces changed their offensive strategy and saved many American lives.

After Japan's surrender, Akune found himself in Japan as part of the Allied POW Recovery Team, in charge of helping American prisoners of war. In September of 1945, he received commission as a Second Lieutenant.

At war's end, he did interpretation and translation work in the Military Government's Price and Ration Controls Division. The division was in charge of assessing and providing resource needs for Japan. Being in Japan, the Akune brothers sought out their father but felt reluctant to have their father see them in "enemy" uniforms. Knowing that their father and brothers had served in the Japanese military, they felt that their meeting would bring shame to the family. In the end, the Akune brothers were able to see him and some of their siblings who had stayed in Japan during the war.

Akune also had an opportunity to visit his childhood home in Kyushu, southern Japan. Because the Occupation forces had not been in that region, the brothers received quizzical looks from the local Japanese--the residents had heard that some American soldiers were to arrive, but they had no idea that the men would be of Japanese ancestry.

Akune was formally discharged in January of 1946. After returning to the United States, he concentrated on continuing his formal education. Having had his schooling disrupted numerous times, he had no official school record or a high school diploma. He finally obtained a diploma, however, and with his brother Ken's help he was able to attend college.

Akune was inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in 1996, as General George M. Jones wrote, "for having greatly assisted our forces in shortening the Corregidor campaign and reducing American casualties."

In my mind, I just feel that I was in the business of saving lives.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1002;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "In 1933, the Akune family moved from central California to Japan. With Akune's mother's death that year, the father decided it best to have the family, which included nine children, live in his native country. In a few years, however, two of the Akune brothers--Ken and his older brother Harry--would return to California. Because Ken Akune had left the United States with minimal formal education, upon his return he had to relearn the English language.

During internment, Akune and his brother were forced to go to the Amache Detention Camp in Colorado. Akune felt embittered that while his Caucasian friends were signing up or being drafted for service, he and other Nisei could not: "When your friends are going and you're not allowed to go, you just don't know what to say. You're really mad in a sense." When recruiters from the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) arrived at the camps to interview Nisei, the brothers jumped at the chance to leave camp and prove their loyalty to their country. Because Akune was underage, his older brother signed on his behalf.

When I was given this opportunity, it was like I had been liberated--set free. I felt no bitterness about my past situation. I felt that I had been reinstated as an American citizen.


Upon graduation from MISLS in 1943, Akune received an assignment with the propaganda division under the Office of War Information and headed for India. In the State Department stationed at the border between Burma and India, he and other men wrote and distributed propaganda leaflets. Broadcasts were also used to disseminate information about the current state of war and to persuade the Japanese civilian and military population to see the futility of the war. In his words, "It was part of our job, my job I felt, to convince them that they need to stay alive to go back to Japan and rebuild Japan."

In a way, deep down, you know, I kind of felt that maybe you could help. I wouldn't say that I thought about it at the time, but deep down, I think, I know I noticed that when I went overseas and then start meeting prisoners of war. There was a way to help these guys. Maybe these guys can, you know, train them so that once the war was over...that they could become the nucleus of people that would rebuild Japan. So, it's not just the fact that we were out there fighting, but if there's a way that maybe we could help save lives. And not only our own but theirs too.


In 1945, Akune continued to do propaganda work with the British forces. He also conducted interrogation work in China, particularly with POWs who were involved in the "Rape of Nanking." Finally, with the war closing, both Akune brothers volunteered to work as ATIS (Allied Translator and Interpreter Section) interpreters at the war crimes trials. After official discharge from the military, Akune worked as an interpreter in the civilian Occupied forces and was involved in interpretation work at the Tojo trials. Around the same time, he paid a visit to his old high school in the United States. Because he was forced into the camps before he could finish school, he wanted to see if he could somehow obtain the overdue diploma. As he waited for a meeting with the principal, he noticed an honor roll of former students who had served in the military. To his surprise and disappointment, he saw that not one of the Nisei who had served was included. More frustration followed as he tried to report his discharge to the draft board. It turned out that the board did not even know Akune was in the military--on its record he had remained 4-C, "enemy alien."

In 1949, Akune returned to the United States and settled in southern California. Though he had every intention of continuing school, he had to put his education on hold while he supported the family in Japan. Despite having family members on either side of the Pacific, the Akunes felt they were a close-knit family and supported each other during the difficult times. As the older Akune says,

We come from different backgrounds...most of them are raised in Japan. They still, you know, have that particular kind of culture. They didn't particularly come back and reeducate themselves and become American. But even then, I think we have a really wonderful relationship with the rest of the family...despite the various backgrounds, we all still understand each other...


In later years, Akune completed a business degree and found career-long employment with Hughes Aircraft. He retired in 1982. " WHERE veteran_id = 1003;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Jimmy Ariyasu was just about to fulfill his plans to study mathematics at University of California, Los Angeles when the U.S. Army drafted him in 1940. He later became a member of the first MIS class at the Presidio in San Francisco. He was also one of the first six MIS men to be dispatched overseas.

Ariyasu and a team of Nisei soldiers went to New Caledonia to join the new Americal Division. The division arrived to prevent the Japanese from taking the island and shutting off Australia from the United States. As part of the language team, Ariyasu translated various documents, including some Japanese codebooks found when the U.S. Navy sank enemy submarines. The books contained information about Japanese naval ships, including names, code names, and their physical characteristics. He also served on Cebu Island in the Philippines. It was there that he encountered a Japanese prisoner of war who agreed to deactivate a minefield so that U.S. troops could continue on their route to destroy Japanese forces on the other side. Ariyasu took charge of making sure the prisoner did as he was told and did not escape. Because it was upon his recommendation that the prisoner take on this task, Ariyasu felt tremendous responsibility for the success of this particular mission.

No matter what came, they couldn't bend us. The will was so strong that they could throw dynamite at us and we'd go out there and overcome that dynamite that's out there....we were not just [out there] for our glory. Nor did we think about self-pity or self-love or just because we wanted power or anything but it was just to first look out for our people...for the good of the Japanese [-American] people.


In his interrogation work in the South Pacific, Ariyasu met many interesting prisoners of war, including one short and childlike 14-year-old who was not afraid to show his allegiance to the Japanese Emperor.

This is what he had to say: "Churchill is this tall (shows by bringing his head down to his knee indicating height); Roosevelt is this tall (his hand up to his chin); Tenno Heika (the Japanese Emperor) is this tall (his hand goes as high as he could reach). Banzai!"


Ariyasu encountered many near-death situations in which snipers and other enemy men got very close to his position.

It was scary afterwards [to think about] how close that guy [an enemy infiltrator who was later shot by the guards in charge of the U.S. troops stationed in the area] was and that God had given me another day to live.


There were even incidents in which U.S. artillery guns shot at his unit because the troops had received the wrong coordinates.

After being discharged, Ariyasu went back to the United States and found that some people still held negative views about people of Japanese ancestry.

The day I got my discharge, on a bus...I got off at Peoria...one guy stopped by to help me--to get my duffel bag and everything and I was wearing a GI uniform. Then when he saw me and my color--he raised a lot of dust and sped away....I thought, "Jesus!" It hurt me.


As the oldest of nine children in the family, Ariyasu took it upon himself to support the family and started a grocery business in California. After seven years in the business, he went into real estate and eventually opened his own office in southern California. Though initially he encountered prejudice because of his ethnicity, he eventually found his way onto the Los Angeles Board of Realtors, even earning the title of "Realtor of the Year" in 1967. " WHERE veteran_id = 1004;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Hans Baerwald was born in Japan to German-Jewish parents. The Japanese language was a regular part of the Baerwald household, as his father had established business relations in Japan in 1912 and had served as an interpreter during World War I. Baerwald grew up steeped in the language but felt that he was "fluent and illiterate" at the same time.

In 1940, the family immigrated to the United States, where Baerwald finished his secondary education and began studies in Japanese language at the University of California, Berkeley. Having been on the Army's list of BIJs (foreigners born in Japan), he received draft notice in mid-1945. Military Japanese language training began later that year, making Baerwald the last person to have been admitted to the Army Intensive Japanese Language School at the University of Michigan. This school trained more than 1,500 Caucasian officers and enlisted men during its three years of operation.

Upon graduating from the language school, Baerwald returned to Japan with assignment under the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) but shortly after transferred to the Government Section of General Headquarters SCAP, where he remained until 1949. Most of his work involved interpreting and translating on political matters and conducting political analyses--an experience that parlayed into an academic career teaching political science at Miami University and the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to academia, he has also been a consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.



" WHERE veteran_id = 1005;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Born to missionary parents in Tokyo, Alfred John Burden grew up in Japan while attending the same schools as Japanese students. At the age of 14, his parents sent him to the United States to continue his education, and he eventually earned his medical degree. He began practicing medicine in Maui as a plantation doctor and later as a physician in an agricultural firm. He also signed up to join the Army Reserve.

When the war began, he was sent to the 4th Army Intelligence School in the Presidio of San Francisco. He was one of the school's two Caucasian graduates and the only member from Hawaii in the first class. Upon graduating, he became part of the attachment to the Ohio National Guard's 37th Division. He and two Nisei soldiers left for Fiji on June 6, 1941. Wanting to use his linguistic skills to the full extent, he gathered other Japanese-speaking men he knew and formed the first combat intelligence team to work in Guadalcanal and other battles in the South Pacific. In addition to translating war maps, captured documents, and diaries, Burden's interrogation team also provided information about units, living conditions, and details about orders from the Japanese commanders. While serving in Guadalcanal, sensing how U.S. Army officials undervalued the service of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) men, Burden offered advice to the officials:

It has been proven that only the Nisei are capable of rapid translation of written orders and diaries, and their use is essential in obtaining the information contained in them.


He and his team of linguists have been credited with having shown to U.S. forces the great value and contributions the MIS could provide for the war effort. Burden was also one of the first MIS members to make use of broadcasts and leaflets to urge the Japanese to surrender. In one of his first attempts to coax the Japanese to surrender, one Japanese straggler willingly gave up to the American forces. When Burden asked him to broadcast the surrender message, he complied. That afternoon, almost 20 people eventually came out of hiding and surrendered. Burden's "humane-treatment" approach would later be used widely by other MIS men.

They [the Nisei] were willing to do most anything to try to get the Japanese to surrender rather than be exterminated....I think it's natural that they should have a feeling for their own countrymen.


After finishing combat intelligence work in the Solomon Islands, Burden returned to the language school to teach students about psychological warfare, including techniques for interrogating captured prisoners. Next, he was sent to China where he oversaw all communication lines coming in from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), and Chinese army sources. He was later awarded The Order of Three White Doves by Generalissmo Chiang Kai-shek.

For his work in the South Pacific, Burden was awarded the Legion of Merit, Silver Star, Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster.

" WHERE veteran_id = 1006;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "A "Caucasian non-Nikkei" as he labels himself, Dempster Dirks considers the Japanese Americans he's known in his life to be "sources of encouragement" since his high school years. Another influence that led Dirks to his lifelong interest in Japan was his college roommate who had gone to Japan as an exchange student and entertained Dirks with his "stories of the Orient."

Before the war, Dirks spent some time traveling in Japan, China, the Philippines, and other countries before heading back to the United States. Upon his return, he became a teacher at a private boys' military school in California and began formal studies in the Japanese language.

After being drafted into the Army, Dirks remembers carrying around kanji [Chinese character] flashcards as he participated in basic training in field artillery. He furthered his study in the language at the Military Intelligence Service Language School in the Presidio of San Francisco, and at Camp Savage. His first assignment after graduating from MISLS was with the POW Station in California. It was Dirks' duty to conduct "auditory surveillance" of Japanese officers who came from various parts of the South Pacific Ocean Area.

He also became one of the first teachers at the Advanced Training Center (later the Defense Language Institute) in Monterey, teaching courses to Filipino officers. Upon the closing of the training center, he served in various war campaigns, including Port Moresby, Biak, Leyte, and Okinawa. His major responsibility was to break coded messages used by Japanese air forces and to translate the information into English. While stationed on Biak, Dirks remembers one night when he and other American soldiers were watching a movie outdoors. When the movie ended and the lights came on, they found a Japanese soldier sitting right next to them, waiting to surrender.

On Ie Shima Island, Dirks witnessed the sign that the war was coming to an end.

It was a memorable morning: blue skies with cotton puff clouds. Suddenly, there came pairs of P-38s in a pass above the field--leading white planes with green crosses on the wings....For all of us at Ie Shima that morning, this was an emotional experience. THIS WAS THE "REAL END" OF THE WAR.


After the war, he finished out his military service with the 5th Air Force Headquarters in Japan. In Occupied Japan, he and other MIS men worked on getting Japan back on its feet; their work included getting the telecommunications system back in order and bringing water and electricity back to residents. After being discharged from the U.S. Army, Dirks continued to work alongside Japanese Americans--this time, in the United States as a resettlement counselor for the Issei and Nisei who were interned in the detention camps.

He also finished his higher education, eventually earning a doctorate from the University of Southern California. He retired in 1985 from his professorship at El Camino College.

Despite the valuable contributions the MIS linguists made toward the war, they did not always receive due recognition for their work. As Dirks explains,

Being in the MIS, most of us received no deserved rank nor recognition for work well done. For example, I, a non-Nikkei, was taken from two officer candidate schools--one in New Jersey, U.S.A., and the other in Brisbane, Australia--at the convenience of the military--to serve in the MIS. I had entered the MIS holding a sergeant's rating. In 1946 when I received my honorable discharge, it was a tech-sergeant rating I held.




" WHERE veteran_id = 1007;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Harold Fudenna entered the U.S. Army in March 1941 and attended the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) in June of the following year. He graduated near the top of his MISLS class and subsequently was assigned to the 5th Air Force's Air Technical Intelligence Team and the 1st Radio Squadron, 138th Signal Corps.

Fudenna contributed to one of the most significant events during the war--the death of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of Japan's Combined Fleet and architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Gen. Douglas MacArthur often referred to this event as one of the most significant actions of the war in the Pacific. In April 1943, American monitors at FRUPAC (Fleet Radio Unit, Pacific), FRUMEL (Fleet Radio Unit, Melbourne), and NEGAT (a U.S. Navy radio intercept station) intercepted a radio message that gave details of Admiral Yamamoto's plan to arrive in Bougainville. At the same time, Port Moresby intercepted a Japanese message that also relayed information about Yamamoto's travel route. Fudenna was given the latter message and began decoding the strings of Japanese words and translating them into English. When Fudenna submitted his translations to Gen. Ennis Whitehead, deputy commander of the 5th Air Force, the general cautioned Fudenna that he would be held responsible for the accuracy of the translation. The timing of the P-38 fighter plane mission was extremely critical as the planes were using detachable fuel tanks--a situation which left a very little margin of error in encountering the enemy's planes.

Owing to Fudenna's translation, the U.S. Air Force fighter planes swiftly shot down Yamamoto's plane over the Solomon Islands, leaving no survivors. Aside from a visit by the general thanking him for his work, Fudenna never received any recognition for this important work.

In another incident, Fudenna was told of a fellow Japanese American soldier spotted waiting in the mess line. As Fudenna approached the soldier and began a conversation with him in Japanese, he realized that the soldier was in fact an enemy Japanese. Desperate and hungry, the soldier had risked his life to disguise himself and sneak into the unit for food. He was immediately seized.

Upon transferring to Australia, Fudenna spent a brief period with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) and then moved on to the Pentagon to join a special Air Corps Intelligence Unit. He translated documents and wrote reports on Japanese aircraft production factories that developed bomber and fighter aircraft for Japan. He also became involved in the review process for the all-important surrender documents for Japan. In appreciation for his work, Fudenna was given copies of the documents, complete with signatures from the representative parties.

In January of 1946, Fudenna was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army. He returned to school and in 1949 graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. Subsequently, he and his brothers (who also served in World War II) prospered in the farming business and later in property development projects. " WHERE veteran_id = 1008;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Having grown up in Colorado, Nobuo Furuiye's main exposure to Japanese culture and language came from his home and the language classes he attended at the local Buddhist temple. After completing high school, he spent two and a half years in Japan to continue studying the language. In his opinion, experience living in militaristic Japan made him more appreciative of life and people in the United States.

Soon after December 7, 1941, Furuiye volunteered for military service and reported to Camp Roberts for basic training. In 1943, he found himself at Camp Savage, getting ready to study Japanese once again. In his first assignment after graduating from the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), Furuiye served in the Aleutian campaign with the Canadian Grenadiers. Next, he was sent to Honolulu as the team leader of a group of Japanese linguists, who along with two other groups, would eventually form the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area (JICPOA). Under the direction of the U.S. Navy, they were kept busy translating Japanese documents sent from Pearl Harbor. In his work, Furuiye found that personal writings such as diaries revealed thoughts and emotions not unlike those that he and other American soldiers were feeling at the time.

They're talking about how they missed their home, how they miss their family. It's just like they're human just like anybody else, although they don't come out and say so in front of their commander...you can see how they felt, just like we would. We missed our family, we missed our home. I don't think there's any difference as far as that goes.


During the infamous Iwo Jima campaign, Furuiye spent the first few days "just staying alive." As part of the attachment to the 5th Marine Division, he discovered one of the most important men to be captured during the war. The prisoner, a cipher specialist, was sent immediately to Honolulu to be interviewed by intelligence personnel. It was also during this harsh campaign that Furuiye was wounded by mortar shrapnel. For his actions in Iwo Jima, he received the Purple Heart in 1948.

You just feel, what the hell, if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die....This is the kind of attitude I took....I'd seen people hurt and everything, but that's the first time I ever witnessed anybody that bad, you know. It really hits home when you see friend and foe laying side by side dead...


After Iwo Jima, he moved on to Saipan to help with Japanese and native civilians. Later, he served as interpreter during the surrender of Marcus Island and worked on war crimes trials in Guam and in Japan. Because of his work with the surrender documents, Furuiye received a samurai sword from the Japanese chief of staff. Told by a high U.S. official that enlisted men cannot receive such rewards, Furuiye was forced to give up the gift--all along trusting the official's words that the sword would be donated to the U.S. Naval Academy. The sword never reached Annapolis, Maryland.

After another brief assignment in Japan, Furuiye returned to the United States. From September 1950 to November 1951, he served as an instructor of Japanese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.

" WHERE veteran_id = 1009;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Shunji Hamano spent eight years in Japan and then returned to Los Angeles to finish high school. In June 1941, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and reported for basic training at Camp Roberts, California. When the Pacific War began, he and other Nisei in the Army were forced to relinquish their weapons. Later he was given orders to join a labor battalion along with 80 other Japanese-American soldiers. During this time, he and other Nisei were shuttled from one unit to another.

In 1942, Hamano became part of the first Military Intelligence Service (MIS) class at Camp Savage, Minnesota. Upon graduation in December 1942, Hamano led a technical intelligence team assigned to the Air Corps in the Central Pacific and later transferred to New Caledonia to work on translation of captured documents from Guadalcanal. He then was assigned to an investigation team (Technical Air Intelligence or TAI), composed of photographers, aeronautical engineers, linguists, and officers. Their main responsibility lay in disassembling and investigating enemy aircraft to determine engine type and other related information. This piece of intelligence greatly influenced the design of U.S. aircraft used in the latter part of the war. Hamano was able to assist the team with the engineering terms in Japanese despite not having a technical background or access to any technical dictionaries.

After serving in various islands in the South Pacific, Hamano landed in Hawaii to wait for his discharge papers. However, he was chosen by an officer to accompany him to Okinawa, and Hamano stayed in the Army until June 1945. He received his formal discharge in November 1945.



" WHERE veteran_id = 1010;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Prior to the draft, Charlie Hamasaki worked on the family farm in Los Altos, California. At the time there were a few Japanese families in the area. One of these families owned most of the land and had donated a section to establish a Japanese school. In this one-room school building, Hamasaki and other Nisei children studied Japanese.

Soon after completing his basic training at Fort Ord, Hamasaki was recruited for the language school at Camp Savage and graduated in 1943. Upon finishing school, he participated in campaigns at Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and Luzon in the Philippines. One incident he remembers vividly is when he witnessed for the first time a Japanese soldier killed in action: "I will never forget that he looked just like me--war is no good!" During this incident he served in the division headquarters on Rendova Island and participated in securing the entire island for the Allies.

At times, Japanese-American soldiers faced situations in which they were mistaken for the enemy. In Guadalcanal, Hamasaki remembers a U.S. Marine approaching him with a gun pointed directly at him.

Major Wright and I were walking toward the prison stockade there and all of a sudden this Marine comes up to us and pulls his .45 out and starts to point it at me, you know. So I jumped behind the Major. It was scary then. I was wondering how long that was going to go on. But as it turned out as time went on, the troops over there began to know us.


In another incident, Hamasaki was forced to give up his newly acquired promotion to Tech Sergeant when a lieutenant arrived to replace Major Wright at the headquarters. Hamasaki remembers the new officer in charge being disruptive to his interrogation work and scornful of the way Hamasaki was conducting interrogations. Rather than prolonging the conflict between the two of them, the G-2 commanding officer upon hearing about the problem decided to have Hamasaki leave headquarters and step down to join the regiment, reverting him back to the rank of Private.

Having accumulated enough points, Hamasaki was granted discharge and returned to the United States in July 1945. He reunited with his parents who were still interned at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. He followed his brother to California to begin work in gardening, but he recalls the postwar days in California as unfriendly to the Japanese Americans.

There was one barber...I went to high school with him and [with] his older brother too. But his older brother was killed in the war. And somehow, he just didn't care for Japanese anymore so he wouldn't cut any Japanese hair. And my brother and I found another barber...And we were going to him for a long time, over a year, I think. Then, all of a sudden one day, when I went in there, he said, "I won't be able to cut your hair anymore--customers are complaining." So we had to look around for another barber...


In 1953 Hamasaki decided to shift careers and entered the electronic industry where he remained until his retirement in 1982. " WHERE veteran_id = 1011;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Min Hara and his family were living in Wakayama, Japan, when the Japanese consulate notified Hara of his upcoming conscription into the Japanese Army. To avoid being drafted, Hara returned to Los Angeles. Hara was beginning to settle into a career, having attended classes at the RCA Institute's Engraving and Watchmaking School, when Executive Order 9066 forced him and his brother to evacuate Terminal Island and relocate to Poston Camp I in Arizona.

