Masaji Inoshita's father grew up Kyushu where he learned sumo-Japanese wrestling. The elder Inoshita wanted to avoid the draft in Japan, and decided to come America where he traveled up and down the Pacific Coast as a sumo wrestler, challenging other people their wages for the day. After making money wagering on wrestling, he started a pig farm in central California and in 1916 persuaded his wife, a picture bride, to come to the United States.

In 1919, Masaji Inoshita, their second son, was born. Inoshita's older brother died as a baby, and so Inoshita became the eldest son and the first American citizen in the family. He grew up with, "You're going to take care of the family, you're going to buy land," [Oral History] whispered into his ear.
	 
When the Great Depression hit, land that they had purchased was seized and his father looked for work as far east as Chicago. Eventually they settled on the central Coast in Santa Maria, Calif. His father again worked his way up from laborer to manager of a farm. When Inoshita turned 21, all of the leases and ownership of the horses, tractors, and everything else was put in his name:

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I was fully prepared to accept that from years of training. In a way I was glad because the draft was in operation and I went to the draft board and they said, "You're 1A, you're healthy enough to go to the service." They asked what I did, I said, "I'm a farmer." They asked how much do you farm? I said, "I'm in charge of 80 acres." And I took all my lease papers up there. They see me as the operator of a farm and I didn't have to go to the draft. [Oral History]
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As a youth he grew up like many Nisei-he went to an integrated school-but in all other activities, except sports, he was segregated from their Caucasian peers. Attending Japanese school five days a week, and helping on the family farm did not help matters either:

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My mother used to tell me, "Now you're going to school and learn the best you can. Get good grades and you can go out for sports, but you can't go off to any social type of activities." I felt this very keenly because I'm a fairly gregarious person and I like to talk to people. My mother used to warn me when you speak to a Caucasian girl, be very careful that you have someone else close by. I never went to a dance, didn't join any clubs that involved intersocial activities.... My mother was that way. [Oral History]
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Two days before Inoshita's 22nd birthday, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Four days later the FBI came to their door, handcuffed his father in the kitchen, and without a word or formal charge whisked him away. Later, Inoshita learned that they took his father to Missoula, Mont., where they questioned him about his loyalty to Japan. 

Not knowing what would happen to his family, Inoshita accepted his responsibility as the eldest son and kept the farm going:

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Here was a federal agency stating, "You have to continue your farming operation because your crops are necessary for the war effort." Can you imagine, on the one hand they're taking the heads of family away, freezing the bank account, and yet they're telling us to continue farming? Lot of the people quit that day on December 7th, let the crops go. But we continued. [Oral History]
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When the War Relocation Authority (WRA) finally posted orders in Santa Maria for all Japanese to leave the area, a friendly neighbor farmer, Mr. Philbrick, offered to store their equipment in his storehouse. When Inoshita and his family waited to be taken away by train, Philbrick came to see them off:

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The same Philbrick.... He walked up toward the Army personnel and pushes him aside, "I'm going to talk to my friends." I could hear his voice. He hugs my mother and me and said, "The government is making a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake. When this war is over, you come back." He turned around and got into his car and drove off. [Oral History]
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The Army sent Inoshita and his family to Tulare Assembly Center, and then the WRA finally sent him to the Gila River Detention Camp. When the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) recruiters came to the camp, he knew there were about two or three thousand people with the same language ability as him:

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I thought about it a long time. In fact, I didn't sleep a couple of nights. Right from the first I wanted to volunteer because I saw that as an opportunity for my personal freedom, and I also saw that as a plus for the family. [Oral