The Marines came one morning, cocked a .45-caliber pistol and pointed it at me and says, "We're giving you Japanese people 48 hours to get out of this island"....And it dawned upon me, I'm a prisoner of war in my own country...


It was from the camp that Hara decided to volunteer for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). Prior to MIS language training, Hara had attended school in Japan for a little more than half a year; he also had learned Japanese informally at home.

After graduating from MISLS in June 1943, he was sent to join the 6th Infantry Division in British New Guinea. From there he was transferred to Luzon, Philippines, where he remained until the end of the war. Comprising members from three infantry regiments, the 6th division men had to alternate going to the frontlines for combat duty. One of these combat experiences in the Philippines remains with him to this day. With only 28 men on its side, the division faced a Japanese infantry company fully armed with fixed bayonets. Hara credits the M-1 rifles they were carrying for saving their lives that day. In the end, his division captured more than 1,700 prisoners of war. Most POWs never guessed that those interrogating them were of Japanese ancestry. Typically, the MIS linguists were thought to be Chinese, Korean--anything but Japanese. One prisoner, however, knew Hara's roots because of his distinct Kansai dialect--the prisoner came from Kyoto, a city in central Japan.

During the Occupation years, Hara was assigned to the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) headquarters in Tokyo. Most of his work involved translating documents, including personal diaries of famous war figures such as Prince Saionji, Tojo, Hata, Terauchi, and other Japanese army generals. His parents had remained in Japan during the war, and while he was assigned to ATIS Hara had occasions to visit them in Wakayama.

When I got to Japan my mother cooked me some rice that was brown and it was cornstalk you know, that stalk portion where they have seed...and about one-tenth is rice....I told my mother I can't eat this stuff....That was the rice ration for this town, at that month.


The aftermath of war left a deep impression on him and other Americans stationed in Japan.

When I saw the devastation of war in Japan, I thought mankind was the lowest form of animal life.


He continues,

I didn't want to see a whole race disappear. I wanted to see the [Japanese] military government [to] go down and in my small way, I helped set up a new democratic government, help the Japanese people....as far as Nisei were concerned every Nisei would say "This is the only country we have cuz we don't know Japan."
" WHERE veteran_id = 1012;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Like many Nisei in Hawaii, Raymond Harada learned to speak Japanese at home and at school. He also studied in Japan after graduating from high school. He returned to the United States in February of 1941 to avoid being conscripted into the Japanese Army. Upon his return, Harada was drafted into the U.S. Army. A few weeks after Harada entered the Army, Pearl Harbor was attacked. On the same day as the attack, Harada's father was taken by the FBI and sent to the mainland to be interned at a detention camp.

By this time Harada had already had military training in both countries, having participated in compulsory training in Japanese school and having acquired ROTC experience from his high school in Hawaii. While at Camp McCoy as a member of the 100th Infantry Battalion, Harada was recruited for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and sent with 80 others to Camp Savage. After graduating from the language school in June 1943, he stayed on to teach until late 1944. As one of the original members of the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS), he was stationed at Camp Ritchie for the duration of the war.

Despite some unpleasant experiences that he and other Nisei faced because of their ethnicity, Harada considers the Nisei contributions to the war as nothing out of the ordinary. Because of their Japanese heritage and upbringing, Japanese Americans, in Harada's opinion, were able to endure the bad and go all out to prove loyalty to the United States.

Our attitude toward what we did, like being in the service and so forth...we went all out despite the fact that we did have a lot of humiliating experiences. But we overlooked it....because of serving in the military service, we had proven our loyalty and this is the most important thing. Today, you know, nothing bothers me....I know I've served and we've proven our loyalty. And so nobody, no one can take it away from us.


Having reenlisted in the Army after a break of two years, Harada was sent to Occupied Japan in 1947 as part of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). He later volunteered as a special agent in the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and interrogated repatriates from Soviet Union and other Japanese prisoners of war. He was also a part of the 3rd operations group in the mid-1950s, serving as a liaison with the government of Japan.

Being a Japanese American and knowledgeable of both cultures, I figured that one thing we could do was promote better relationship between [Japan and] the United States of America....[our] rapport with the Japanese was such that they trusted the Japanese Americans....we tried to bring both parties closer together. And I think, in relation to some other, a person of another background, they wouldn't understand the Japanese as well as we did...we were in a position to interpret the Japanese better than anyone else.


He continued working in Japan for seven years. For his work as a language aide with the U.S. Civil Administration in Okinawa, Harada received the Legion of Merit award.

You know, without Japanese Americans it would have been a long war.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1013;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Richard Hayashi and his family lived in a close-knit, Japanese-American community near Stockton, California. Hayashi graduated from Stockton High School in June 1937 and entered Stockton Junior College the same year. Along with his regular schooling, he took courses in Japanese language, history, geography, and calligraphy at the Stockton Japanese School, with his education in the Japanese language lasting for more than 11 years. He also finished a correspondence course in commerce from Waseda University (Japan).

Ironically, Hayashi received a notice of conscription into the Japanese military before his draft notice from the United States. Hayashi and others who were born before February 16, 1924, automatically had dual citizenship if they were listed in the Japanese Association registry. His family acted quickly to renounce his Japanese citizenship, and in June of 1941, Hayashi reported to the U.S. military induction station in Sacramento. At one point during his early days in the military, he and other Nisei felt extreme frustration and vexation at the fact that they were constantly told to do demeaning work such as kitchen duties and garbage cleanup. Also, while they did the same work as their white counterparts, the Nisei did not receive any promotions while the white officers were being promoted with ease. When Hayashi and the others spoke up, they were finally given promotions.

We had a showdown....We worked the same job as our counterpart, our White counterpart, we don't get promotion....We had other kind of grievances, we told him....less than two weeks later, all of us got promoted, just out of a clear blue sky. I got jumped from Private First Class right to Sergeant. I skipped Corporal, never got my Corporal stripe.


Hayashi was stationed at Fort Ord when recruiters from the army language school arrived to interview prospective students. He passed the exams and was told to report to Camp Savage, Minnesota, to attend the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). He graduated in November 1942. While his family was being evacuated to Rohwer Detention Camp in Arkansas, Hayashi learned that his first assignment would be with the Army Air Corps language team in the Pacific. He returned to the United States soon after to attend the Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Fort Benning, Georgia. In March 1944, he received commission as a Second Lieutenant.

Hayashi became the first Nisei to have served in both the war in Europe and in the Pacific. Having joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Hayashi went to Italy as a platoon leader with Company I and later with Company K. He served in Italy and France until just before the war ended in Italy in May of 1945. During the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" in October 1944, Hayashi led the 2nd platoon of Company I. Originally, he went in with 40 men--by the time the rescue mission was over, the troop had been reduced to two men. Subsequently, he was assigned to a parachute unit destined for invasion of Kyushu, Japan. In the end, however, he did not join the unit and instead went to Fort Snelling as a staff officer in the Research and Liaison Section. He also taught at the language school there and later at the Presidio of Monterey, California. When he returned to the United States, his family was still incarcerated at the Rohwer camp. At the end of 1946, the family returned to their hometown of Stockton, only to find that there were only a few people of Japanese ancestry living in their old community.

In May 1947, Hayashi received orders to report to Japan, as part of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). With assistance from Maj. George Spence, Hayashi was assigned to the 441st Counter Intelligence Detachment in Tokyo. He later received his first assignment as commanding officer of a CIC unit in Hokkaido and stayed in Japan for a few years. Upon returning to the United States, he became a public information officer with the North Dakota Military District, then with the San Francisco Military District. He retired from the Army in January 1963.

After being discharged, Hayashi worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Stockton, California. He retired as Postmaster in 1977. " WHERE veteran_id = 1014;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "At a young age, Tetsuo Hayashida began working odd jobs to supplement his family's income. One of his jobs was to load up a wagon with the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, and other magazines and sell them to early morning commuters on their way from the East Bay to San Francisco. Once his wagon was empty, he would clean up and head for school. He also delivered groceries and helped gardeners and farmers with fruit-picking. He continued to work in various jobs throughout his college years, including salmon canning in Alaska and being a butler for a multimillionaire in San Francisco. It was while he was working as a butler that he was drafted into the U.S. Army under the Selective Service Training Program.

With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hayashida and other Japanese Americans in the military on the West Coast were evacuated. Hayashida and his medical battalion unit were shipped to Camp Wolters, where they were assigned to do manual labor such as breaking rocks and hauling and scattering fertilizer for landscaping. More humiliation followed as one day they were ordered to their barracks and watched noncommissioned Caucasian officers search through their belongings to look for hidden weapons. Despite the negative experiences Hayashi encountered, he and other Nisei learned to accept it as "a manifestation of the attitude of the times." Hayashida felt that his parents and other Issei who endured evacuation and incarceration suffered the most.

In June 1942, Hayashida transferred to Camp Savage for Japanese language training. As part of the first class at Camp Savage, he and five other Nisei men became the first team of translators and interrogators to serve in the South Pacific. Though the MIS men were officially linguists, they encountered many unexpected experiences such as being trained on how to fire antiaircraft guns and assembling and disassembling the guns for maintenance. Hayashida himself faced an unanticipated event in which he was asked to act as the doctor on board the ship because of his previous experience in the medical battalion. Fortunately for him, no serious medical emergencies occurred during the trip.

One incident that occurred in New Caledonia remains deep in Hayashida's memory. One day, Col. Frederick Munson who was the chief of military intelligence in the South Pacific took him aside and questioned him about his loyalty to the United States. Hayashida was taken by surprise and quickly answered that he is first and foremost an American citizen and that it would be his duty to bear arms against Japan: "That day hung like a dark cloud over him [Hayashida] for the rest of his stay in the South Pacific. He couldn't help but feel that someone was always keeping an eye on him."

On the island of Jolo in the Philippines, Hayashida would encounter another incident that would linger in his memory. With the assistance of a Japanese prisoner of war, Hayashida and other men prepared leaflets to urge remaining Japanese soldiers to surrender. Of the original 10,000 men thought to be alive, only 88 were actual survivors. The rest had died largely of malnutrition, disease, and U.S. military actions. The survivors eventually surrendered and were given food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention as promised.

Hayashida also witnessed emotional and spiritual reactions of the Japanese at the time of surrender. At the grave site where the Japanese prisoners were buried, he saw a Japanese officer facing east and offering a prayer for the dead. Suddenly, the soldier broke down and began to cry. It was then that he realized that the Japanese had accepted defeat and that the war had truly ended.

Hayashida arrived in San Francisco in January of 1946, separating from military service a few months later. He finished his bachelor's degree as well as advanced degrees in anatomy, and then became a professor at the University of California School of Medicine--a career that would last for more than 30 years. " WHERE veteran_id = 1015;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Having spent his teenage years in Los Angeles, Benjamin Hazard's interest in the Japanese language was largely due to his friends in the local Japanese-American community. When he entered University of California, Los Angeles in 1940, he foresaw the possibility of war with Japan and began formal studies in the Japanese language. He then volunteered for the Military Intelligence School at the University of Michigan on December 15, 1942, continuing on to the language school at Camp Savage for additional language training. Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in February 1944, he was assigned to take command of the language detachment of the 27th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks.

From their conversation with a Japanese national employed by the Japanese Navy, Hazard and another team member learned of a gyokusai (final suicide) attack that was being planned on Saipan. As more prisoners arrived, he and the other linguists continued interrogations to keep abreast of the attack plans. Also on Saipan, Hazard and his team found documents at the captured Aslito Airfield that described aircraft engine ball bearings--information that proved to be strategically valuable for the U.S. forces.

During the Battle of Okinawa, Hazard commanded the combined 306th and the 307th Headquarters Intelligence Detachments of the XXIV Corps. One evening in April 1945, Hazard's team was presented with a Japanese artillery forward observer's chart. The chart disclosed the artillery and heavy mortar position for an important Japanese defense line that ran across most of Okinawa. While some prepared an overlay in English using U.S. Army symbols to facilitate reading, others worked all night to translate the chart data and handwritten notes. As soon as morning arrived, Hazard swiftly delivered it to the corps headquarters. Unfortunately, the officer who accepted the chart did not see the need to expedite its delivery to the commanding general. The delay cost the corps heavy casualties. Lt. Gen. John R. Hodge, angry over the late arrival of the chart, claimed that had it been delivered in advance of the attack, he would have been able to replan the assault, thereby avoiding the loss in men.

In addition to translation and interrogation work, the team made statistical studies of Japanese civilian opinions about subjects such as the fall of Saipan and the retention or removal of the Japanese Emperor, and Japanese attitudes toward their own army as well as toward U.S. forces.

After the surrender of Japan, Hazard led the detachment during the initial stages of the occupation of Korea. In addition to arranging for the safe return of Allied prisoners of war, Hazard also taught the first class of the Officer Candidate School of the Korean Constabulary, which later became the nucleus of the Korean National Army.

Soon after being discharged in 1946, Hazard returned to school at the University of California, Berkeley, eventually earning a doctorate in Asian languages (Japanese, Chinese, and Korean) and history. He was recalled to active duty in 1948 and sent to the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Tokyo to work as an interrogator for repatriates arriving home to Japan.

He retired from the inactive reserve in 1979 with the rank of Colonel. His awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, ROK Presidential Unit Citation, and the Philippine Liberation Medal.

In post-military career, Hazard served as professor of Asian history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at San Jose State University. " WHERE veteran_id = 1016;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Though born in Hawaii, Takejiro Higa spent the years from age two to 16 in Okinawa. Following his sister's request, he returned to Hawaii in 1939 to avoid conscription into the Japanese military. In July 1943, Higa and his older brother shared a tent at the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Camp Savage, Minnesota. Interestingly, while his brother worked hard to improve his Japanese (due to the fact that he had not spent as many years in Japan), Higa spent many nights concentrating on his English.

Higa joined a team of U.S. invasion forces that was led by his brother and served in the Leyte and Okinawan invasions. Higa distinctly remembers one incident in late November 1944, when he was ordered to go to the corps headquarters to assist in interpreting a Japanese map. There on the wall he saw a large map of southern Okinawa--his home for 14 years and where many relatives and friends still lived. The officer who was in charge of translating this map had mistakenly assumed that the dark, concrete structures scattered throughout the land were enemy fortifications. Higa knew better and explained that they were burial tombs and crypts--a significant aspect of the Okinawan culture. Because of his explanation, the Army decided not to destroy the burial sites.

Because of their knowledge of Japan and particularly the Okinawan dialect and culture, Takejiro and his brother won the trust of Okinawans who feared being tortured and killed by Americans. In the end, they were credited with saving more than 30,000 Okinawan civilians from death by convincing them to come out of their hiding places in caves and family tombs.

Although I was involved in the Battle of Okinawa from April 1st through the end of the battle...just with the use of a portable loudspeaker and the dictionary and language, I was able to discharge my obligation as an American GI....That's my utmost satisfaction.


In one instance, Higa recognized a refugee suspected of being a Japanese soldier as his middle school teacher. The teacher in turn remained too shocked to say anything, never imagining that he would encounter a former student on the "other side." On another occasion Higa realized that he was interrogating two former classmates. Not recognizing him, the two prisoners spurned questions until they were given something to eat. It was then that Higa revealed his identity.

They looked up at me in total disbelief and then started crying. They thought that they would be shot when the questioning was over, but they realized that with a classmate as the interrogator, their lives would now be spared. They cried in happiness and relief. That hit me very hard and I, too, could not help but shed some tears.


After World War II, Higa continued to serve in the military during the Korean War. After being discharged from the military, he returned to school and eventually finished a degree in accounting. He worked for the Internal Revenue Service until his retirement. " WHERE veteran_id = 1017;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Grant Hirabayashi was 12, he went to Matsumoto, Japan, to live with relatives. During his eight-year stay in the country, he attended middle and high school. Following advice from a Japanese professor, Hirabayashi returned to the United States in March 1940 and finished high school. Three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. At Jefferson Barracks, he and 19 other Nisei enlistees were rounded up and placed under "protective custody," meaning confinement to one barrack while under constant surveillance. After 40 days of confinement, they were finally released.

He volunteered himself out of clerical duties to enroll in the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). After graduating in July 1942, Hirabayashi became a member of Merrill's Marauders--a group of special combat soldiers under Gen. Frank D. Merrill's command, who fought enemy troops in the Burmese jungles to clear the roads and airstrip for the Allied Forces.

What they failed to tell us was that according to War Department estimates, they had anticipated 85 percent casualty.


Having contracted dysentery, Hirabayashi was discharged from the team and sent to interrogate prisoners of war. It was during one such interrogation that Hirabayashi encountered resistance and animosity from the prisoner. During the questioning, the captured soldier spitefully called Hirabayashi a "traitor." To this Hirabayashi decried:

Traitor? Let's get this straight. You are Japanese. I am an American. You are fighting for your country and I am fighting for mine. If we were to cut our veins, the same blood will flow. You may have been fighting for your ideals, but now that you are the prisoner, you are to obey and answer my questions.


The prisoner still refused to answer the questions, but after being faced with some humiliating circumstances he finally gave in. Hirabayashi's efforts were rewarded with invaluable information.

After the war, Hirabayashi worked as an interpreter in China and taught at the army language school in Monterey, California. In November 1947, he moved to Japan to work in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's SCAP Legal Section as a court interpreter and monitor for the war crimes trials.

Hirabayashi returned to the United States in May 1951 and finished his schooling at the University of Southern California, eventually earning a master's degree in international relations. He later worked as a government employee at the U.S. Department of State, Library of Congress, and the National Security Agency. He retired in 1979 after 30 years of combined government service. " WHERE veteran_id = 1018;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "William Hirashima knew from the onset that for people of Japanese ancestry, the best and most available jobs were in agriculture. So despite having attended college, he decided to work for a vegetable exchange in Salinas, California. Though he had attended Japanese school in his childhood, Hirashima remembers growing up feeling distaste for "anything Japanese."

We were raised probably more American here in this area, Santa Barbara, than in any other city or town because there were very few of us. And we were accepted, we were not in competition with the other people.


Soon after being drafted into the Army in early 1941, Hirashima was approached by a recruiter from the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) and sent to the first language school at the Presidio of San Francisco. After graduation, he was sent to General Headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. In May 1942, he and the other Nisei linguists attached to the 126th Infantry Regiment moved on to Port Moresby, New Guinea. Hirashima recalls a long and arduous march through jungle trails, carrying not only basic gear and weapons but also heavy dictionaries. Eventually, he was forced to discard most of the original equipment to lighten the load during the two-week journey. Ironically, during the campaign in Buna, the Allied soldiers' worst enemy seemed to be not the Japanese but a disease--malaria.

We had a number of casualties [from battle] but nothing like malaria. It just took the unit by storm. I think it was safe to say 50% of the people were down with malaria....They kept people on the line who were very sick....Those were trouble days for all of us.


During the Buna campaign, Hirashima and the other linguists interrogated prisoners, most of whom were so ill that they would die just days after the interrogation. In fact, Hirashima remembers that most of the captured Japanese soldiers were either too uneducated, suicidal, and/or so sick that they could provide useful information. " WHERE veteran_id = 1019;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1020;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1021;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "In his youth, Arthur Komori excelled in academics and was also a star athlete. At the University of Hawaii, he joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) as a cadet and became a licensed pilot. Growing up in Hawaii, he also spoke Japanese like a native.

Along with fellow Japanese American Richard Sakakida, Komori enlisted in the Army in March 1941. The Counter Intelligence Police had recruited him and Sakakida to spy on Japanese nationals in the Philippines. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Komori was already heavily involved in surveillance work against the Japanese business community in Manila. Posing as a draft dodger and a Japan sympathizer, he found his way into jobs at a Japanese newspaper agency, the Japan Tourist Bureau, and the Japanese consulate. He collected information from Japanese contacts in high positions, including the consul general and the head of Domei News. All the while, he fed intelligence back to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters.

In the course of gathering information, Komori noticed that many Japanese businessmen were sending their families back to Japan. He sensed that something ominous was planned for Manila. True to Komori's suspicions, the Japanese military bombed Manila on December 8, 1941. The Philippine government immediately arrested and interned Komori and Sakakida along with other Japanese residents. In due time the U.S. Army rescued the two from prison, and Komori carried on with his intelligence work--this time in American uniform. He interrogated Japanese prisoners of war, translated confiscated Japanese documents, intercepted Japanese military communications, and laid the foundation for the use of psychological warfare. He also participated in combat duties in the Battle of Bataan with the 26th Cavalry and the Philippine Army scouts. His report documenting Japanese jungle combat tactics on Bataan was highly received by Gen. Charles Willoughby and the G-2 staff.

Komori also led language specialists from the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) to translate captured documents and interrogate POWs. During this period, he developed and documented methods for treating and interrogating prisoners--practices that were widely used by MIS members and others for the duration of the Pacific War. For example, interrogators were instructed to use the "kindness and understanding" approach to elicit information from the captured Japanese. As one officer explains, "a bandage, some medicine, a drink of water and a cigarette" were what made the difference between those who talked and those who kept their lips sealed. These efforts spurred the creation of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS).

After World War II, Komori remained in the military and continued to do counterintelligence work until 1952. Later, he pursued his law degree from the University of Maryland. He practiced law and served as a district court judge in his native Hawaii until his retirement.

In December 1945, Komori received the Bronze Star for his military service. He was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in 1988.

To give my all for my country, for my parents, for Hawaiian people was my objective.


" WHERE veteran_id = 1022;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "George Koshi attended Japanese school in his hometown near Denver, Colorado, as well as in Kumamoto, Japan. His father decided to send all the children back to Japan when Koshi was five years old. He stayed in Japan for 10 years. When Koshi returned to the United States, he had to relearn English. Partly based on his father's experiences translating and interpreting in legal matters for the Issei community, Koshi decided to attend law school and did so on a merit scholarship from the University of Denver. Upon graduating in 1940, he became the first and only licensed Nisei attorney in the state. In March 1942 he was drafted into the military and later transferred to the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Camp Savage. Out of 12 children in the family, five including Koshi served in the U.S. military.

After the six-month language course, Koshi stayed at MISLS to teach one session. Subsequently, he was sent to the War Department in Washington, D.C. At the time of Japan's surrender, Koshi was part of the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS) stationed in Camp Ritchie, Maryland.

He became heavily involved in the writing of the new Japanese constitution as a member of the Legal Section at General Headquarters SCAP. Being the only American who could speak Japanese, Koshi was approached by several committees working on the constitution for advice and consultation.

He also became a member of a team of defense attorneys during the war crimes trials. He and other American attorneys, along with Japanese lawyers appointed by Japanese government, worked together to gather information and present the defense. Though the trials were based on the American trial methods, Koshi saw very few American witnesses actually take the stand for cross-examination. Instead, the judges typically were presented with piles of statements made by former American POWs and took these affidavits at face value.

Koshi stayed in Japan through the Occupation years, working as a language analyst and advisor to the attorneys. In June of 1974, he returned to the United States and continued his career as an attorney.

For his work during the war crimes trials and in connection with the reformation of the Japanese judicial system, Koshi received awards from the Japanese government: "Whatever assignment, whatever work I did, I did my best." " WHERE veteran_id = 1023;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Like most Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast, Ard Aven Kozono and his family followed evacuation orders and were relocated to Tule Lake Detention Camp. After spending one year in camp, Kozono headed for Washington, D.C., and was redrafted for the Army in mid-1944. Kozono was recruited for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) at Fort Snelling and eventually graduated from the language school in August 1945. Subsequently, he was sent to Manila, Philippines, to join the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS).

Kozono led a group of MIS linguists to take part in interrogation work at the Luzon Prisoner of War (LUPOW) Camp #1, where thousands of Japanese prisoners were incarcerated. As members of the LUPOW team, their job was to register, interrogate, and process all of the prisoners so that they could return home as quickly as possible. Working at the camp of approximately 80,000 people proved to be a daunting task. Many of the prisoners had been fighting since the beginning of the war and were beyond exhaustion. According to another LUPOW member, all of the prisoners suffered from malnutrition and many were either sick or wounded. Luzon prisoners included not only Japanese soldiers but also Korean laborers, nurses, children, and "comfort women."

The military police stationed at this camp had taken under their wing two Chinese boys nicknamed T-Bone and Wish Bone. As "honorary members" of the detachments, the boys donned uniforms cut to their size and ran errands for the MPs and the MIS linguists. Even after decades had passed, the U.S. veterans kept in touch with the Chinese boys from their wartime past. As Wish Bone expressed in his letter to one of the MIS men, some 40 years after their friendship had begun, he could never forget the kindness and generosity of the "yankee soldiers," and hoped that one day they may all reunite.

At the Luzon camp, one of Kozono's assignments led him to personal contact with Japanese General Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese forces in Bataan and Corregidor. While the captured Homma and General Tomoyuki Yamashita waited for their execution sentences, Kozono was ordered to Homma's prison cell to interview and process him.

Kozono was discharged on August 6, 1946.



" WHERE veteran_id = 1024;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Hoichi Kubo had an early start in learning the Japanese language. Every afternoon after regular school and each Saturday he attended Japanese classes, for a total of 12 years. When he was drafted into the Army in June 1941, his desire was to serve in the 100th Infantry Battalion in Europe. Because of his Japanese language background, however, he was transferred to the Military Intelligence Service (MIS).

Assigned to the 27th Infantry Division, Kubo took part in invasions of Makin, Majuro, Tsugenjima, and Okinawa. During one incident, he learned that a captured Japanese civilian turned out to be an employee of the Japanese Navy. The prisoner told Kubo's team about a planned gyokusai (an attack by all forces with intent on annihilating the enemy) on July 7, 1944. Information from another captured soldier confirmed this story. Because of this revelation, U.S. forces were well prepared to face the attackers.

Though Kubo was involved in diverse assignments as a language specialist, he is most famous for cave flushing work. The most well-known incident occurred in 1944, when he single-handedly convinced Japanese soldiers into releasing more than 100 Okinawan civilians from a cave in Saipan. He willingly descended a cliff to enter the cave and disappeared for hours. All he had with him were a hidden pistol and K-rations. Once inside the cave, he talked with the soldiers and shared his food with them. When asked why he served the American side and not the Japanese, Kubo replied with a legendary Japanese story about a son and his father facing each other on a battlefield. In the story when the father asked his son how he could fight against him, the son answered: "If I am filial, I cannot serve the Emperor. If I serve the Emperor, I cannot be filial."

Right away the soldiers understood Kubo's position. Kubo had successfully won them over. For this heroic act, he received the Distinguished Service Cross, becoming the only Nisei who served in the Pacific to receive this high honor.

After the war, Kubo acted as a liaison with the Japanese military personnel. In 1946 he returned to Hawaii and entered the food business, first at Hunt Food Corporation, and later in his own enterprise, the Aloha Supermarket in San Jose, California. Later, he and his brothers sold the business and Kubo worked for a competing market chain until his retirement in 1984.

I was in on the start and on the finish....I saw planes coming through Kole Kole Pass on December 7, and on Okinawa I saw more Japanese planes, those special planes with the green crosses on them, that were taking the Japanese surrender party to Manila to give up.


" WHERE veteran_id = 1025;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Raised in Utah, Henry Kuwabara attended Utah State Agricultural College until economic hardship forced him to leave his studies and find work. Because his family had moved to California prior to Executive Order 9066, he and his family members were sent to the detention camps. According to Kuwabara, because the Issei had been branded "enemy aliens," the relatively young Nisei suddenly found themselves in leadership positions and in charge of overseeing many internment-related matters. For instance, Kuwabara at the age of 23 was given the role of block manager, which entailed full responsibility for 500 internees.

From the camp Kuwabara decided to volunteer for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), and in November 1942, he left for Camp Savage, Minnesota. After graduation, he was assigned to the G-2 Section of Army headquarters in the China-Burma-India Theater. In this assignment, he translated documents and interrogated prisoners captured in Burma. He stayed in the region for two years, serving in various capacities including duty with the Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center (SEATIC), Northern Area Combat Command, Nationalist Chinese 22nd Division, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). After the war, he joined a team of Nisei attached to the British Headquarters in Singapore and Malaysia. They helped process Japanese units for surrender and demobilization.

For his service with the 36th British Division, Kuwabara received a British Empire Medal for "obtaining information that enabled British forces to capture Japanese strongpoints at Hopin and Pinbaw" in Burma. Gathering information from prisoner interrogations, Kuwabara drew a defense map of the town that the Japanese held. Using this map, the Allied Forces were able to determine the strength and positions of the enemy units. He also received the Bronze Star for his service with the division.

In November 1946, Kuwabara reported to the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Tokyo. He later transferred to Osaka to command the 170th Language Detachment attached to the 25th Infantry Division. He spent a good number of years in Japan, working as a deputy chief for the Central Interrogation Center and later as chief of the Captured Documents Subsection. He received a promotion to the rank of Captain. During the Korean War, he was in charge of a seven-member Nisei intelligence group of the G-2 Section, during which time he witnessed one of the cruelest incidents of the war--the Taejon Massacre in which thousands upon thousands of South Korean civilians were butchered by North Korean soldiers.

Later, Kuwabara worked in various high-level assignments in the United States as well as in West Germany. In 1963, Kuwabara retired from active duty with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. The next 20 years found him in Japan working in public relations for Japanese companies. He returned to the United States in 1983.

Perhaps the greatest sense of accomplishment has been the feeling of pride and self-satisfaction that our efforts made a very unique and special contribution to enhancing and speeding the acceptance of persons of Japanese ancestry back into the mainstream of the American life fabric.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1026;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Both of Frank Masuoka's parents were prominent members of the city of Sebastopol. While his mother taught Japanese in Sebastopol as well as in the surrounding cities, Masuoka's father gained fame among the farming circles for his apple orchards. Because of his status in the close-knit Nikkei community, the elder Masuoka was visited by FBI agents soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

With two brothers in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Masuoka felt it a duty to volunteer for the Army and he did so while interned at the Amache Detention Camp. Leaving behind his parents and sister in the Colorado camp, Masuoka completed language training at the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) school at Camp Savage and headed to Saipan with the 7th Infantry Division in June 1944. Subsequently, he was assigned to the 27th Infantry Division and shipped to the Philippines and later to Okinawa.

My mother gave me a quasi-religious talisman called a "thousand stitches." A thousand people had each sewn a stitch to a cloth and this cloth was to protect me from harm. I carried it through all those campaigns, Saipan, the Marianas, the Philippines, Okinawa...I had it with me all the time.


During the landing in Leyte, Masuoka had a near-death experience when a fellow soldier mistook him for the enemy.

We went in our small landing craft and everyone was raring to go. As soon as our landing craft hit the beach and the landing flap dropped, we rushed ashore and set up our position in a protected area. In a lull, a GI came over and told me that I had almost "got" it. If he hadn't stopped him, another GI would have shot me, for the other GI had yelled, "We've got a Jap soldier in the crowd."


From that experience onward, the regimental commander made sure that Masuoka was accompanied by two bodyguards. It was also in Leyte that while nursing his wound from a mortar shell, Masuoka learned of his brother's death in France during the rescue operation of the "Lost Battalion."

As to underscore the finality of it all, mail that I had sent to my brother were returned, stamped "KIA." That was quite a blow. I was wounded but I had survived. My brother had not.


On the island of Okinawa on August 16, 1945, Masuoka and a fellow MIS soldier volunteered to enter an enemy area to convince Japanese soldiers to surrender. They left their bodyguards behind and began walking toward the enemy, completely unarmed and carrying only their canteens and a few cigarettes. Soon enough they were surrounded by rifled soldiers from all sides. The two were able to convince them that they were American soldiers and that because Japan had surrendered, it was their duty to have the Japanese soldiers give up their weapons. Later the entire enemy camp, numbering approximately 600, assembled themselves for surrender. Masuoka and Tatsuo Yamamoto were awarded Silver Star medals for their service in Okinawa.

After the war, Masuoka participated in other assignments: working in the interrogation center at the NYK Building in Tokyo, serving as an interrogator for Chinese and Korean prisoners of war, and numerous duties with intelligence units in the United States and abroad. By retirement, he had served more than 45 years with the U.S. government. " WHERE veteran_id = 1027;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Having lost his mother to illness, Tatsuo Matsuda was forced to stay with relatives in Hiroshima, where he attended both elementary and middle school for a total of 11 years. Wanting to retain his American citizenship, he returned to the United States in 1937 and finished high school in Chualar, California. Right after graduation, Matsuda was drafted into the Army in July 1941. He was participating in infantry training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He and five other Nisei soldiers were left behind when their division was ordered to head west for service. During this period recruiters from Camp Savage arrived to gather people like Matsuda for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). Placed in a class of Kibei and university graduates, Matsuda studied at the MIS language school from December 1942 to June 1943. While he studied at the language school, his family had voluntarily moved from California to Nebraska to escape internment.

Few months after graduation, Matsuda's team of linguists arrived in New Caledonia, then proceeded on to Bougainville where they stayed for exactly one year. He and the others interrogated prisoners and translated captured Japanese documents. They also created and disseminated leaflets urging the Japanese to surrender. Once, Matsuda's interrogation of four prisoners led to information about planned attacks on the XIV Corps to which Matsuda's team was attached. The incident turned heads because these prisoners came from the 6th Japanese Division, known as the bravest out of the entire Japanese Army. Also, prisoners were rare to find because they were typically trained to not give up. With this information, the XIV Corps was well prepared to face the enemy attack, and many more Japanese prisoners were taken after the planned assault. In his opinion, as long as interrogation work was coupled with humane treatment of the captured soldiers, extracting information was not difficult. The Japanese were willing to give up information about military plans and unit identities and discuss the condition of their supplies and other war-related materiel.

After Bougainville, Matsuda and a now larger group of MIS men moved on to the Philippines, landing in Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. After serving in other locations within the islands, he was sent to Japan to become a member of the Occupational forces. Among the devastation and tragedies of wartorn Japan, he noticed that there was a strong sense of despair among the people he encountered. For example, one leader from the self-defense forces who was recuperating in a hospital talked about how they had trained women and children to fight with bamboo spears "to the very end." The man tearfully exclaimed that the situation was meaningless and the work in vain because Japan would lose the war sooner or later. In October of 1945,Matsuda returned to the United States and subsequently was discharged from military service. " WHERE veteran_id = 1028;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1029;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Takashi Matsui's parents decided to send their eldest child to Japan to attend school. They believed that sons should be able to communicate with their parents in the mother tongue and that the American education system paled in comparison to schooling in Japan. Such thinking built the foundation for Matsui's education and in the end, he had more than 11 years of formal education in Japan. Matsui notes that one clear difference between Japanese and American schools at the time was military training. In Japanese high schools, students had to undergo military training in which they learned strict discipline and combat-related matters such as arms training, drills, and maneuvers. Many students also engaged in the martial arts. Education remained foremost in Matsui's mind as he pursued his higher education both in Japan and in the United States after the war.

An interesting incident cleared the path for Matsui to enter the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Camp Savage in late 1942. Having been drafted into the Army prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, Matsui and other Nisei soldiers had been sent to Camp Robinson for basic training when they discovered a booklet in the day room at the company headquarters. The title "How to Speak Japanese" intrigued Matsui and he began to sift through the book when he noticed mistakes and started to discuss them with others in the room. The conversation was overheard by a Caucasian officer who in turn reported it to the company commander. Two weeks later, Matsui was ordered to report to Camp Savage: "I wasn't sure whether I was being punished or what. I didn't know anything about Camp Savage--nobody knew."

Upon graduation, he was asked to remain as an instructor and taught at the school for a few years. Recruitment of students was also part of his job as he and other faculty members visited various detention camps to enroll Nisei volunteers for the school. Throughout the war, he remained connected to the language school, moving with the school to its locations in Camp Savage, Fort Snelling, and finally the Presidio of Monterey.

As Matsui remembers it, language training at the MIS school consisted of the following: developing skills to do two-way translations of textbook excerpts, radio messages, and documents; reading sosho, or the Japanese style of cursive writing; understanding Japanese military terminology; conducting interrogations especially of prisoners of war; and comprehending lectures on Japanese culture, customs and manners, traditions, and "national characteristics." Specifically, Matsui taught the upper level classes, consisting of Nisei and Caucasian lawyers, judges, engineers, and other highly educated professionals. In his later years of teaching, he became chairman of the academic division in which the students were all Caucasian officer-candidates. True to the aphorism, "Teaching is the beginning of learning," Matsui recalls that the learning process occurred two-way, as he learned as much from his students as they had from him. One Caucasian student remains large in his memory. With a gift for photographic memory, the student did little studying but as Matsui recalls, he "always turned in a perfect paper."

Matsui firmly believes that the Nisei who received language training through the MIS school were given opportunities to enrich their lives, with many of them in the postwar period pursuing fields that involved the language in one way or another.

To all of them [the students] MISLS training must have been a wonderful and rare experience....It was an education that gave them their livelihood and more than anything else a capacity to appreciate the culture and beauty of their ancestral land.


During the Occupation of Japan, Matsui led the General Headquarters 386th Interrogation Team and interrogated those prisoners repatriating to Japan. After separating from active duty, he gained employment as a legal investigator, working for the defense in the War Crimes Commission. His team--which handled those accused of direct involvement in crimes--was responsible for bringing an acquittal for Japanese Major General Uchiyama and for lessening sentences for others.

Matsui remembers his first visit to see his parents and relatives in Fukuoka during a two-week furlough. Having missed the train car specifically designated for Allied personnel, Matsui opted to ride with the Japanese locals so that he could return home as quickly as possible. He did not realize then that his decision would lead to a minor "incident."

The stationmaster came out and he personally assigned me four seats and placed a sign on the window stating that these seats were exclusively for Occupation personnel....The car was really congested and everyone was looking at me because I had four seats to myself. All were standing and I felt bad....I asked an obachan, an elderly lady closest to me to please sit down but she refused. Then I asked an old man, but he too refused. I then told them that I grew up not too far from here and I went to America when I was young and am now going to visit my folks and I again invited them to sit down. Finally, one obachan sat down. After she sat down, everyone wanted to sit down...[It was] strange to see a Japanese in a uniform of another country.


After being discharged from military service, Matsui served in managerial positions at numerous companies including Mitsubishi Corporation, where he stayed until his retirement in 1987. His devotion to community service in the greater Seattle area earned him many honors, including being selected as one of Seattle's 100 "Newsmakers of Tomorrow." He was also the founding president of the Northwest Association of the Military Intelligence Service, and participated in a variety of service, business, cultural, and veterans organizations.

For Matsui's lifetime contributions toward improving U.S.-Japan relations, the government of Japan awarded him the 5th Order of the Rising Sun (Gold and Silver Rays) in April 1994. " WHERE veteran_id = 1030;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Roy Matsumoto grew up in southern California. As a teenager, he went to Japan to live with his maternal grandparents and studied three years in a Japanese middle school. He returned to the United States to complete his secondary education.

In 1942 Matsumoto was interned in the detention center in Jerome, Arkansas. It was from the camp that he decided to volunteer for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). He would spend the next 21 years in the MIS, serving in various capacities throughout the world.

So I voted for him [Franklin D. Roosevelt] because I was a worker, you know...and in turn they send me to the concentration camp. I was so mad, and I gonna show 'em, you know, I am maybe not better than others but as good as the next guy and I'll show 'em what I can do. And that was my determination...


The greatest feats of his military career occurred during his time as one of Merrill's Marauders--a combat team led by Brig. Gen. Frank D. Merrill. Specially trained in jungle warfare, the unit infiltrated enemy lines in the mountains of Burma with the main objective of reconquering northern Burma and the Myitkyina Airfield so that war supplies could be shipped to China. On numerous occasions, Matsumoto single-handedly intercepted telephone communications between Japanese troops and relayed critical information to his superiors. Once, he overheard a message that gave away the location of an ammunition dump. With this piece of intelligence, a U.S. fighter plane was able to decimate the enemy supply headquarters.

During the Battle of Nhpum Ga, Matsumoto and his battalion found themselves surrounded by enemy troops. Sensing the urgency to take action, Matsumoto, with two hand grenades in his pocket, crawled out of his foxhole to get closer to the enemy. With his knowledge of various Japanese dialects, he was able to identify and comprehend the enemy's dialogue in the Fukuoka dialect. And it was during this midnight eavesdropping that Matsumoto discovered the Japanese Army's plan for an all-out attack the next morning.

I decided to carry two hand grenade[s], one for them and one for me if I get captured. So every time I go out, "Sarge, why you do a crazy thing like that? You might get killed!" But always I tell them well, "You know, if I don't go out and find out, all going to get killed."

You know what the hardest thing was I couldn't sneeze or cough. That was the hardest thing. [I was so close I could understand what they talked about.]....And I found out that they are gonna attack a certain area with certain numbers of people and at a certain time.


When dawn broke the next day, while the Japanese were finding nothing but empty foxholes on the American side, Matsumoto--impersonating a Japanese officer-stood up and shouted "Totsugeki!" ordering the confused Japanese soldiers to attack. In an instant, the Marauders ambushed the Japanese, which resulted in 54 Japanese soldiers dead and no American casualties. For this act of heroism, Matsumoto was awarded the Legion of Merit.

After Merrill's Marauders disbanded, Matsumoto joined the 475th Infantry Regiment of the Mars Task Force and conducted similar work with the Chinese Nationalist Army in Yunnan. During the Occupation, he was involved in intelligence and security work in Japan until 1952 when he returned to the United States. In 1963 Matsumoto retired after 20 years of military service.

In 1993 Matsumoto became the first minority veteran of the U.S. Army to be inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame, alongside war heroes from past American wars. He was also inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in 1997.

When I was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame and I let her [Matsumoto's mother] know. And at that time she said "Yoku yatta" [you did a good job], you know. She was very happy for me and that's what she wanted me to do, you know, my best, and I didn't think I did that well...

I been shipped around...kicked around, but I did the right thing. Some say it was my duty, and have to do unpleasant thing, and some people might lose job, might lose life, and might suffer uncomfortable things, but I have done all in line of duty and I have no regret even though it's a dirty job....so I just did the right thing, so always do the right thing.




" WHERE veteran_id = 1031;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "In March 1935, Kiyoshi Midzuno was sent to Japan by his parents. Despite having had minimal exposure to Japanese, Midzuno finished his middle school years in Japan. In his words, "I must have been the only Nisei that didn't have a relative in Japan," Mizduno resided at the school dormitory. Though classes proved to be difficult, Midzuno got support from upper class students in return for his help with their English lessons.

Although his parents urged him to remain in Japan after graduation, Midzuno decided to return to the United States and attend college in San Francisco and at the University of Utah. Under Executive Order 9066, the Midzuno family moved to the camp in Topaz, Utah. After spending almost a year in the camp, Midzuno left to attend an auto mechanic school, but all Nisei were eventually dismissed from the government-run school. In late 1944, he moved to Connecticut to become a Japanese instructor at Yale University's Civil Affairs Training School. Similar programs had sprung up in other prestigious universities across the nation, including Stanford University, University of Chicago, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Midzuno's students were primarily doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. While the Army Specialized Training School taught reading and writing to enlisted men, officers who were under Midzuno's tutelage were given training in oral fluency.

Midzuno stayed at Yale until March of 1946 when the War Department offered him a job as a translator and interpreter in Japan. Though he never engaged in military service, Midzuno served as a federal civil service employee for many years, starting with his assignment with the Civil Censorship Detachment, working with the General Headquarters SCAP in Fukuoka as well as in Sapporo. His primary duty was to censor Japanese mail for any information of value to the Occupation forces.

Upon his return to the United States, Midzuno continued his civil service, working for the U.S. Postal Service in San Francisco. Ironically, the first position he had was in the Japan Parcel Post section where he utilized his language skills to ensure Japan-bound packages arrived at their correct destinations. After 38 years working for the federal government, Midzuno retired in 1980. " WHERE veteran_id = 1032;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Accompanied by his mother, Tateshi Miyasaki went to Japan in 1918 at the age of five. While his mother returned to Idaho, Miyasaki was left in Japan to live with his uncle and aunt. He attended elementary school and middle school for a total of 10 years. At the age of 16, Miyasaki returned to the United States and graduated from high school in 1935.

In early 1941, he was drafted into the Army. While on assignment with the 41st Division, Miyasaki was approached by recruiters for an Army language school that was to be established in the Presidio of San Francisco. Soon afterward, he received orders to report to the school and began his language training with the first Military Intelligence Service (MIS) class. Among the first class members was John Burden, who later would become the team leader and enlist Miyasaki as his "righthand man."

Once the first class graduated, Miyasaki, Burden, and two other Nisei linguists headed for the South Pacific. They arrived in Guadalcanal and quickly became involved in interrogation work at the POW compound. In addition to interrogation and translation work, they also gave orientation lessons to the division troops to acquaint the soldiers with the "nature and character of the Japanese soldier." They continued on to New Georgia where they found that because the enemy had retreated to nearby islands, there was less opposition. Still, Miyasaki remembers some close calls while on the island.

We had to move our headquarters farther inland because the enemy apparently knew our position and fired a few rounds of artillery shells into our position....On one occasion at night, a lone Japanese bomber came over and dropped a fragmentation bomb which exploded at treetop level and caused a shrapnel to penetrate the tent and injured one of our G-2 personnel who failed to take cover in the foxhole.


In August of 1943, Miyasaki and the others settled onto Vella Lavella Island where the 35th Infantry Regiment was involved in combat with the enemy. While on the island Miyasaki and Burden interrogated a Japanese medical officer who had been captured while swimming ashore. Miyasaki remembers that the prisoner's first instinct upon capture was to die.

He wanted to die because he felt that it was such a disgrace to be a captured POW. However, when he thought of his family, he decided to live and return to his family after the war.


On Vella Lavella, the MIS team encountered more enemy attacks. On one particular morning after an all-night firing episode, Miyasaki got up and began to prepare the morning coffee when he was suddenly met with rifles from two New Zealand soldiers who thought he was the enemy. Luckily, Burden returned in time to convince the soldiers that Miyasaki was an American.

Later, Miyasaki joined the COMSOPAC headquarters where his primary work involved translating captured documents. Soon after, he headed for Fort Snelling and began teaching Japanese to newly recruited students. It wasn't long before Burden came to the language school to ask Miyasaki to join him in China. They arrived in Chungking in 1945 and Miyasaki was assigned to do translation work. With the end of the war, Miyasaki and his group were given even more captured documents to decipher. During this time he received a promotion to Master Sergeant and headed for Kunming and Nanking to work with Japanese POWs. Miyasaki remembers meeting many high-ranking Chinese officers and officials and being surprised to discover that most of them were graduates of the Japanese Military Academy.

Having accumulated enough service points, Miyasaki was discharged in late 1945. Along with a Bronze Star Medal, he received an Oak Leaf Cluster for his service during the South Pacific campaigns. " WHERE veteran_id = 1033;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1034;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Tadashi Mori was fully occupied with farmwork on his father's land as well as on rented property when the draft notice arrived ordering him to report to Camp Roberts. Soon after basic training, he was recruited for the first class at the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) school in Camp Savage. After graduation, he left for his assignment with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Australia.

Mori took a break from ATIS to enter the Officer Candidate School (OCS) in the nearby city of Wacol. After graduating in January 1945, he was sent back to ATIS to continue interrogation work. Later, he headed for Hollandia and then Manila as part of the advanced echelon of ATIS. Soon after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mori was appointed to become the personal interpreter for Gen. George C. Kenney, a four-star general in command of the Far Eastern Air Force. In one of the first interrogations during the Occupation, Mori was privy to information that came from a Japanese general who had been in command of the Japanese defense. Through interrogation, it was revealed that the Japanese military knew about U.S. plans to invade southern Japan and that the Japanese had prepared some 7,000 airplanes in its defense, 2,000 of which were "suicide" planes carrying loads of bombs. According to the general, the plan was to send waves of 300 to 400 planes per hour until they had depleted all the airplanes. The general made clear that though the U.S. side had claimed them to be "suicide" aircraft, the Japanese military considered those flying the airplanes as soldiers merely "following orders."

After separating from military service at the end of 1945, Mori reunited with his brother at the family farm and later engaged in the poultry business in addition to harvesting produce. " WHERE veteran_id = 1035;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Soon after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Morikawa family voluntarily moved from their home in Northern California to Colorado, thereby avoiding internment in the detention camps. Later, Eddie Morikawa worked various jobs, including farm labor, grocery clerk, and at a manufacturer of bolts and washers in Chicago. In late 1944, he was inducted into the Army and later moved on to the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Fort Snelling. By the time he completed his language training the war had ended, and his skills as a language specialist were needed in the Occupation of Japan.

After enrolling in a technical school in Missouri, Morikawa was recalled to active duty and reported to the language school at the Presidio of Monterey for a refresher course in Japanese. He later worked as an agent finance officer in the 7th Infantry Division in Japan. His duties in Japan led him to many prefectures and cities, including Fukui, Toyama, Gifu, Aichi, Nagoya, Wakayama, Nara, Maizuru, Suita, and Osaka: "Most of these places were in the rebuilding process but Eddie heard agonizing and devastating stories from prefecture to prefecture."

In Japan, he underwent many different assignments including one that took him to Pusan, Korea, with the IPW (Interrogation Prisoners of War) team headed by Lt. Sukeo Oji. Primary duties of the IPW team were to interrogate prisoners of war and to translate enemy documents. It was with the 2nd Infantry Division that Morikawa and others fought massive enemy forces and were met with heavy mortars, grenades, and other military fire. At the end of November 1950, for instance, the entire division was surrounded by enemy troops and trapped for two days. Suffering from loss in both men and equipment, the division finally was able to go south of the 38th Parallel for reinforcement. In the end, the team had obtained valuable information on enemy units, including their mission, strength, equipment, and positions.

In December 1952, Morikawa separated from active service with the rank of 1st Lieutenant. He was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation, Bronze Star, United Nations Service Medal, and the Korean Service Medal with 5 Bronze Campaign Stars. " WHERE veteran_id = 1036;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Patrick Nagano would never forget the day FBI agents came to the family farm and took his father into custody purportedly for his connection with the Nihonjin Kai (Japanese Club). The elder Nagano was detained for six months at a camp in Tutunga Canyon, North Dakota, while the rest of the family prepared for evacuation to Poston Detention Camp.

While interned in the Poston camp, Nagano volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and reported for language training at Camp Savage in December 1942.

As a citizen of this country, I felt it was what I should do. My father initially objected. He thought one member of the family in the army was enough--my older brother was drafted in February 1941. He [father] acquiesced and gave me his blessing when I explained to him I had to answer to my own sense of duty and conscience....We Niseis must demonstrate that we are worthy of being Americans.


Language training at the MIS school proved extremely demanding, especially for those like Nagano whose only exposure to Japanese was informal afterschool and weekend classes. Still, they worked feverishly to learn the language, including military forms of the language, cursive writing, and the geography of Japan. Much to his disappointment, Nagano was ordered to remain as an instructor while his peers continued on to work overseas after graduation: "Not only was I being left behind by all my buddies. I had not been trained to do what they were now asking me to do. In my most honest assessment, the Army was not utilizing me correctly, not using what capabilities I had to the fullest."

For Nagano, the most satisfying wartime experience finally came when he joined the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS) at Camp Ritchie. Working under Lt. Col. Gronich, Nagano realized the extent to which the commander placed value and trust in the MIS members: "He appreciated the exigency of winning the war and tried to make full use of the Niseis' abilities by training them to extract intelligence from documents rather than translating page by page the entire document." With Gronich's encouragement and support, Nagano says, "Our morale was given a much needed boost."

Members of PACMIRS examined all information gathered from the Pacific to prepare the Allied troops for the invasion of Japan. In one incident, Nagano remembers how he and the other PACMIRS members came across a lengthy document that had been screened by Naval Intelligence as having no intelligence value. The document turned out to be highly important as it contained the proceedings of a high-level ordinance conference, including participant names and a list of all their ordinance with commentary about issues and problems surrounding Japanese artillery. The finding gave the group a chance to prove its worth as members translated and delivered the document in a matter of weeks.

Gronich had Nagano and two other Nisei engage in a special assignment at the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces, in Versailles, France. Initially, the MIS men did not know what they were sent to accomplish. Most documents that arrived at headquarters were in French or German, leaving them with little to do. From October 1944 on, Nagano along with a few other MIS men waited to parachute into Berlin and seize documents that would help expedite the end of the Pacific War. They never got the chance as the war in Europe ended before this mission took place. Nagano noticed that by this time, everyone was glad that the war in Europe had come to an end.

It was a wild night. The Limmies, loose with booze, whooped it up with back slapping and hollering, "We won the war...we won the war!" How long the celebrating went on, I don't know. It was still going strong when I passed off to dreamland.


For Nagano, the way home included one last assignment--to escort a group of captured Japanese that included 33 officers and one civilian to the United States. Nagano recalls all but one officer treated the Japanese Americans coldly.

The generals were arrogant and would merely grunt their responses to us. The admiral was the only civil individual among them. He would at least talk with us, but the conversation was invariably casual in nature. The worst aspect of this hour was taunting of the GIs lining the decks above us with all manner of snide remarks. Some were directed at Urabe and me, "Hey look, a couple of Japs are even wearing our uniform!" This soon ceased as word got around about who we were and what our roles were.


Upon arriving on American soil, these Japanese officers--who had been enjoying immunity aboard the ship--were now facing the fact that they were prisoners.

For the first time they would be told that our government regarded them as prisoners of war. Accordingly, they were ordered to strip themselves totally of all their clothes. They seemed to be in a state of disbelief and shock at the abrupt change in their status and the commensurate reversal in attitude and treatment accorded them by our authorities....Our amusement turned to surprise as each one of them was found to be wearing money belts bulging with money. In total well over $50,000 was confiscated from them.


After this assignment, Nagano rejoined PACMIRS and remained with the group until his discharge from the military in December 1945.



" WHERE veteran_id = 1037;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Norito Nagao studied at the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) in 1943. After graduation, he completed basic training and special air force intelligence training in Florida. As a member of the intelligence team attached to the Far East Air Force, Nagao translated enemy documents from his quarters in Leyte, Philippines.

In collaboration with U.S. ground forces, Nagao's team helped to root out Japanese forces that were entrenched in tunnels in the Philippine hills. More than once the men encountered heavy enemy fire and artillery shells showering down from the hilltops. Searching the tunnels, the men found items of intelligence value such as Japanese aircraft manuals. Nagao's linguistic skills also enabled the U.S. soldiers to analyze various metal identification plates found on abandoned aircraft. With these types of information, U.S. forces were well aware of the production capabilities of Japanese aircraft plants.

After the Luzon assignment, Nagano and his team relocated to Manila where they monitored the movement of Japanese vessels along the Asian seacoast. When the war ended, Nagao went to Japan to join the Occupation forces. Though his primary duty was to be an interpreter, he also became involved in inspecting antiaircraft weapons and surveying weather bureau facilities in Korea.

After completing active duty, Nagao returned to Japan in 1946 to work as a civilian member of the U.S. Civil Service. He worked with the communications detachment and later as interrogator of select Japanese personnel returning from Siberian prison camps and Chinese prisoners of war. " WHERE veteran_id = 1038;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Satoshi Nagase grew up in Watsonville, California, and attended schools there until he was sent to Japan to live with relatives in Okayama. Having graduated from the Waseda International Institute in early 1938, Nagase continued on to matriculate at the Tokyo 1st Higher Radio School. It was also during this period that he worked at the Domei News Agency as a part-time radio operator. After returning to the United States, he enrolled in an engineering college in San Francisco.

Later, Nagase taught Japanese at the 4th Army Intelligence School at the Presidio in San Francisco. Under Executive Order 9066, however, he became a resident of the Poston Detention Center. After a few months of internment, he headed for Camp Savage to become a civilian instructor at the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). Working with Cpt. Kai Rasmussen, Nagase set up a radio station at the school so students could practice interception of Japanese broadcasts. With "Radio Savage," MIS students were well equipped to handle similar work later in New Guinea, the Philippines, India, and Burma.

Having completed various teaching positions at Camp Savage, Fort Snelling, and the Presidio of Monterey, Nagase left for his assignment in Japan as part of the G-2 General Headquarters. After completing active service, he remained in Japan to work as a civilian liaison officer from 1953 to 1976. This work involved heavy contact with the Japan Defense Agency, the Prime Minister's Office, and the National Police Agency.

Nagase retired from federal service in June 1976. " WHERE veteran_id = 1039;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Mac Nagata was one of the first members of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). As part of the first class of 38 graduates from the 4th Army Intelligence School at the Presidio of San Francisco, Nagata trained in techniques for translation of military documents as well as for interrogation of prisoners of war. Prior to the language school, Nagata had attended Japanese school in his hometown of Sanger, California, and had spoken the language at home. He also studied in Japan for a few months when he was nine years old.

As part of the first MISLS class, Nagata's team was considered a "test case" that would decide the direction and path for the MIS in later years. It was especially important for this first group to prove its worth and succeed to discredit those in the military who did not trust Japanese Americans in uniform. Ultimately, any sense of distrust and questions of loyalty dissipated as people like Nagata proved themselves to be "all-American soldiers." Nagata, for example, served in the Pacific War for 39 months without taking any leave.

Nagata conducted interrogation work in each of the four campaigns in which he participated. Among the interrogated were a number of Korean "comfort women" who had been forced to serve the Japanese soldiers during the war as well as Japanese stragglers who had been coaxed out of caves and other hiding places and were suffering from disease and starvation. At Admiral William Halsey's headquarters in Guadalcanal, Nagata and his team of linguists decoded and translated a highly complicated Japanese codebook that was confiscated early in the war. For this work, he received a special commendation from the commanding general, Maj. Gen. John R. Hodge.

Along with a Bronze Star Medal for his service in Guadalcanal and Bougainville, Nagata also received commendation by way of a letter penned by the commanding general of the U.S. Forces South Pacific Command, which was sent directly to Nagata's parents at the Gila River Detention Camp. This was a proud moment for the Nagata family, as it was highly unusual for such a high-ranking officer to write such a letter, particularly to an addressee at a detention camp. Though many felt embittered by the fact that families were separated into either the camps or overseas in war, the prevailing mood was that it was shikata ga nai, or "it can't be helped."

But what can you do? Every nihonjin [Japanese] has to go, so you can't help it. But you know, one thing, when I come back from the war...I told my folks all that in New Caledonia there were several nihonjins there. They were all sent to camp in one of the islands and they were starving. They didn't give them enough food. I told them that, you know, so compared to that, the Japanese here in the United States were lucky. They had the full three square meals a day...so they are more fortunate than the whole country over there.

Japan is not our country. Not my country. Because that's the way we look at it. That's the way most of the Nisei look at it. They have to fight so they fight.


Nagata also interpreted for high-ranking officers in Guadalcanal. Once, his interrogation of a captured Japanese naval officer caught the eye of Cpt. Gene Markey from the Naval Intelligence unit. Markey was so impressed with Nagata's ability to extract vital information that he sent a personal request to the Pentagon to have Nagata's parents and relatives released from the internment camps. In the end, the request was never granted.

Nagata received discharge papers in October 1945. Until retirement in 1983, Nagata worked in the lumber industry for a span of more than 30 years.

In 1997, Nagata and the two other surviving members of the original six-member MIS team received the Legion of Merit for their service during the Guadalcanal campaign. " WHERE veteran_id = 1040;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "After capture of the Myitkyina Airfield, the unit known as Merrill's Marauders was forced to disband due to injury, disease, and fatigue. The Allied Command decided to organize the 5332nd Brigade, otherwise known as the Mars Task Force, to carry on the work to secure and protect the Burma Road from the Japanese forces. Attached to the brigade was a linguistic team comprised of recent graduates from the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Fort Snelling. Yutaka Nakahata was one of them.

Upon landing at Myitkyina in late 1944, the group experienced an enemy attack for the first time when two Japanese aircraft stealthily appeared to bomb and strafe the U.S. forces on the airfield. After extensive training on jungle warfare, the linguists split into two-man teams and began their journey along the Burma Road. Nakahata recalls the long march:

We slogged through mud, scaled 7,000-foot peaks, skidded down steep mountainsides rendered slick by monsoon rain, and hacked our way through dense jungles. Along the way, we fought several skirmishes. Then we engaged the enemy in a climactic battle at Namhpakka, located right smack on the Burma Road. This decisive fight raged for three weeks until the defeated Japanese retreated southward.


The march lasted for almost 300 miles, during which the 124th Cavalry Regiment suffered 64 men killed in action and almost 300 injured soldiers. Once the mission was completed, the team headed for China to participate in various commands. One of Nakahata's last assignments was with the Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center (SEATIC) in New Delhi, India. " WHERE veteran_id = 1041;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Ben Nakamoto's childhood days growing up in his hometown of Sanger, California, were filled with memories of "all work, no play." He helped out on his family farm, tending the citrus orchards and driving the tractor. Though he had to work on the weekends, Nakamoto was able to attend Japanese school in addition to his regular English school. He and his older sister also studied in Japan. Nakamoto returned to the United States when he was 15 years old. Upon his return, Nakamoto remembers the difficulty he faced with English: "Being educated in Japan, I could barely carry out normal conversations." When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Nakamoto felt astonished that Japan had initiated the war.

I was surprised and couldn't believe it had happened. The people of Japan had been in wars for many years and to have another wasn't what the Japanese people wanted. I knew at that time that Japan couldn't afford to start a long-term war because of lack of war materiel....I felt sorry for the people, that they had to obey whatever the government dictates, and the hardships that lay ahead.


Soon after being drafted into the military, Nakamoto joined the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and graduated from the language school at Camp Savage in April 1943. Upon graduation, he joined the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) and headed for Brisbane, Australia. Later, he served in Goodenough Island, Hollandia, and New Britain, where he conducted translation and interpretation work. On New Britain, he and other 112th team members faced numerous night attacks and encountered many Japanese soldiers in combat. In one such attack, while securing himself in a foxhole, Nakamoto noticed a medic coming over a hill looking for cover. Nakamoto reacted quickly and risked his own life to jump out of the foxhole and bring the fellow soldier into hiding.

During his time on Lingayen Bay in the Philippines, Nakamoto and his partner Toshi Ogawa engaged in a battle deep in the hills of Oubucles. For this combat work, they were awarded the Bronze Star. Nakamoto was still in the Philippines when Japan surrendered in August 1945.

I was glad that the war had ended for all the people involved. Like what I noticed most [the] difference between United States and Japan was that Americans, they would say, "Let's all go home. We're able to go home." And there was no celebration or victory. That's just the opposite of what Japan would do. We didn't celebrate for victory--[we] just wanted to go home.


Occupation years found Nakamoto doing liaison work with the Japanese government. Later, he assisted with the repatriation of Koreans back to their homeland. With the option of staying in Japan to continue service, Nakamoto decided to return to the United States to start life anew. " WHERE veteran_id = 1042;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1043;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1044;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Answering the U.S. Army's call for volunteers to join the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Dan Nakatsu left his sophomore year at the University of Hawaii to become a member of the unit. Because of his physical condition, however, he could not participate along with the other members in the European campaigns. Instead, he joined the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and at age 19 became one of the leaders of the linguist teams that shipped to the Pacific.

I recall standing on the fantail and just something--deep thought and vowing to myself: "This is it, no matter what happens I'm going to do my bit. Even if I have to die doing it. I've got to do it....That same kind of thinking or feeling must have existed in so many others of that journey.


His first assignment with the MIS led him to the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area (JICPOA) in his native Hawaii. As Nakatsu recalls, most of the MIS members from Hawaii received assignments with JICPOA. Assignment on U.S. land was not so easy, however, as he and the others had to endure heavy jungle training that Nakatsu believes was "tougher than any actual combat experience."

Just visualize having to cross a fairly deep valley at night, no matches, no flashlights, no lights allowed, with full equipment on a moonless night...To get across the valley through this jungle-like condanimus [referring to the condanimus tree, which has spiny leaves and tangled roots] growth....This was a real jungle....A lot of men broke their legs trying to do this.


After his work with JICPOA, Nakatsu served in various commands, including the Central Pacific and the Southwest Pacific. Nakatsu's team of linguists conducted interrogation work while another team did mostly translations. From time to time, both teams were given special assignments such as intercepting Japanese telephone messages. Nakatsu recalls that at times, the humane approach the MIS men took in interrogating the prisoners of war worked to the interrogator's advantage.

He [the prisoner] had never believed that the enemy would be so kind. That he was so thoroughly impressed by what we were doing, our attitude, and our humane treatment which was counter to everything else that they had been taught about how you are supposed to effect with treatment of prisoners that he wanted to cooperate fully.


In one instance, such cooperation and willingness to divulge information led to a full description of the Japanese code system--extremely valuable intelligence for the U.S. side. Having been given orders to "go all the way with this POW," Nakatsu spent three days listening and learning the code from the prisoner.

I literally wrote a thesis on what he told me as accurately as I could. You can imagine how much time and attention I spent on this. And I gave it to G-2....the Colonel sent his report...to other U.S. Army Headquarters or Corps Headquarters....To him, this was terribly important, vital information that could be useful to all U.S. units facing the Japanese.


As fate would have it, when the report circulated, Nakatsu's commanding officer received the following message: "Destroy all copies [of the report] immediately without fail. We already know the system."

On Leyte, Philippines, Nakatsu found himself in danger not only from the enemy but at times from those on the U.S. side: Filipino guerrillas and GIs would mistake him for a Japanese soldier.

As I was walking upstream with my back to the bridge, a Filipino refugee...called the guard and excitedly pointed to me as being an enemy soldier. This guard raised his M1 and drew a bead on me. Luckily a GI sergeant was right behind me, that is, next in line and close to the bridge, and happened to look up and saw what was happening and he yelled at the guard, "Hold your fire! He's one of us!" When I came downstream, the guard told me, "I almost shot you." Of course, he did not fire but that's how we were, not so much in danger of being hurt by enemy fire, but being killed by our own side, including guerrillas.


After Leyte, Nakatsu joined action in the Battle of Okinawa. Attached to the 24th Army Corps, Nakatsu and the other linguists one day received a Japanese artillery officer's belongings. Among the items was a map of Okinawa that was of immense value for the American troops. Prior to this find, the U.S. forces had a map that showed only general indications of crucial landmarks such as mountains and hills. In contrast, the captured map contained the minutest details and contours of the entire island, and even included notations in Japanese indicating some of the heavy artillery positions. Nakatsu had four of his best translators work all night on the map. Within days, 12,000 copies of the translated map were circulated to various troops on the island.

After the war, Nakatsu joined the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Tokyo as a leader of a translation team. After separation from the Army, Nakatsu worked in advertising and public relations for Japan Airlines. Years after the war experience, he comments, "Even today these experiences keep on coming back to me vividly. Sometimes, I see them in my dreams." " WHERE veteran_id = 1045;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Torao Neishi was born in Oakland, California. Having prospered in their business, the Neishi family decided to move back to Japan in 1921. Two of the three brothers, including Neishi, remained in Japan with their grandmother while their mother and the youngest brother returned to the United States. Neishi spent 10 years in Japan--an experience that led him to feel "more Japanese than American" by the time he prepared to go back to California. Having Nisei friends in the area helped him acculturate back into American society, and he later entered the University of California at Berkeley to study horticulture.

Neishi was drafted in January 1942, one month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Few months later, he received orders to report to Camp Savage, Minnesota, to begin language training at the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). Because of their extensive knowledge of the Japanese language, he and 13 other Kibei comprised a special class, from which two members became MISLS instructors.

Neishi participated in the Buna campaign in New Guinea as a member of the language detachment attached to the 41st Division. He and the others scanned and translated captured documents, including diaries, magazines, and unit documents that described the strengths and strategies of the unit. Later, he was involved in amphibious landings in Hollandia, Biak, and other locations. A couple of times, the unit had close encounters with Japanese planes flying right above them, close enough that Neishi could see the pilots.

Every time we have K-ration, we heat it up, smoke start coming out, the Japanese start shooting at us. But our line kept going up the hill...they're attacking, but [our] headquarters is in the middle of the airfield. They aim at us during lunchtime so we scatter.


Though language specialists typically were ordered not to go to the frontlines, a G-2 officer demanded that Neishi interrogate a prisoner inside a foxhole, with bombs and artillery fire exploding in the air above them.

Neishi later joined the 38th Division, during which time he and two others taught Japanese to the Filipino regiment stationed in Buna. He also interrogated prisoners who were convalescing in the island hospital. In the aftermath of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Neishi and other team members were in charge of interrogating prisoners of war who eventually repatriated to Japan. Soon afterward, he returned to the United States and taught at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. In later years, he and his family ran a nursery in his hometown of Oakland. " WHERE veteran_id = 1046;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Growing up in Fresno, California, Frank Nishio was exposed to a variety of cultures and ethnicities in the community. Among the townspeople were Japanese, Chinese, German-Russians, Italians, Mexicans, and blacks. Though the neighborhood was diverse Nishio remembers that typically,

The Japanese played with the Japanese and the Chinese played with the Chinese....So most of our friends were Japanese Americans and we visited amongst Japanese Americans even though in between our homes there were hakujins [Caucasians] living. We knew who they were. They knew who we were. We were friendly with each other, but we hardly visited their homes....


In December 1933, Nishio left the United States and headed for Japan, where he would complete more than six years of study in middle and high school. Schooling in Japan continued the ethical and moral teachings that Nishio had been exposed to at the Japanese school in Fresno. Activities such as judo and kendo demanded not only the strictest discipline but also reinforced Japanese notions of perseverance and other elements that would go into "building one's character."

Having returned home in early 1940, Nishio attempted to volunteer for the Army but was turned down. The rejection hit him hard, as he recalls his emotions on that day, December 8, 1941--one day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

That was the most unbelievably the most devastating moment in my life. You see, I was not a dual citizen. I was only an American. And my country rejected me. I was so dejected that I went to school, physically I was at school, but I felt, "What's the use." I was a zombie, and couldn't and didn't perform in school. In February, I quit school and started to farm labor, sort of a self destruct[ive] act.


More disappointment ensued, as the Nishio family had to give away most of their assets and livelihood to join the other Japanese Americans in the mass evacuation from the West Coast. Like others from the Fresno area, the Nishios reported to the Fresno Assembly Center for a few months, then were relocated to the Jerome Detention Camp in Arkansas.

Nishio tried again to volunteer for military services but was rejected for the second time. During that period, he had been teaching Japanese at the University of Michigan--a job considered by the U.S. Army to be of higher importance than a military position. After negotiating with Colonel Kai Rasmussen of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), Nishio was accepted into MIS.

After teaching at the MIS Language School for a year, Nishio headed for Japan to join the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Tokyo. Soon after, he became a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and received assignment as an officer in charge of the Toyama and Maizuru offices. One of his primary duties had to do with ensuring his agents maintained their contacts (typically informants), conducted investigations, and produced reports that relayed intelligence information back to headquarters. Much of the information dealt with Communist infiltrations, planned labor strikes, and labor movement discussions.

During those Occupation years, Nishio took the opportunity to visit Hiroshima to visit old schoolmates. As he remembers, "We were as friendly [to each other] as before the war"--despite the fact that while Nishio served on the U.S. side, his friends had been members of the Japanese Army. During their visit, the Japanese friends even joked about the "tough times." Nishio's recollections of Japan immediately after the war affirmed his friends' experiences:

Practically all the buildings around Yokohama were flattened except the tall buildings which were used in the Occupation. The bombing was done so that whatever we could use later was spared. But otherwise, everything was bombed out and a lot of people were living in shacks under railroad trestles and under bridges...Those were the kind of shacks that were seen in Tokyo and Yokohama. They were pieces of tin, pieces of wood, and pieces of cardboard all put together to create a shelter. You couldn't find anything more than that.


In Hiroshima, he happened to meet the principal of the grade school he had attended. Nishio remembered him fondly, for the principal had once praised him highly in front of the entire student body. This chance meeting, however, proved to be not of pleasantry but one of bitterness.

The principal...stopped me and looked at my uniform and said, "Is this an American uniform?" And I said, "Yes." Now his two sons also went to the same middle school. And with cold contempt and hostility, [he] glared at me and said, "My two sons were killed in the South Pacific"...he glared at me in contempt.


After Japan Nishio served with the CIC in Korea, where he interrogated prisoners of war and those deemed suspicious by the U.S. military. He also gave talks on security-related matters, which were well received and led to recommendation for a Bronze Star. Nishio never received one, however.

Reflecting back on his MIS years, Nishio credits his later life successes to his experiences serving in the Pacific War.

The greatest satisfaction that I derived from the war was maturation, broadening of the scope of understanding, confidence in my own accomplishments and ability to appreciate my personal heritage, and the confidence to be able to deal with the situation no matter how unusual.

If nothing unusual [such as war] happened, we [the Nisei] would be working as plain old professional men, clerks in our own ethnic businesses, farmers, and assorted limited positions in a limited world. In contrast, since the war, we have expanded into all areas of opportunities, holding high offices and positions in unbelievably varied sectors. I look at the WWII era as a spring that was oppressed, that bound back to its fullest expansion, and still expanding but still fighting for a perfect state.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1047;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "From early on Sho Nomura knew about discrimination against people of Japanese ancestry that existed in some communities across America. In the late 1930s, those who studied and graduated with a degree in aerotechnology were almost guaranteed a good, solid job at large aircraft companies. In fact, all the graduates of Nomura's older brother's class were recruited by such companies in Southern California. The only two who remained unemployed were Nomura's brother and another Japanese American. Witnessing this, Nomura changed his mind about following his brother's footsteps and opted to study business.

He also helped his family with their wholesale produce market business. During a mandated blackout one night, they inadvertedly forgot about the refrigerator lighting system, and the civil patrol demanded that Nomura, his brother, and their father go to the police station to explain the violation. Nomura remembers being treated as criminals without any explanation:

The three of us were hauled down to the police station and they told us to remove our belts and empty our pockets and put it on the table. And I said, what is this? You said we...you wanted us to come down here and explain why the light in the refrigerating unit went on. He says, don't give me any sass and then they took us...slapped us into a cell. The first time that my dad sat down on a cell bed and said, my dad said, this is the first time I ever been in a jail. And what happened, I'm in jail with my two sons.


Reports of the incident appeared in the local news, and the Nomura family acted quickly to assemble all of their friends--Japanese-American and Caucasian--to gather at the courthouse the following day. Upon seeing this congregation of supporters, the presiding judge's comment was, "Well I see that you have plenty of character references and I understand that you're being evacuated in a couple or three weeks. So, we'll drop all charges." Nomura never found out just what the charges against him and his family were.

As the judge predicted, Japanese Americans were soon forced out of their homes and relocated to various assembly centers. Nomura and his family then transferred to the Gila River Detention Camp in Arizona. Stifled by life in the camp, Nomura decided to volunteer for the Army and was sent to Camp Savage for Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS): "My command, if you want to call it that, of the Japanese language was quite nil, but it seemed to me that, at the time, that this was the only way to get out of the artificial, depressing atmosphere, the environment of camp life."

During a visit to the camp after he'd graduated from MISLS, Nomura discovered his mother had been taunted by some internees who scoffed at the idea that a Japanese American would volunteer for U.S. military services.

They said, "How can you allow your son to do something against your...against Japan? And when they said "against Japan" they thought we were going to be spies or do some undercover work or something like that. And they called them "you parents of a dog..."


Ironically, as Japan began to lose the war and the Allied Forces gained more momentum toward victory, some of the sons of these very internees volunteered for the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and fought loyally for the U.S. side.

In 1944, Nomura and four other Nisei became members of a linguist team assigned to a special military group known as the Dixie Mission. Their main objective was to be American observers of communist-related activities in northern China, where Communist leaders Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai were taking fort. The Dixie Mission formed a unique group comprising members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and the State Department. Many of them spoke fluent Chinese. Nomura and the other Nisei, George Nakamura, received an assignment to interrogate the 90-100 Japanese who had been captured by the Chinese Communists. Nomura recalls at times, the Communists allowed their intelligence officers to help the MIS men in return for the Nisei's sharing of information that they had gathered. The intelligence helped the Communists in planning their guerrilla attacks while the MIS were able to keep abreast of Japanese troop movements using the information supplied by the Chinese. As Nomura remembers, the atmosphere there was relaxed and informal: "Never in my wildest dreams, did I think that I would one day rub elbows with the likes of Mao Tse-tung, Chu Teh, Chou En-lai, Yeh Chien-ying, et al."

Nomura remained in China until the end of the war. In 1978, prior to normalization of relations with China, Nomura and others of the Dixie Mission had a chance to revisit the former Communist headquarters in Yan'an (Yenan). The reunion proved to be a joyful one, as former members recounted old stories and shared postwar experiences amidst countless banquets and parties hosted by the Chinese government. " WHERE veteran_id = 1048;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When James Oda was seven years old, his mother sent him and his younger brother to Japan for their schooling. This decision to have them educated overseas did not agree with Oda's father, as he wanted his sons to attend school in the United States.

My father wanted to educate me in American way and take over his farm as I grew up. But my mother thought otherwise. I should learn Japanese in Japan so parents and son can talk to each other in their own terms. So I went back there [to Japan], I was seven, and of course I encountered a lot of trouble...And the kids are...I was a very strange person to them so the kids ganged up on me. I had to fight almost every day....

They asked me who is the greater person, President of the United States or Emperor of Japan. And my father never taught me about Emperor so I said I suppose maybe the President of the United States....And that sort of thing started [a] big fight.


Before Oda's father passed away, he told his son to come back to the United States. Oda kept his promise to return and landed back home in 1932, at which point he had to "learn" English all over again. He would attend school during the day and work as a houseboy in the evenings and on weekends. Before the war began, he was heavily involved in the local labor union movement, eventually making his way to becoming a vice president in charge of organizing Japanese employees for a local labor union.

In March 1942, Oda was sent to the Manzanar Detention Camp. It was from camp that he decided to volunteer for the military via the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). He attended MIS Language School in Camp Savage and remained there after graduation to serve as one of the instructors. Much of his time as a Japanese language teacher was spent on conducting extracurricular activities as well as writing articles for local Japanese publications.

After the war, Oda served three years with the Occupation forces in Japan. When he returned to the United States, he began working on a commercial egg farm. After Oda had spent seven years establishing his business, his wife finally had chance to begin practicing medicine.

When evacuation came, all the students of Japanese descent were notified to get out of the school [University of California, Berkeley]....They had to leave. Go back home and evacuate with their respective families. Now, my wife...was very confused with whether we should support America, or what to do, you know. When she met me and I was educated in Japan but still so outright supporting America, somehow that changed her viewpoint. She was so disgusted with the whole thing, but along with me she became very pro-American.


Despite his years in Japan, Oda never felt anything but complete loyalty toward his native country, the United States. In fact, he recalls the anguish he felt as a Kibei in Japan.

I was mentally very unhappy in Japan. You have to bow your head all the time. don't speak up, do this, don't do this, don't do that, very regimented. And I really felt that I had better commit suicide to get away from all this. That's why when I came back to America, for the first time, I regained [the] will to live. I was only 18, it was very hard to get the job, make a living. But yet, here it's worthwhile to endure and suffer.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1049;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Sukeo Oji spent a happy childhood on his father's vegetable farm in Sacramento. Two other Japanese families lived nearby, and Oji would go along with one of the Kumagai sons to hunt for meadowlarks, robins, and even sparrows. Oji fondly remembers how his mother would box lunch for them to take on their hunting ventures.

With such tranquility there still existed racial barriers for Japanese Americans. For instance, Oji and his friends always swam in the river even though the community had a public pool--the facility was closed to the Japanese. As Oji says, "Such discrimination was part of our living. It was so ingrained in us it was part of [our] way of life."

From a young age, Oji had various chores assigned to him. Being a member of a large family consisting of eight children, one of his jobs had to do with guarding their farm from poachers. In his early teens, he would deliver truckloads of cantaloupe and vegetables to wholesale markets. All the while, he and his siblings attended both regular and Japanese schools daily.

Oji's interests in engineering and craftsmanship started early, indicated by his love for making model trucks, boats, and airplanes. While attending high school, he won first prize in a national drafting competition, which yielded him a set of drafting tools and a certificate. Fortunately, he had opportunities to continue pursuing his love for mechanical things both during the war and in his postwar career.

Also during his adolescent years, Oji would often dream of flying as he watched army fighter planes jetting past the family fields. He fulfilled his wish when he obtained a license from the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Sacramento Junior College. He was about to start training to become a flight instructor when the Army drafted him on November 6, 1941. Soon after, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and as Oji comments, "things were in great confusion" at the army base where he was stationed: "My first sergeant handed me a 03 rifle with 200 rounds of ammunition and ordered me to guard one of the electrical transformer stations, telling me I'll be relieved in couple of hours. It was morning before he remembered to relieve me." Orders arrived then for Oji to be placed in inactive reserve and to be sent home. Soon, Executive Order 9066 forced the Ojis off their farm with only one suitcase for each family member. He recalls how he sad he was at having to leave behind a decorative table that he had so proudly crafted. They ended up at the Gila River Detention Camp, having to start a new life in the isolated and desolate desert of Arizona. Later, in recollecting his war years, Oji would write,

It was so ironic to see our people being incarcerated like this while we were in uniform of the government who forced our people in places like these....we all, I'm sure, reflected on the injustice of our government and more so we soldiers, somehow, had to show this government that we are true and loyal citizens of this country.


Under the Student Relocation Program, Oji and a group of other Nisei had the opportunity to leave the camps and continue their education. With assistance from the program and the Wesley Methodist Foundation, he began classes at the University of Nebraska. He would never complete his studies, as he received his call for active duty in his senior year. Assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Buck Sergeant Oji took a position as a Heavy Machine Gun Squad leader. Though he was supposed to move out with the unit to Europe, fate intercepted and again, Oji did not go out into the war zone. While in basic training, he was approached by recruiters from the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and asked to read the word "Nihon" (Japanese word for Japan). "That's good enough," was the interviewer's reply as Oji read the two-character word for him. Soon, he was transferred to Camp Savage to attend the MIS Language School. After graduating from the nine-month course, Oji was accepted to attend the Officer Candidate School in June 1945. Few months later the war ended and Oji received his commission as Second Lieutenant.

During the Occupation, Oji worked with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) briefly before receiving assignment to be part of the 164th Language Detachment at X Corps located on the campus of Keio University. At Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Oji and the other team members censored all incoming and outgoing mail related to the Japanese prisoners who were incarcerated while waiting for the war crime trials. His next assignment brought him closer to his real interest in engineering, as he transferred to the 583rd Engineer Construction Group which had been desperately searching for a Japanese-speaking engineering officer. Oji took charge of some 30 Japanese engineers with responsibility of making field surveys, and planning and preparing engineering and construction plans for troop and family housing units. By the time it was completed in 1948, the project included not only housing but also a commissary, post exchange, theater, school, chapel, and officers and service clubs. Oji continued to work in this capacity and was involved in many more postwar construction projects--both in Japan and back home in the United States.

With the Korean War, Oji received orders to take charge of the Interrogation Prisoners of War (IPW) team and join the 2nd Infantry Division. The team consisted of three officers and 14 enlisted men, all Nisei except for one Russian linguist. Because Japanese was the second language for many Koreans--a direct result of Japanese colonialism--the Nisei linguists proved valuable in their work as interrogators and interpreters.

By September of 1950, Oji and his team had seen countless numbers of prisoners and realized from the POWs' physical conditions that the enemy was wearing down and lacking food and supplies. With Gen. Douglas MacArthur's successful landing at Inchon, the U.S. forces began their offensive attacks: "The enemy in front of our line collapsed. The enemy practically disintegrated and many disappeared into the hills and mountains." During the period, Oji remembers seeing many horrific incidents involving captured South Koreans.

They [North Korean army] corralled many political prisoners and finger pointed civilians and incarcerated them in the existing prisons. When our rapidly advancing units pushed the enemy, they did not have time to evacuate nor properly dispose of their prisoners. They apparently decided to dig mass graves and shot most of them. Even then they did not have time to bury them and left the bodies stacked like cords of wood beside the trench. When the enemy hastily retreated, the family and relatives, women and old men were looking for their loved ones and taking them away in makeshift wooden boxes. It was a dreadful sight and experience.


Their division advanced with very little resistance, and Oji and his men were able to interrogate and process hundreds of prisoners. In their questioning, the MIS men would find out the prisoners' names, units, rank, and serial numbers and separate them according to this information. Then, the IPW members interrogated some enlisted men and the officers while the rest of the prisoners were shipped out to Corps headquarters.

As they got closer to the Korea-China border, the U.S. soldiers received nightly visits from "Midnight Charley," an enemy slow-flying biplane that would fly over and drop small bombs in the area where the soldiers bivouacked. Evidence of Chinese Communist infiltration in the war surfaced as Oji and his men began to see Chinese prisoners wearing North Korean Army uniforms. Soon, the Chinese Communist Army began a full-scale offensive along the Yalu border.

In November 1950 the IPW team and other headquarter personnel found shelter in an abandoned schoolhouse. At night, they had to lie flat on their backs in shallow foxholes, as mortar fire dropped all around them and they heard the distant rumbling of artillery fire. The next morning, they discovered that two enemy regiments were right behind and had set up roadblocks on either side of them, leaving only a narrow one-way dirt road as an escape route. As the U.S. soldiers made their way through the road, small arms fire hit them from above and one of Oji's men, Private Shizuo Motoyama, was wounded as he tried to climb onto a truck. By the time they transported him to the medical station, he was dead. These conditions continued all day:

We fought through this roadblock of about three miles from eight in the morning till about five at night. We were stalled every time one of the vehicles in front was hit by mortar fire or small arms. The soldiers had to get up from their cover along the roadside and push the vehicle off the road into the adjacent streambed before we can advance again. Meantime, we all tried to fire back at the invisible enemies dug in the hillside....There were many casualties....

Our division took the brunt of the enemy onslaught, and lost so many fighting men that we were only 25% combat effective.


With both loss of soldiers and high turnover of linguists due to rotations, the Army decided to open an Interrogation Prisoner of War training school to replenish the rapidly diminishing supply of MIS personnel. Oji was assigned the job of organizing the school and conducting the training. In the classes, he oriented the students to the fundamentals of seeking and identifying intelligence information of value as well as map reading and interrogation techniques. Later, the training school was integrated into the Advanced Allied Translator Interpreter Services (ADVANATIS) team, the highest military intelligence collecting agency in Korea.

After teaching three classes at the IPW school, Oji opted to rotate out of Korea and returned to Japan to work in the Japanese Liaison Office at Gen. MacArthur's Headquarters in Tokyo. Soon after, Oji received reassignment back to the United States and resumed work in engineering, serving under the Master Planning Division at the Presidio of San Francisco. Responsibilities involved coordinating all matters pertaining to army installations being planned for various sites including Fort Ord and the Presidio of Monterey. In this position, Oji had many opportunities to visit the installations and to continue training as an Engineer Officer. In August 1954, he received another overseas assignment to Japan. He became involved in liaison work with the Japanese Construction Ministry to ensure that the construction program to build alternate facilities for the U.S. Armed Forces was being handled correctly and meeting standards. Other construction projects included troop barracks and support facilities in Yokohama, Kobe, and other cities around Japan.

Before heading on a tour of duty in Europe, Oji fulfilled yet another assignment at the Presidio of San Francisco as Assistant Chief General Staff Officer in charge of coordinating all military construction programs for the 6th Army. For this work, he received a Commendation Ribbon with a Bronze Star Medal.

In September 1959 Oji received orders for an assignment with the Central Command in Frankfurt. As a Post Engineer, he had under his charge well over 800 workers to man a 500-bed U.S. Army Station hospital and a major Quartermaster General Depot. Before retiring from the military, he served one last assignment as a Post Engineer at the Sierra Army Depot near the California-Nevada border. On July 1963, Oji retired as a Major after 22 years of military service.

In his civilian career, Oji continued working in the field of engineering for the federal government. For example, as a General Engineer, he was responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the Utilities Management Report for all naval installations spanning several states. Other engineer positions led him to work at Sharpe Army Depot (Stockton, California), Oakland Army Base, and the Public Works Center in San Francisco. His last position as Head of Utilities Service Contract Branch led him back to the Western Division Engineering Command in San Bruno, California. After more than 40 years in the federal government, he retired in 1980.













" WHERE veteran_id = 1050;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Don Oka was five, he and his four brothers were sent to Japan for education. Oka remained there to complete agricultural high school and returned to the United States in 1937. When the war began, he was just starting his schooling at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. The U.S. Army drafted Oka on February 12, 1942. For few months after basic training, Oka and other Nisei soldiers were told to do kitchen duties and other menial labor. Not wanting to continue such work, Oka considered volunteering for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) but had qualms until his German-American captain shared his own experiences with the Japanese Americans: "In World War I, I was treated the same way you guys are treated right now, and I know how you feel. But you should go to interview [for the MIS]." Those words helped convince Oka and his friends to transfer to the MIS Language School in Minnesota, whereOka studied for three months and was immediately assigned to work with the Alaskan scouts in the North Pacific Command.

After Alaska, Oka served with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Central Pacific. He and the other MIS men participated in a number of assignments including translating documents and persuading enemy soldiers to surrender. At times, they would use a small plane with a loudspeaker system to broadcast surrender messages; other times, they would enter caves and air-raid shelters to coax people out of hiding. Other responsibilities led Oka to work with civilians to establish a school and hospitals in Saipan and Tinian. Oka was also heavily involved in the creation of a farmers cooperative that began with use of U.S. tractors and seeds flown in from Hawaii. In the end, the farm produced enough vegetables to feed the captured civilians.

Typically, the MIS linguists were in pairs or in teams of five or six men. These arrangements worked well for translations and interpretations. For example, Oka remembers in his team of five, one of them would be highly fluent in Japanese while at least one other would be so in English, so that "when we work together, the final product, it comes out just perfect."

Also in the Central Pacific, he became a part of a 30-man team that worked with the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area (JICPOA). One of the most important contributions he made at JICPOA was in the translation of a large volume that contained valuable information about Japanese heavy industries involved in war-making efforts. He also scanned diaries of Japanese soldiers for clues that would lead to names and sizes of units and other information that gave the U.S. side a good picture of the enemy's strength and plans. Ironically, though Nisei soldiers could not serve with the U.S. Navy or the Marine Corps, these two branches of the military desperately needed the help of the linguists. Even more hard-hitting was the fact that, as Oka states,

Our job was to work in cooperation with the Navy, yet we were not allowed to have offices inside of Pearl Harbor [where JICPOA was stationed]. Instead, we were quartered in one of Honolulu's most inconspicuous buildings located behind a sewing factory.


Oka's next assignment after the Iwo Jima campaign led him to Occupied Japan. During the few months in Kyushu, Oka participated in the processing and release of Japanese political prisoners as well as locating downed U.S. planes and missing American airforce soldiers.

With the war's end, Oka returned to the United States only to learn that he had contracted tuberculosis during his service days. For the next seven years he had to remain hospitalized. Despite his illness, he graduated from art school and embarked on a successful career as a graphic artist. In one of his first design jobs, Oka recalls how his loyalty was put to the test by a prospective client.

[The] Client questioned my loyalty and how trustworthy is this guy. [My boss] said that Don is more American than all of us in this room put together, and if you doubt that, he said he doesn't want the job....when I heard that, I mean, that's just one person but he [the boss] knew my war experience. And I doubt that he would have said it if I didn't serve and I sat out the war. For that instance alone, fairly clear that if all of us sat down...I don't think we would be this far in advance as a full citizen.


In his own words, Oka has lived his life without "having to take a backseat to anybody." Whether in the MIS or in post-military career, Oka has always taken a proactive approach to living his life. And in reflecting back on choices he and others around him made, Oka relates how a strong sense of duty and of doing the "right thing" permeated their decisions. For example, in contemplating how one of his brothers ended up in the Japanese Army as a kamikaze pilot, Oka comments,

I think most of the young guys...were fighting for Japan and just like I was doing my job for the United States. That's what I know for sure[about] my brother; he didn't think, he was just doing his job for, you know, what he was asked to do for Japan....I know my brother. He's not the type of person to hate someone. So, when I, first chance I got to go to Japan after the war, I went to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, that's where Japan's war dead are enshrined. So I pay my respect to him and all the other war dead....

Because you know, when you're taught to do the right thing, I think no matter where you are...And you try to learn, whether United States or Japan, even here, I tried to learn, you know, whatever is the right thing and proper thing to do most of the time...




" WHERE veteran_id = 1051;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Peter Okada had been working for the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Los Angeles when his family received an evacuation notice under Executive Order 9066. They were eventually incarcerated at the Amache Detention Camp in Colorado.

In 1943, Okada enlisted and was sent to the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). His first assignment after graduating from MISLS landed him in Manila, Philippines. His next military duty occurred in Japan with the Occupational forces, in which he served briefly with the 2nd Division Marines in Kyushu. Okada was assigned to a labor battalion whose task was to dispose of ammunition, gun powder, and Zero fighter engines after rendering them unusable. Subsequently, he joined the 108th Military Government Team in Osaka until its deactivation in 1951. In this capacity, he felt that he played "the role of a bridge between Japan and the U.S." and his experience spurred his lifelong business career between the U.S. and Japan. He served in various positions, including Chief of the Information Section and Chief of the Agriculture and Forestry Section in the Economics Division. In his work with the Education Section of the Military Government Team, Okada had to routinely visit schools unannounced to ensure that the schools had been stripped of any relics from the prewar years. For example, kamidana (God Shelf) and photos of the Emperor and Empress, as well as any martial arts weapons had to be confiscated and turned in to the local police.

Like many others, Okada witnessed the calamity of war in Occupied Japan. His first reactions upon seeing the devastation of war was not only a tremendous flow of sympathy but also utter helplessness.

I went through this period where the people were really starving...they called it onion living because they were taking their best kimonos out in the country and trading it for vegetable or rice, and they were bringing it back and they had to smuggle it back. They had rice sewn into the overcoats. And so they called it onion living because they were peeling off and crying.


He returned to Los Angeles in 1951 to complete his postsecondary education, graduating from Woodbury University with a degree in foreign trade. He went back to Japan in early 1954, having gained employment as a buyer and vice president of Pacific Wood Products Company, one of the major plywood importers to the United States. He also founded his own companies, PWP Japan, Inc. and Alpac Foods Inc. After residing for more than three decades in Japan, Okada returned to the United States in 1980.

In 1991 he received an invitation from the Commissioner of the American Football Association in Japan, which requested his presence during a game in Osaka to honor Okada for his contributions to the sport. While working in the Occupation Army's education division, Okada--seeing a group of students whittling time away with little to do--introduced American football and taught them everything, from simple passing techniques to intricate formations and tactics. As a result, it had become part of the regular sports curriculum at high schools in the Kinki and Tokyo regions. At the ceremony, they bestowed upon him the title of "Father of American Football in High Schools in Japan." Despite that earlier feeling of despair and helplessness in the postwar years, Okada was able to leave an indelible mark on Japanese society.

Whatever the degree of significance, I feel very humble when I realize that unconsciously I made a very small contribution, and left a very tiny footprint, as a member of the MIS during the early and heady days in the aftermath of a tragic war.




" WHERE veteran_id = 1052;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "With strong belief that his children be educated in Japan, Shinji Okamura's father sent him and his siblings to Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1924. Okamura remained in Japan for six years and returned to the United States at the age of 13.

Okamura volunteered to attend Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). After graduation, he joined the 170th Language Detachment attached to COMSOPAC under Admiral William Halsey. As a lead translator, he worked on captured documents for the Navy. Afterward, Okamura joined the 25th Division in New Caledonia then moved to the Philippines, where he earned a Combat Infantryman's Badge. Later, he and the rest of the group would all receive Bronze Stars. After the Philippines campaign, Okamura left for Japan to work as an interpreter for Gen. Brown in the 25th Assistant Division. Okamura remembers Nagoya being "all flattened out with the bomb. Only one building standing....That's only one left. That's how bad it was, bombed out." " WHERE veteran_id = 1053;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "
I was the only language specialist so wherever I go I was escorted by two, maybe three Marines...I was more afraid of the Marines than the enemy!


From May to August 1944, Don Okubo and the other JICPOA linguists translated captured documents and field orders. Later Okubo served with the 1st Marine Division at Palau, Caroline Islands, interrogating POWs for vital information. From September to November 1945, Okubo was the only Nisei language specialist in the Marshall Islands. During this time, he continued interrogation work with captured Japanese soldiers and Korean laborers. He also engaged in psychological warfare assignments such as sailing around inlets to search for enemy hiding places while scattering leaflets and broadcasting messages that urged Japanese stragglers to surrender. In Taroa Island, he was solely responsible for the surrender of Japanese Rear Admiral Kamada and his garrison of 1,000 troops.

For his work as a cave flusher, saving civilian lives and helping convince Japanese soldiers to surrender, Okubo was awarded both the Silver Star and the Bronze Star.

" WHERE veteran_id = 1054;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Ko Sameshima's childhood included one short visit to Japan when he was 11 years old. He also attended Japanese school in his hometown of Los Angeles for almost five years. Sameshima and his elderly parents were interned at the Amache Detention Camp in Colorado.

The MIS recruited Sameshima from the Fort Leavenworth Army Induction Center. Soon, he was on his way to Fort Snelling for language training with the June 1945 class. After graduation, Sameshima headed for Tokyo to work for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), thereafter continuing his language work as a court interpreter for the war crimes trials in Manila, Philippines. During the Occupation, he also worked as a censorship officer, supervisory and management training specialist, liaison officer, and as chief of the newspaper department under the Press Section.

Having been recalled to active duty in the United States Air Force (USAF), Sameshima participated in the Korean War as a squadron intelligence officer and historian. He later worked in an assignment with the Far East Air Force in Tokyo, finally returning to the United States in 1953.

After being discharged, Sameshima entered a lifelong career in aero engineering, becoming heavily involved in aerospace research and engineering management and serving in various executive positions. After retiring from the USAF in 1976 with the rank of Colonel, Sameshima accepted employment with Ford Aerospace and then worked as an independent consultant until 1992. " WHERE veteran_id = 1055;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Orphaned at age six, George Sankey went to Okinawa to live with his relatives. Though he grew up poor, Sankey excelled in school and once placed first in a nationwide IQ test. For this feat he received much publicity and the Okinawan community lauded him as a genius and a shindo (child prodigy). He returned to the United States in 1939 to finish secondary school and start college. Few months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sankey volunteered for military service, eventually making his way into the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Hawaii. As a CIC agent, he interrogated Issei whom the government planned to place in the Department of Justice internment camps. He later joined the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) without having attended the Military Intelligence Service Language School.

In March 1944, he and another Nisei, Yoshikazu Yamada, were put in charge of deciphering a captured Japanese document found at sea when Japanese planes went down in a heavy storm. Colonel Sidney Mashbir, head of the Intelligence Center, entrusted his top translators to work on the so-called Z-Plan. Aside from the two Nisei enlisted men, three Caucasian officers were also assigned to this task. Dissent evolved during the translation process as the Nisei soldiers and the Caucasian officers differed on one crucial point about a particular evasive maneuver described in the document. To resolve the dispute, the document was sent to a government translator in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, the translator agreed with Sankey and Yamada's interpretation.

This piece of evidence turned out to be one of the most important documents captured during the war. The document revealed details about the status and projected plans of the Japanese Navy's all-out attack to defend the Philippines and the Mariana Islands. It is believed that the translation of the Z-Plan led directly to the U.S. Navy's victory known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"--a major turning point in the war.

Sankey was on leave when the war ended. He was subsequently discharged on October 24, 1945. In 1947, he went to Tokyo and worked as a civilian at ATIS for three years. In early 1953, Sankey received orders to serve in Korea once he finished a short training course in the Korean language. After he completed the Korean course, instead of leaving for Korea he began work as a language aide for top-level officers and civil administrators. On occasion, his Okinawan background proved invaluable in interpreting and escorting for these top administrators.

In his later years, Sankey worked as an instructor in a few intelligence schools. He also served as a language aide once again, this time to four High Commissioners of Ryukyu Islands, for a total of nine years. In 1969, Sankey retired from the U.S. Army but still continued his linguistic work as a civil service employee. Upon leaving this post, he accepted a position as Director of Liaison for the newly created Japan office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He continued his work at MIT in other capacities, finally retiring in 1989. " WHERE veteran_id = 1056;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Haruo Sazaki was three years old, his father took the whole family back to Japan. While the elder Sazaki returned to the United States, the rest of the family remained in Japan and Sazaki started primary school. By the time he came back to the United States, he had completed fifth grade but had to start grammar school all over again in his hometown of Penryn, California. When Sazaki was in high school, his family called to him for help on their farm, so he was not able to finish school. Soon after, the U.S. Army drafted him and he was eventually sent to Fort Ord.

All Nisei soldiers stationed at Fort Ord including Sazaki were removed from California due to evacuation orders. Sazaki's group was shipped to Michigan and assigned to do "typical housekeeping chores." From Fort Custer they left for the South Pacific and arrived in New Caledonia. Sazaki remembers how he was once asked to go to the morgue to identify Japanese POWs who had killed themselves. He had gotten to know some of them as a stockade sergeant.

One time we had an incident where Japanese prisoners were going to riot and escape. The prisoners stored rocks under the guard tower so they could use it as a weapon. One morning after their plan was discovered I had to go to the morgue to identify the corpse because 10 or 12 committed suicide. I knew them because I used to take care of their payroll.


Once, Sazaki received a letter from his brother who was interned at the Tule Lake Detention Camp. As he read the following lines, Sazaki felt pangs of frustration at the realization that camp life was extremely harsh on the Japanese Americans.

With the outside food shortage and food rationing, our food on the mess hall table is getting steadily reduced and lacks nutritious food. Remember during the depression years....Having meat for lunch and supper during the week is very rare. Many older people with failing health have occupied most of the hospital beds.

We noticed that there are many harmful things surrounding us. To name a few: strong wind, dust clouds, terrible smoke from coal burning stoves. Even though we are confined in a prison-like camp, we will endure this hardship with hope and cherish our belief that one of these days, we will be out of this camp and enjoying our freedom. It is like we have been placed in a wash basin with hands and feet tied, with no place to go...


Having received a three-day pass, Sazaki decided to visit his family at Tule Lake. His recollections of the visit are as follows:

When I arrived at Tule Lake Relocation Center, the guard at the camp gave me a bad time and won't let me go to see my folks. They wanted to search my bags, my belongings, asking me all kinds of questions. I really got fed up--here I am wearing uniform of the U.S. Army with 3 stripes on my sleeves. The Army had machine guns on the towers and it was a terrible feeling to see my folks were placed behind barbed wire....What made me mad was that they claimed that they're protecting Japanese from outside who may harm them. That's a laugh as I could see the top of the barbed wire fence is facing inward, not outward where it should be protected so that outsiders cannot come in. They're trying [to] keep the internees inside...


Sazaki joined the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) after serving in the South Pacific for a time. His first assignment after graduating from MIS Language School was to teach Japanese to incoming Nisei students. After six months he was discharged. He began apprenticing at a cabinet shop but soon found himself tired of the civilian life. He decided to reenlist. In late 1946, he arrived in Korea and soon began work as an operations sergeant with the Headquarters Intelligence Detachment, 7th Infantry Division. Sazaki went back and forth between Japan and Korea during those years. For the most part, he worked as an interpreter and interrogator of prisoners and conducted other intelligence work. He also worked for a time at the Japanese Liaison Office where his work led him to lifelong ties with the Japan Defense Agency.

Sazaki officially retired from the Army in 1964. After military service, he worked in the Traffic Engineering Division for the City of Sacramento.

" WHERE veteran_id = 1057;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Francis Sogi had an early start in military training as a member of the ROTC at the University of Hawaii. The Hawaiian ROTC would eventually become the Hawaii Territorial Guard. Nisei members of the latter group, however, were discharged by the Army soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In late 1943, Sogi and some others who had been released from the military attended the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Camp Savage, and Sogi stayed on as an instructor for two years after his graduation. While some questioned the Nisei's willingness to volunteer for service, Sogi felt that the prevailing mood at the time was "all war effort."

The feeling was very strong, wanted to serve in the military. So volunteering, and also many people, not individually, but as a group for example, men of my classmates at school all rallied and said that they were going to volunteer. And the feeling was very strong and so volunteering was like something you would do in ordinary course and that's why we volunteered.


Upon receiving his commission to Second Lieutenant, Sogi volunteered to extend his term of service for one year and headed for Occupied Japan. Sogi clearly remembers the devastation of the war and the way U.S. soldiers tried to allay the situation.

The only thing remaining...were chimneys, stacks, here and there, factory chimneys all over the place....The people, their clothing was very old, I guess shagged and very, very, very sad. People were cutting their cherry trees to cook their food and so forth....they [the American soldiers] would give away a lot of food to their friends or whoever. And I think that kind of personally, was quite, quite prevalent among all military people, maybe more so among Japanese Americans...

We felt a great deal of affinity to them [the Japanese] because, you know, of our parents. We knew Japanese and they were as polite as the Japanese as we knew when we grew up. And seeing them, it was kind of pathetic. Not really of pity, we never felt that we were conquerors, that we were better than they were. It's like seeing someone on the street suffering.


He spent a couple of months with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Tokyo before heading for the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) school. After graduation, he took an assignment with the CIC headquarters in Sapporo, Japan. His primary duties were to conduct investigations of Japanese military returnees from Russia and monitor communist activities among major political parties and left-wing activities involving labor unions.

A discovery he made during his visit to Fukuoka made Sogi realize just how much his family was involved on both sides of the war. In talking to his relatives, he learned that his uncle, his mother's youngest brother, had been one of the pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor.

They showed me his medal that he got from the Emperor. He was one of the few, I mean, most of them came back of course. Maybe about 30-40 got killed in that attack...And I found out on the Battle of Midway, on June 6, 1942, on the second wave, he was killed there....

...when I first went down there to see them [the relatives], I noticed they're very, very cold....And the more I heard and I realized that there are about five or six cousins on my mother's side, children of her sisters and brothers, died in the Pacific because many of the units from Kyushu went to the Pacific...


After being discharged, Sogi attended law school and eventually opened his own practice in New York. Sogi attributes his life successes not only to his language skills but also to the sense of responsibility and confidence in work that he developed as a member of the Military Intelligence Service.

I think the affinity, the comradeship, the solidifying effect of the units at Fort Snelling, Camp Savage, put them [MIS members] together and they were very strong inside....And so I felt that because of what they went through [in] school and their knowledge and the fact that they were confident within made them strong and able to do good work. Because you hear stories of some interpreters translating, being asked to translate, interpret documents that were critical to a very large number of soldiers. But one translation, if it were wrong, may have been disastrous to the whole unit. And that's how valuable they were. That's how heavy the responsibility was for them.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1058;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Ted Soyeshima used to attend Japanese school every Sunday. He also learned to speak Japanese at home, mostly out of necessity since his parents spoke limited English.

The U.S. Army came for Soyeshima in September of 1941. Back then, however, he and his brother were the sole supporters for their family and thus asked for a deferment. In a little over a year, Soyeshima decided to volunteer for the military while being interned at the Gila River Detention Camp: "I was just determined to get out of camp."

After his language studies, he went to Australia to join the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). His primary work involved interpreting for Caucasian officers during their interrogations of POWs. Later, he received an assignment with a military police unit in the Philippines. At POW Camp One, he assisted in the processing of prisoners and civilians. A few months after the war ended, Soyeshima received his discharge papers.

During the Occupation years, like many other Military Intelligence Service (MIS) linguists, Soyeshima assumed civil service roles as interpreter as well as a liaison and training officer. He also served as chief of the document center for the 500th Military Intelligence Group. In his work as an interpreter, Soyeshima remembers orienting and training MIS newcomers to his unit on Japanese culture and customs.

I'd take them out...to industrial facilities, educational areas and so forth....to show them what the local culture was like....so that they'll know what to expect when they get out there....Because what you learn at the school and what you see there, you know, it's entirely different experience.


Having volunteered to go back into active service, Soyeshima participated in the Korean War as a liaison and administrative officer in his first tour, then as an operations officer during his second tour with the G-2 I Corps Group. After the Korean War, he resumed his training and administrative work in Japan as a civilian.

After serving 16 years abroad, Soyeshima returned to the United States in 1972. " WHERE veteran_id = 1059;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Henry Suyehiro was already studying at the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) in the Presidio at San Francisco when the war began. After graduation, he served in Umnak, Dutch Harbor, and Attu in the Aleutian Islands.

I was there (Attu) when the last remaining Japanese made their final push at night, their banzaiattack. It was either that or commit suicide or just give up. They don't give up, especially if there is a leader there.

And so they came roaring through the valley. The last few came to within about 300 yards of our headquarters. We had gasoline cans ready to destroy any records we had just in case they overran us. But the engineers, the heavy equipment engineers, finally got them stopped....Of course, there weren't that many left that were coming through anyway. But the engineers made the final kill.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1060;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Hiroki Takahashi learned to speak Japanese while attending a vocational high school in Japan.

Takahashi's language team, attached to the 81st Division, consisted mainly of Hawaiian Japanese. While most of the members left for various campaigns, Takahashi and two other linguists remained at division headquarters. However, they eventually went overseas to the Peleliu Islands.

During the campaign at Palau Atoll, we did exactly [the] same things as other teams did, such as prisoner interrogator's interpretation; sorting, evaluation and translation of enemy documents, diaries, letters, maps, etc.; patrolling with Recon Troop or accompanying naval patrol; entering into caves; psychological warfare; trying to save the civilian's lives [natives].


When the war ended, Takahashi's immediate reaction was, "At last peace." During the Occupation of Japan, Takahashi's team helped disband the remaining Japanese military forces. He also participated in the investigation, inspection, and inventory of weapons, munitions, contrabands, and other items in Aomori Prefecture. Takahashi also acted as a personal interpreter for Col. Short, commander of the 322nd Infantry Regiment. " WHERE veteran_id = 1061;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Roy Takai was 11 years old, his father took him and a troop of Boy Scouts to Japan for a tour. This was Takai's first visit to Japan. During his military career, he would have many more opportunities to visit the country.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Takai was attending the University of California at Berkeley. Upon hearing the news on the radio, he immediately thought of how the event would impact Japanese Americans like himself.

I knew that when they attacked, that the government of Japan had sacrificed all of the Japanese living in the United States because they knew that all Japanese would be considered enemy aliens. I suspected at that time that we would have a hard time. This fact struck me in the face when I was commuting to Berkeley on a streetcar. Americans would look at me and there was talk about sneak attacks and Japs, etc...coming home to Oakland you face the same thing every day. Life was pretty miserable.


Shortly after, the FBI picked up his father and incarcerated him in a Department of Justice detention camp in North Dakota. Presumably, the elder Takai was apprehended for his prominence in the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento and for his involvement in taking a Japanese-American kendo team to Tokyo for a commemorative celebration. The rest of the family, including Takai, was sent to the Poston Detention Camp in Arizona.

The evacuation and interment of our family resulted in the loss of our furniture business in Sacramento. My father, after his release [from camp]...was not able to regain his pre-war status as a businessman. My stepmother, who was a Japanese language school teacher during pre-war, was never able to teach Japanese again...


Remembering the words of his kendo teacher who always stressed the importance of loyalty to one's country, Takai became desperate to leave the camp and join in the war effort. He found such opportunity and volunteered to attend the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) in Camp Savage, Minnesota. To avoid possible conflicts between those advocating loyalty to the United States and the pro-Japan internees, the Army slipped the seven Nisei volunteers out of Poston late at night without anyone seeing them depart. Still, after he left the camp, his stepmother had to endure sneers from internees who opposed Japanese Americans serving in the U.S. military.

I heard that someone had placed a bone at the footstep of the barracks where my stepmother lived. In Japan a bone indicates dog or "inu" (Japanese word for "dog). Inu is a spy in Japanese slang. That was an indication to my mother that her son was an inu or a traitor.


After language training, Takai joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) Team and accompanied the British forces in chasing the Japanese out of Burma. In early 1944, the Japanese had laid siege to Imphal, one of the largest British/India supply points, and cut off all ground communications into the area for a few months. In March, the Japanese then began an all-out attack, but due to weather their supply lines were cut and they quickly ran out of food and ammunition. Meanwhile, the British and U.S. troops maintained air superiority and were able to keep up the food and supply line into Imphal. Takai remembers, however, that their daily food intake was scant.

Our daily rations were limited to a slice of bully beef (corned beef) and hard tack biscuit, I lost 25 pounds during a four-month period. A can of beets airdropped to us with other supplies was a treat for us.


While a member of the Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center (SEATIC), Takai fell ill with amoebic dysentery and malaria. After spending some time in the hospital, he returned to New Delhi. The war came to an end soon after the Burma campaign, and Takai and others from SEATIC found themselves becoming members of the Occupation forces stationed in the Malay Peninsula. Having been promoted to Second Lieutenant, Takai took charge of a team of 10 Nisei soldiers to assist in the disarming of the Japanese army forces. The team also helped locate and register British and American weapons that had been airdropped to the Chinese Communists fighting in the region.

In October 1946 Takai left for Japan to become a member of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). One of his first assignments with this section called for him to lead a group of Japanese-American linguists to establish the Maizuru Debarkation and Interrogation Center. At this center, the MIS men processed thousands of Japanese repatriates who were coming in from Russia and China. Under this situation, the Nisei had opportunity to screen for and obtain intelligence information of immense value. Takai considers this experience one of the most satisfying in his military career.

These people hadn't seen Japan for many, many years....Some of them went over as civilians with the South Manchurian Railroad and they got shipped from China to Siberia. They spent many years in Siberia and then they were repatriated back to Japan....you could see the happiness and in some cases, sadness, in the eyes of the people when they came into the port of Japan...


Takai also had a chance to interview top Japanese officials under an assignment to obtain historical data from the Japanese perspective on the war against the United States. Ultimately, the information would be compiled and made into military history from the Japanese point of view. The officials he interviewed were incarcerated in Sugamo Prison, awaiting the Tokyo International War Crime Trials. Takai found that most of the high-level officers, including such famous men as General Hideki Tojo and Admiral Shigetaro Shimada (Navy Minister), were not forthcoming with their experiences or opinions.

During the 1950s and 60s, Takai continued to work in military assignments in Japan. Most of them involved liaison work with the Japanese security and intelligence agencies at the regional and national levels. In 1955, he took a year-long course in Mandarin Chinese at the Defense Language Institute in California. He thought that this language training would lead him to an assignment in which he would use Chinese; instead, he left for Japan once more, this time to join the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) unit in Nagoya. In August 1965, Takai presented a short VIP briefing in Japanese to the chief of staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Ground Force and his staff during their visit to the U.S. Continental Army Command. Takai remembered that exactly 21 years prior to this event, he had used Japanese military terms for the first time during an interrogation of a Japanese buck private captured in Imphal. His ability to communicate in "heigo" (Japanese military language) carried him from working with the lowest ranking Japanese private to interacting with the highest ranking army officer from Japan.

Takai retired as a Lieutenant Colonel on March 31, 1966. Thereafter, he worked for the federal government as a civilian investigator, employment specialist, and assistant appeals officer. " WHERE veteran_id = 1062;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 1063;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When the U.S. Army began recruiting for combat troops from the Hawaiian islands, Toma Tasaki found himself volunteering for what would later be the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Rejected from the unit, however, he opted for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and began language training at Camp Savage in the spring of 1943. Prior to this language experience, Tasaki had attended daily Japanese classes at the local Buddhist temple.

After graduation from the language school, Tasaki served with the Mars Task Force in the China-Burma-India Theater. Before Tasaki left for Burma, ex-Merrill's Marauders had warned him about serving there: "Whatever you do, don't volunteer for Burma. It's rough." As members of Mars Task Force, the 10 Nisei linguists were divided into pairs and sent out with different units to translate captured documents and interrogate prisoners. Though their main jobs required them to be in the back lines, Tasaki remembers being positioned "anywhere--in the middle or alongside" the combat units. Like the Marauders who had preceded the Mars Task Force in the Burma campaigns, Tasaki and others in the special unit had to climb treacherous mountain trails while carrying heavy loads of weapons and dictionaries. They received food and other supplies by airdrops and constantly found themselves digging foxholes for protection. In one particular incident, Tasaki helped save a native soldier who had been mistaken for a Japanese.

On the way [to investigate sighting of Japanese troops in the hills], we came across a Kachin native soldier who had served with the British and he was in British uniform, which was different from ours, and he had a rifle with him. And he was using a hand grenade to try to get some fish out of the stream and he used the hand grenade to get the fish out....our patrol members looking down into the stream bed and seeing this Kachin soldier in uniform, must have wondered what kind of soldier he was, whether he was a Japanese soldier or not....So I went down and we had a translation sheet using Kachin words and English. I tried to communicate with that person and there was a family, wife and children around. Anyway, on closer look I could tell he's not a Japanese soldier, so I referred back to our boys up above...And they're very happy and relieved. But if I were not there, I wondered what they would have done, you know?


After Mars Task Force disbanded, Tasaki was sent to the MIS headquarters for Southeast Asia in India. Despite precautions taken against diseases, he suffered twice from dysentery while stationed in Calcutta.

Because Tasaki had earned enough points to return home, he decided to go back to Hawaii and was officially discharged in December 1945.

Tasaki's experience with the MIS remains a fond one to this day, as he explains,

Getting to know about different people, meeting different people, getting to know them, I think was real educational experience, aside from combat experience....For me, it was more a duty to perform, something I can do. The U.S., white U.S., had taken care of us all the way through. We had had free education, freedom, certain amount of freedom and all of that, all the nice things in life were provided by the U.S. government. Here's a chance to repay, where we could do the most good....

We have our bad times and, what shall I say, miseries, poverties, and so on. But it's nothing compared to the hardships one sees in other countries...When you think about how miserable it can be, we should be thankful for whatever we have here in the United States in the Hawaiian islands...


Tasaki believes that Nisei efforts during the war changed the climate for those Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. After the war, more and more Nisei found employment with public safety departments and other institutions, in which Japanese Americans were hard to find prior to the war.

I think the war years, because of Nisei's efforts in the war, changed everything in Hawaii...especially so-called Plantation attitude or white supremacy over other racial groups....they [the Nisei] tended to break down the racial barriers that had existed before....opened doors that were closed before.


" WHERE veteran_id = 1064;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Harry Toda was a member of the Recovered Personnel Division in the Philippines. Having been activated at the close of the Philippine campaign, the division's purpose was to follow the airborne units into Japan and liberate Allied prisoners in the Japanese POW camps. Under this assignment, Toda acted as interrogator and interpreter to determine the kind of treatment the prisoners had to endure and to find out about the health and welfare of these men.

After serving with the two recovery teams, RT-30 and RT-31, Toda moved on to Tokyo, where he became a member of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) and began work in the Letter Translation Section. This section received all types of letters addressed to Gen. Douglas MacArthur: letters of complaint, praise, demand, those pertaining to the Occupation, and others. Among the linguists working in the section were one Caucasian officer, a few Kibei and Nisei, and one Chinese American.

Toda received his honorable discharge at Fort Lewis in July of 1946. " WHERE veteran_id = 1065;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Ted Tsukiyama remembers rushing to change into his ROTC uniform and report for duty at the University of Hawaii.

With pounding hearts, we moved to the south end of the campus and scanned for the enemy. To put it bluntly, we were scared! But not for long. As we thought of the sneak attack that morning, a wave of fury and anger swept over us....We were proud to be in uniform. We were serving our country in its direct hour of need. [Honor by Fire]


Later, the Japanese-American members of the University of Hawaii ROTC program (also known as the Hawaii Territorial Guard) were promptly dismissed from their duties. Encouraged by a YMCA leader, they drew up a petition addressed to the commanding general, a part of which said,

Needless to say, we were deeply disappointed when we were told that our services in the guard were no longer needed. Hawaii is our home, the United States is our country. We know but one loyalty and that is to the Stars and Stripes. We wish to do our part as loyal Americans in every way possible and we hereby offer ourselves for whatever service you may see fit to use us.


In early 1942, the petition was accepted by Gen. Emmons and the Nisei volunteers formed the Varsity Victory Volunteers, a non-combat labor battalion in charge of digging ammunition pits, building roads and warehouses, and operating a stone quarry.

These civilian laborers would later become members of the 100th Infantry Battalion. In August 1943 the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) began to scout the unit for possible candidates into the MIS language training program. About 250 members of the 100th were subsequently transferred to Camp Savage to begin a six-month course in military Japanese. Tsukiyama had no desire to attend Japanese school, having had more than 12 years of language training in his childhood. He also wanted to stay among his friends in the field artillery. He remembers trying to convince the MIS recruiters that his language background was anything but stellar.

I really put on a great, Oscar-winning performance of playing dumb and I went happily back to my artillery outfit. And a few days later, I was...engaged in target practice, firing....And while we're in the process of firing, somebody comes, taps me on the shoulder and says, "Pack up. You're going to Camp Savage." I was just so shocked, you know, because I thought I had escaped that.


Years later, he learned that there was no escape from an official record showing he had years of Japanese language training in his native Hawaii.

Tsukiyama was one of 50 MISLS graduates who received assignment with the radio intelligence unit. More training followed, as the selected team of Nisei linguists became well-versed in radio monitoring and interception techniques. Tsukiyama was attached to the 6th AAF Radio Squadron Mobile unit, which was in turn assigned to the 10th Air Force in the China-Burma-India Theater.

The MIS Nisei recorded and translated all air-ground radio traffic between Japanese fighter planes and the tower at six Japanese airfields in Northern Burma. The men worked on three-man teams in shifts around the clock. The intercepted messages were analyzed for information about Japanese flight activity, number and types of aircraft, and other tactical data.

Though these MIS members involved in "electronic eavesdropping" did not partake in combat duties, they did their part in supporting U.S. efforts to win the Pacific War, becoming the "ears of the U.S. Air Force." As Tsukiyama remarks,

Ours was a routine, dull and unglamorous task, far from the field of battle--nothing like what the Merrill's Marauders and Kachin Ranger MISers suffered and endured....But like the rear echelon MIS work at Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area, Allied Translator and Interpreter Section or Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center, we each contributed our little share toward the total MIS effort...and unquestionably proved we were more than willing "to go fight against our own kind!"


In Tsukiyama's view, at minimum, the Japanese Americans who served in the Pacific War could make the assertion that they had an easier time "dealing" with the enemy. Partly because of the Nisei's upbringing which may have included formal Japanese schooling, Tsukiyama considers those like him to be better understanding of the Japanese people.

We had a Japanese education and part of it was the moral and spiritual values that came with it, that we were at least in a position, much better than the average American to understand the Japanese, you know, the psyche of the enemy....I think the Occupation was made much more tolerable for [the] Japanese.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1066;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Warren Tsuneishi came from a large family that included 10 children. Even though the Japanese-American community in the area was small and isolated and the Tsuneishi family in particular lived farther away in Duarte, he remembers attending many community events and activities that linked them to Japanese traditions and culture, such as judo and kendo tournaments and Japanese language classes. The fact that their mother spoke little English also helped stimulate a Japanese-rich environment at home.

Although the Tsuneishis lived alongside Caucasian families, they still faced racial discrimination at schools and other public facilities. Tsuneishi still bears the psychological scars from such experiences.

In Duarte, there were two schools, one for the whites and the other for the coloreds, Blacks and Hispanics....In California, racial discrimination was a daily encounter. We, along with the Blacks and Hispanics, were denied the public facilities. The swimming pool was closed to us except on a specified day of the week. We grew up with the belief that the designated day was just before the pool was to be drained and replenished. Because the barbershops in the city of Monrovia displayed signs reading "Whites Only," we were forced to go to El Monte for our haircuts where there was a Japanese barbershop. To this day, I avoid barbershops...to this day, I suffer anxiety attempting to erase the image of those outrageous "Whites Only" signs.


Further separating the Caucasians from the Nisei was the fact that while his white friends "played" after school and on weekends, Tsuneishi had to attend Japanese school.

In a large measure I unconsciously resented the time spent at this school while my hakujin [Caucasian] friends were free as a bird. Was I not an American? I was born on the Fourth of July. I have an Uncle Sam! Why should I be studying this alien language?


Tsuneishi was studying at the University of California at Berkeley when Pearl Harbor was attacked. In May 1942, he was evacuated from school and sent to the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, California. Eventually, he would join the rest of his family in Heart Mountain Detention Camp.

In January 1943 Tsuneishi received permission to leave the camp to complete studies at Syracuse University. Upon graduating with a bachelor's degree, he volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and began classes at Camp Savage. All of his siblings were either in MIS or worked as translators during the war. While his brothers joined MIS and served with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), at the war crime trials in the Philippines, or in the Occupation of Japan, his two sisters worked as translators for General Headquarters SCAP. Though their mother supported them fully, Tsuneishi recalls her cry of anguish: "How many sons must I sacrifice?"

After completing Japanese language training, Tsuneishi became part of the 306th Headquarters Intelligence Detachment, assigned to the newly formed XXIV Corps. Tsuneishi conducted numerous translations of classified materials from the Philippines and Okinawa campaigns. Highlights of his translation work include working all night to translate a field order that had been captured from a Japanese airborne unit and assisting in the translation of a captured artillery map that showed gun emplacements on the Japanese defense line. The latter proved to be extremely valuable and within 72 hours of producing the translation, "Every American artilleryman had one of the thousands of copies made." [Yankee Samurai]

During the Occupation years, Tsuneishi served in Korea as an interpreter and translator. He and the other Japanese-speaking members would interpret from English into Japanese, and then their Korean associates would interpret into Korean. Often, Japanese was the only intermediary language required since many Koreans could speak and read Japanese fluently. Also at this time, Tsuneishi had opportunity to visit his sisters in Japan. What he saw in Tokyo and Osaka was unexpectedly disturbing.

I had observed the devastating effects of naval and aerial bombardment on Okinawa, where the twin cities of Naha and Shuri had been literally leveled, with not a single building standing. I was aware of the enormous civilian casualties suffered by the Okinawans. Even so, I was unprepared for the enormity of the devastation of Osaka and Tokyo, so huge was the scale of destruction and I could only imagine, the sufferings of the Japanese people....

Lives were shattered. Many people lived in the streets virtually in rags and yet they were not beggars. I had profound compassion for their plight. They were no longer the impersonal enemy. They had suffered.


Fortunately, he found his sisters doing well and working diligently as translators at Gen. MacArthur's headquarters.

Having accumulated enough points for separation, Tsuneishi elected to be discharged from the Army in January 1945. Soon after, he attended graduate school at Columbia University and Yale University, and upon graduating entered the field of library science. Once again using his Japanese language skills, Tsuneishi first became a curator of the Far Eastern collections at Yale University and eventually landed a job as chief of the Asian Division at the Library of Congress. " WHERE veteran_id = 1067;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Roy Uyehata grew up in an agricultural community in northern California. In spite of all the hard farmwork he had to perform, he still managed to attend both regular and Japanese language schools on a daily basis.

In April 1941 Uyehata was drafted for military service and sent to Fort Ord for basic training. After basic training, he and other Nisei soldiers in the 7th Medical Battalion moved to Camp Wolters. Because of the distrust that prevailed between the Caucasian officers and the Japanese-American enlisted men, the camp commander had most of the Nisei do menial labor such as collecting garbage--duties typically assigned to stockade prisoners. Soon after, Military Intelligence Service (MIS) recruiters selected him and 25 others from Camp Wolters for the first MIS language class at Camp Savage, Minnesota. Meanwhile, the rest of his family followed Executive Order 9066 and moved into the Poston Detention Camp in Arizona.

During the war, Uyehata served in the Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and Luzon campaigns. In Bougainville, he and others on his team conducted interrogation after interrogation of Japanese POWs who had been captured on the island. One particular interrogation Uyehata completed on March 8, 1944, led to an advanced warning of an attack that was planned for March 23. Uyehata recounts the details:

As I was interrogating a private first class, the POW interrupted by asking how he could get off the island. The question surprised me. I...knew through experience that no POW ever wished to be recaptured by Japanese units. He was apparently fearful of being retaken in a counterattack....Worried about the dilemma in which he seemed to find himself, he blurted out that he guessed we knew that we were going to be attacked at dawn on March 23--a very auspicious day to mount an attack since it is a holiday, special to the Japanese Emperor...I knew that this top secret information had not been given to our Army commanders, so I misled the POW and told him that the attack was not "new" information since a number of other prisoners had also provided the same news to me previously.


Uyehata then continued the interrogation for a short while after which he excused himself from the interrogation so that he could expedite this critical information to Captain William Fisher. At first, the captain cast doubt at the information, but after more interrogations of other POWs the plans were verified, and the captain immediately passed on the information to the commander of the XIV Corps. On the evening of March 22, U.S. forces launched a preemptive attack on the Japanese.

The combined artillery and naval gunfire barrages were so thunderous that the ground under XIV Corps headquarters, which was located approximately two and a half miles from the front, shook with the rolling motion of an earthquake....

Our victory was decisive. The Japanese soldiers were totally unprepared for the artillery barrages which caught them without cover of foxholes and bunkers. When casualties were counted after the battle, there were more than 5,000 enemy dead and more than 3,000 wounded.


For their work that led to the victorious Second Battle of Bougainville, Uyehata and another MIS member Hiroshi Matsuda received Bronze Star medals. Captain Fisher also had his parents visit the Poston camp to inform Uyehata's parents that their son had committed a heroic deed for the United States.

In another incident, Uyehata's assistance during an interrogation led to the identification of code designators, which allowed the Signal Corps to break the four-digit Japanese code. Though the Signal Corps captain who conducted the interrogation was awarded the Legion of Merit, Uyehata received no recognition for his role in the interrogation.

Having been discharged in late 1945, Uyehata returned to California to begin farmwork again. Ironically, he came back "home" before his family returned from the detention camp. It was not until their return that Uyehata learned his father had some unfavorable experiences at Poston because his son was in the U.S. military.

When they were in Poston before the re-segregation took place, when the pro-Japanese supporters were shipped to Tule Lake, my father was called "inu" [Japanese for "dog," used to connote a traitor] by so many of the people, just because he was [a] parent of [an] MIS soldier.


For better economic opportunities, Uyehata decided to change career paths and turn to a technical field. Having earned a bachelor's degree in engineering, he sought work in the computer industry but like many other Japanese Americans, he found great difficulty securing a job. In 1950, he was working at the U.S. Marine Corps Depot in San Francisco when he was recalled to active service for the Korean War. During this war, he participated in military intelligence duties, including Operation Rat Trap. This project involved the rounding up of hundreds of communist civilians (North Korean guerrillas) located near the southern end of the Korean Peninsula. Through the MIS men's interrogations, communist cell leaders from all over South Korea were identified. Eventually Uyehata's work in Korea would earn him a Commendation Ribbon with Medal Pendant. After serving in various capacities as a reserve officer, he finally retired in 1977 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

From 1954 to 1992, Uyehata worked in numerous high-tech companies, including Applied Technology, Memorex, and Seagate Technology. He devoted his spare time to the pursuit of historical data related to Nisei veterans and Japanese Americans in general. In the 1990s, he was able to locate the family of a deceased soldier whose diary Uyehata had found during the war and had kept for all these years. He promptly returned it to the soldier's daughter. " WHERE veteran_id = 1068;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Eugene Wright's first encounter with Japanese Americans was during his years at Broadway High School in his hometown of Seattle. It was also at this school that he and his siblings all were greatly influenced by a journalism teacher, so much that Wright decided to study journalism at the University of Washington. Though he changed his subject of study to political science later on, his enthusiasm for the printed word never waned in his academic and personal endeavors.

By the time he entered his senior year, Wright had earned the rank of Cadet Colonel in the ROTC. The ROTC experience gave him a solid background in leadership and responsibility.

It was an eye-opener in that we learned that there's more to learning about the Army than just marching and drilling. We learned about mapmaking...and we had to study histories of Civil War, World War I...We learned how to take care of ourselves and of our soldiers in the field.


Also during his last year, he enrolled in a Japanese language course. Wright remembers that his decision to study the language stemmed partly from watching his Japanese-American friends go to Japanese school after regular high school.

Wright attributes his success in working with people of different race and ethnicity to his experience working at a multitude of jobs while he attended high school and college.

In this background of mine I had many menial jobs, cleaning up after people, cleaning bathrooms, making beds, painting the floors on the ships where I was serving. It's kind of interesting to say that I draw on that background, that experience because as a judge...I had all kinds of cases with men and women of varied backgrounds and cultures, and I found that I had a better understanding of those people because of my own background and my own experience with multiple cultures.


The U.S. Army had begun drafting thousands of young men, and Wright foresaw the need for people in leadership roles. Thus, in June 1941, he left his law practice and volunteered for active duty. On the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, Wright was back home spending time with his family. He recalls how he and other officers and soldiers immediately reported back to their base.

It's miraculous because all up and down the coast this was happening. Officers and soldiers as far north as the Canadian border down into Oregon were ordered to return to their base at Fort Lewis, and we thought it was necessary that we get there quickly. And no lives were lost and none of us got speeding tickets...I arrived at Fort Lewis later that day. All was dark that night and that experience in itself was an eye-opener because we did not know what was waiting for us. There were scare stories, of course, about the Japanese being right off the coast and how they might be here any minute...


Upon arriving in California, Wright learned of his assignment with the 4th Army Headquarters to attend the newly installed intelligence school at the Presidio in San Francisco. He was one of six officers in a special class.

We studied in our barrack rooms at night, again with poor lighting, and every day was, what I call, hardship duty because we'd go from one instructor to another translating, learning vocabulary, and finally learning kanji, Japanese and Chinese characters. They heaped on us a load of those every day. As is typical in Japanese language instruction, we made little cards and put the character on one of those and then on the back the sound and the meaning until we were massing hundreds of these cards...


By this time, Wright had become close friends with John Aiso, director of academic training at the school. Their friendship helped create a relaxed and convivial atmosphere during their cross-country trip to move the school to Camp Savage, Minnesota. Wright was put in charge of taking care of Aiso and another instructor and their families during the long ride across the United States.

Japanese language study continued at the new site, and "the pressure doubled, and the sensei [teachers] and other people in the administration were after us to learn more and faster, focusing again primarily on the written language." After a few months, Wright and his family returned to Seattle to wait for his next assignment. Soon enough, he learned that he and an assistant officer would be in charge of 10 enlisted Nisei soldiers and heading for New Caledonia.

They [U.S. Army] had no idea what we were there for and what our capabilities were....we were not equipped with anything with which to train, not knowing what was in store for us or where we might go. There were prisoners....There wasn't much that they could tell us. So Colonel Gibson and I were somewhat in the dark. How best to use this team of 10 linguist experts?


Soon afterward, they received orders to proceed to Guadalcanal, then the Russell Islands, and finally to join in the Battle of New Georgia in which the main objective was to capture a Japanese-occupied airfield. In the Russell Islands, the team worked on translating Japanese manuals and other items that were picked up in Guadalcanal. Wright also began short training sessions for the combat soldiers on the needs and services of the MIS men.

Periodically, I would take one or two of my Nisei sergeants and we would go to visit a battalion of infantry at a time out in the jungle or out in the coconut plantations...And there we would put on a demonstration, short talk, and I would distribute to them a mimeographed sheet with some Japanese words and English equivalent that might be useful in getting Japanese prisoners to surrender safely.


The linguists also explained to the soldiers the importance of collecting information that might be found in the battlefield and of capturing live prisoners for interrogation. They conducted these sessions from island to island, talking to as many American soldiers as they could.

I pointed out that our fellows could read and translate anything with Japanese writing on it. So we began to get bits and pieces of armament, weapons....identification tags in the Japanese Army were unlike our own....So we began to collect these little brass tags, and we encouraged our soldiers to save them for us. They brought us useful information.


As the battle for Munda Airfield wore on, Wright's team began receiving prisoners. Having secured a typewriter, the linguists worked on transcribing the interrogations. As Wright explains, "That's how we fought the Battle of Munda, with a typewriter and Japanese prisoners." Later, Ted Kihara, one of Wright's soldiers, utilized his artistic talent to refute misinformation about the enemy. This type of initiative highlighted the importance of the MIS Nisei in bridging communications among groups of people with disparate backgrounds.

He [Kihara] did one [cartoon] of a tiny Japanese soldier trying to get into a GI uniform three times too large, and across the top it said, "Sam, you made the pants too long." Then they went on a description written by Lieutenant Mitchell that told the stories being told by the press and by other stragglers that said that the Japanese were using our uniforms. We wanted to debunk that.


Such drawings and accompanying text proved useful in disseminating information about the Japanese soldiers, so much so that an editor of an infantry journal commented, "Give me more, because this is hot stuff."

Seeing the need for his legal and linguistic background after the war, Wright asked to join the Occupation forces and to work for the military government of Japan. The Army denied the request and instead sent him to Camp Ritchie to take charge of the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS) in January 1945. At PACMIRS, Wright and his staff analyzed and translated documents and photographs coming in from the Philippines. The work lasted less than a year, as the war came to an abrupt halt in August. By this time, Wright had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and he had to decide whether to stay on in active service or return home to his law practice. He opted for the latter, and in February 1946 he separated from military service.

Wright credits the linguists for their superior ability to extricate useful information from even the most obstinate POW. He also praises them for their prowess in knowing "how to soldier."

As time passed my soldiers became very well thought of throughout that outfit. Wherever they went they were welcomed and it was no problem at all in being integrated to a fighting machine. I had no disciplinary problems...Not one time did a man desert, act up inappropriately, become a nuisance, ill-dressed or anything! They wore the uniform with pride and they conducted themselves as good soldiers....They knew how to soldier. Never once did I have to remonstrate with any of them or tell them a second time what our marching orders were. They were reliable and dependable. And they deserve to be rewarded....

I was responsible for the welfare, safety, health of these 10 young men who worked for me. I knew that most of them had parents, sisters and brothers in relocation centers...I was supposed to censor the mail of my soldiers who wrote home in Japanese. I found that I didn't need to spend any time at it because these were loyal fellows...

Morale problems, of course, arise in any military organization. It could have been a lot more difficult, but these were fine, upstanding fellows of high moral, ethical character....and I think it had an influence also among others in the headquarters because the other enlisted men, even the officers, came to respect this team of young Japanese-American fellows for what they were and the qualities of character that they exhibited.


" WHERE veteran_id = 1069;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Gordon Yamada left Manzanar Detention Camp to enter the U.S. Army in late 1944. Though his group was supposed to head for Europe to participate in the Battle of the Bulge, the war in Europe soon ended and Yamada was sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, for counterintelligence training. While stationed there, he remembers how he and approximately 60 other Nisei soldiers were chosen to undergo a peculiar training exercise.

We were required to wear Japanese uniforms and parade around the lake at Fort [Camp] Ritchie, emulating Japanese soldiers so that they could use us, 60 of us, break us up into groups of 10 or 20 or whatever they planned, and they were going to ship us to the basic training stations and the camp basic training facilities of the Army throughout the United States. And we were supposed to parade around in front of the other new inductees and they were going to say, "This is the enemy" and that was us. This is what the enemy looks like--and that was us.


Realizing the futility of this exercise, the U.S. Army abandoned the program after a few short months. Yamada and the other Japanese Americans were then shipped to Fort Snelling. Being the last class at the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) in Fort Snelling, the Nisei graduated and then immediately left for Japan to work for the Occupation forces. After a short assignment with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), Yamada was discharged from the Army and received a civilian assignment with the Tokyo Kanagawa military government.

Yamada and his team, which included a Japanese interpreter, began work on stripping Japanese manufacturing plants of machinery that had been used in war efforts. For example, plants that produced fuel, shipbuilding plants, and other industrial plants totaled 840 in Japan. Of these 140 were in Tokyo, and Yamada and his crew would work with Japanese government officials to ensure that the facilities followed proper procedures in dismantling and removing machinery parts and preparing them for shipment overseas. In the end, this reparations program was cancelled and most of the machines remained in Japan. Yamada says, however, that the program helped Japan rethink manufacturing processes and move toward innovation.

So although we confiscated what machines could be used, they didn't want to use that old technology so they went to oxygen smelting which is a more modern technique. And that's what happened throughout Japan....So now, that was the start of the new technology for Japan...And 50 years later, 40 years later, 30 years later, everybody wondered, "How did they get so strong?" Well, we helped them do it. Because we helped them, we forced them to use new technology to get back into the world.
" WHERE veteran_id = 1070;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Born and raised in Honokaa on the big island of Hawaii, Yoshikazu Yamada always wanted to attend college. Since childhood he loved to read--so much so that his mother's friends dubbed him "the professor." Knowing that his widowed mother could not afford college tuition, Yamada took the initiative to seek a matchmaker who would find a second husband for his mother so that he and his brothers could go to university.

In 1937, having earned his bachelor's degree in art from the University of Hawaii, Yamada left the islands for the University of Michigan to pursue an advanced degree in chemistry. He never forgot his first love for art, however, and continued to take art classes, even entering some of his paintings in an exhibit for young American artists at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City.

In April 1941, the U.S. Army drafted Yamada and trained him for service in the medical corps. Though his primary duty was as a medic, Yamada was constantly asked to translate radio messages and captured documents during situations in which he was the only member "who could make sense of the Japanese symbols." Ironically, while he kept busy translating the documents and messages in Japanese, the first Military Intelligence Service (MIS) class was attending school at the Presidio in San Francisco.

After experiencing frontline action in the Philippines with the 5th Air Base Group, Yamada joined the newly created Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Australia. As a member of ATIS, Yamada found himself in charge of deciphering the famous Z-Plan along with another Nisei linguist, George Kiyoshi Sankey. The two translated the 22-page document, which unveiled detailed explanations of the Japanese Navy's strategies and plans for attack in the Philippines and the Mariana Islands. It is believed that the translation of the Z-Plan led directly to the U.S. Navy's victory known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"--a major turning point in the war. It would be more than 50 years later that Yamada and Sankey would be awarded the Legion of Merit for their efforts.

When the war ended, Yamada went to Japan to work with the Scientific and Technical Survey Mission to examine the status of Japanese science and technology in the postwar period. In 1945, he left the military and returned to the Midwest to continue his education. In 1950, he received a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from Purdue University. From graduation until retirement, Yamada worked in research and development first for Mergenthaler Linotype Corporation and then Bell and Howell. In retirement, he worked on inventions that combined his interest in science with his love for art.

" WHERE veteran_id = 1071;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "As one of the 14 Nisei members of Merrill's Marauders, Akiji Yoshimura found himself involved in what was considered a "dangerous and hazardous mission." Even before their mission began, the U.S. War Department had estimated an outcome of 85 percent casualties.

Someone once asked me, "Why did you volunteer?" I would be the first to admit that it wasn't heroics. In fact, there were times in Burma when, if it were physically possible, I could have kicked myself for having been such an impetuous fool. Nor was I on a great crusade "to make America a better place for Japanese Americans to live in," because I never regarded my stint in uniform anything more or less than a right and a duty.


The Marauders, led by Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, were in charge of clearing the Burma Road of enemy troops and capturing the Myitkyina Airfield so that a land-based supply route to China could be established.

While aboard the USS Lurline on route to India, the Nisei linguists lectured to the troops about the enemy, including their weapons, tactics, and physical and spiritual training. Yoshimura recalls that at the point of embarkment, "We had convinced the uniformed and even the skeptics that we were American in thought, speech, and action." Once they arrived, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) men engaged in heavy combat training that involved long marches, river crossings, and weapon and range work. In addition to this training, the linguists studied maps and intelligence reports about North Burma to prepare for their roles as both linguists and riflemen.

Because the Marauders were expected to operate in secrecy, there were times when they went days without food and fresh water--all in the hot, humid Burmese climate. Supplies were airdropped to a very limited number of "drop areas," for which the Marauders had to clear acres of jungle undergrowth to prepare for the arrival of cargo. The Nisei linguists' main objective was to listen in on conversations among the Japanese to pick up information of valuable for the Americans. They would stay by their listening posts to eavesdrop on telephone communications; at times, they crawled their way over to the enemy line to listen in on what the Japanese soldiers were saying. Indeed, lying prostate and low on the ground became so common for the Nisei that one of the Marauders was aptly nicknamed "Horizontal Hank."

On May 17, 1944, the Myitkyina Airfield was captured. By then only 200 Marauders remained. The MIS Nisei continued to serve as interrogators and translators for new replacement troops that had arrived to replenish the dwindling supply of combat soldiers. In August 1944, Yoshimura and a few other Marauders were relieved of their duties with the special unit. Soon after, Yoshimura left for China to join the Sino Translation and Interrogation Center (SINTIC).

In Yoshimura's eyes, the MIS Nisei came together as strangers, yet there existed a common thread underlying all of their own values and goals: "We shared...a common commitment to what we perceived to be a 'right and a duty.' Perhaps most important, each of us in our way looked beyond the 'barbed wires' to a better America." " WHERE veteran_id = 1072;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Noboru Yoshimura grew up in a small town near the Sacramento River in California. Having lost his father at a young age, Yoshimura was raised by his mother, a picture bride who had left her hometown of Wakayama, Japan, to marry. When the elder Yoshimura died suddenly in his early 40s, Yoshimura's mother took her four sons ranging in age from one to six back to Japan. Being so young, Yoshimura picked up Japanese very quickly and was soon attending school and playing with Japanese children. Still, he yearned to return to the place of his birth:

I thought that I had a better chance in the United States than in Japan. In Japan, tenant farmers' descendants almost always remained as tenant farmers' descendants. You very seldom had a chance to elevate yourself in your position or financially become successful....

I think it was the individual desire, I just developed that desire to drive forward, and I just didn't want to be the second best. I just wanted to be the best. That has been all throughout my life.


Thus, at the age of 13, he left for the United States on his own. Yoshimura was detained at Angel Island for immigration processing. He remembers the overnight stay in the detention barracks as being similar to a prison:

It was like a jail where you had no freedom of movement...the island is so small you had no other place to go....We couldn't go anywhere until I was completely cleared and verified that I was an American citizen.


Yoshimura stayed with his father's friend and his family for a total of four years. During that time he attended school, starting out as a first grader and relearning the alphabet at the age of 13.

By the time I came back I was totally conversant in the Japanese language and I forgot the English language. So when I came back I had to start all over again learning the English language....That was a more difficult adjustment than when I was taken back to Japan by my mother. It was really difficult.


Later, upon his uncle's suggestion, Yoshimura trained to become a barber and eventually opened his own shop in San Francisco. He enjoyed a successful business for only a few years until his draft notice came in March 1942. A few days after he left for Fort MacArthur, Japanese Americans were evacuated from San Francisco under Executive Order 9066. Yoshimura recalls times when he was called a "Jap" prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, but the name-calling increased twofold when the evacuations began.

Now the word Jap is used, we just become infuriated. But in those days, when we were called Japs, we just had to grin and bear it. Nothing else we could do. I don't recall any instance when I fought back. They look at my face and call me a Jap but I just didn't say anything. There wasn't anything that we could do.


Yoshimura reported to Camp Savage for Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) despite not having volunteered out of his own accord. In fact, he did not know that his transfer would mean becoming part of the MIS: "It was another conscription. I didn't have any choice in the matter and in the military, of course, an order from higher up is what you have to obey."

Serving in the Southwest Pacific, Yoshimura fell under heavy fire--not only from the enemy but also from U.S. soldiers who mistook him for the enemy. After one such incident, the commanding general issued an order to provide bodyguards for the Nisei linguists. Though the linguists were considered noncombatants, as Yoshimura comments, "When we were shot at we had to shoot back, so we were carrying paratroopers carbines with hand grenades and ammo to go with it." In addition to the weapons, he carried dictionaries and other necessary materials to conduct his duties.

I spent 13 weeks in New Guinea jungles....At times fellow Americans would carry my pack for me. They felt kind of sorry for me because I was physically so small. They were very nice to me after getting to know them....I was loaded with documents all the time....


Yoshimura and the other MIS men worked hard to get Japanese stragglers out of caves. Many of them surrendered and expressed surprise at seeing a Japanese face in U.S. military uniform.

After the war, Yoshimura spent more than eight years on military tours around Japan. Among his duties were censoring foreign correspondence and monitoring the Japanese media for "anything that would discredit General Headquarters and Gen. MacArthur." Years after the war, he found out that his three brothers who had all remained in Japan served in the Japanese armed forces.

" WHERE veteran_id = 1073;\g UPDATE veterans SET biography = "After finishing his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Joe Yoshiwara found a job in San Francisco's Chinatown. During this period, Japanese-American graduates faced difficulty in securing employment. While some sought work for major corporations in Japan, others searched for jobs in California but found few possibilities. He did not stay in San Francisco for long, however, as his draft notice arrived in April 1941. Yoshiwara joined the one-year training program under the Selective Service Act.

Immediately after December 7, 1941, he and his company were put in charge of patrolling the beaches along central California. One day, their captain gathered all of the Nisei soldiers and informed them of the order to evacuate all Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Soon, Yoshiwara found himself a member of a labor unit.

We were sent to Texas...in the beginning some part of us were, the stronger, bigger, huskier Niseis were put on a big truck, Army truck, trucks that were hauling garbages from various camp mess halls....I was a tiny, small guy so we were assigned to back of an officers' club that were making, cutting the chip, big rocks into small pieces to make pathway for the officers' club and so forth.


In mid-1942, an opportunity to join the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) arose, and Yoshiwara became part of the first Japanese language class at Camp Savage. One month before graduation, he and another five students were pulled out of school and ordered to go overseas for their first assignment. Consequently, Yoshiwara became one of the first MIS men to serve in the Guadalcanal campaign. Unlike the MIS linguists who worked under Gen. Douglas MacArthur's command, Yoshiwara and his partner Maxie Sakamoto reported to the U.S. Navy.

Yoshiwara became involved in a near-death incident on the way to Guadalcanal. He and Sakamoto boarded a small two-propeller plane that was already fully loaded with cargo. Each of them had to lie stomach down on top of the aircraft engine as they waited for take-off.

There were no portholes, no lights, and no space even to stretch ourselves in the compartment. As the pace of the engine noise became louder and faster and as the airplane began to move faster and faster--the whole airplane began to shake and vibrate violently. As I was wondering whether the plane was going to make it or not--in a matter of seconds the engine noise stopped, abruptly and completely--but the airplane kept moving forward--still bouncing and vibrating heavily. I didn't know what to make of it.


As it turned out, the plane was "way out in the middle of nowhere" and the pilot was in too much shock to take action. Fortunately, Army trucks arrived in time and were able to save the overloaded plane from flipping over and exploding. In the end, the two MIS men made it to Guadalcanal safely.

In Guadalcanal, Yoshiwara recalls how he would sleep in a hammock that was hung right over his foxhole. He remained on constant alert for the enemy, which meant "we slept with our fatigues and shoes on." As early as the first night, he became an experienced "combat veteran."

I was awakened by a wailing siren sound from the nearby airbase, "zipped" open the hammock's side netting and slid into my private coral foxhole. Then I heard the drones of airplanes...way up in the sky, coming closer and closer. Immediately the sky over the airbase was completely lit up with "hundreds" of search lights and then a formation of about a dozen Mitsubishi bombers...appeared. Then all hell broke loose! Everything from anti-aircraft guns, "ack-ack" guns, "pom-pom" guns to machine guns, rifles, etc., were thrown up at the coming "Washing Machine Charlies" but they kept on coming without even wavering.


Soon after arrival, Yoshiwara and Sakamoto began working on some Japanese tactical and strategic military documents and other miscellaneous papers. The first document they picked up turned out to be one of the most valuable--it contained information about the establishment of defense lines from the Central Pacific to New Guinea as well as capture and occupation plans for such places as New Britain, Bougainville, and New Georgia. Some other papers revealed the Japanese forces' attack plans in detail, including information on assembly areas, movement plans, attack locations, and all pertinent dates, times, and coordinates.

In December 1943 Yoshiwara's 173rd Language Detachment prepared to participate in the campaign on Bougainville. They were attached to the 37th Infantry Division, which was commended by Maj. Gen. Robert Beightler as "first league, ready and able to accept anything the enemy can bring against it." Members of the language team recall doing language work in "16- to 17-hour days" as "commonplace" during this campaign. Not only did they do the typical work of MIS linguists, they also took the time to offer orientation lectures to frontline troops to familiarize them with MIS work and to emphasize the importance of captured documents and humane treatment of prisoners. Quickly enough, Yoshiwara received commission for Warrant Officer, then First Lieutenant. Later Yoshiwara headed for the Philippines to join the invasion of Luzon.

Though he could have remained in the Army, Yoshiwara decided to ask for discharge and seek a civil service position. He landed an accounting job under the Economic Planning Section in Occupied Japan. Using his academic background in economics, he helped the Japanese government produce economic indexes and guide the country on its way to recovery. Later his office was transferred to Honolulu, and Yoshiwara, now with a family, left Japan after a stay of more than 10 years. " WHERE veteran_id = 1074;\g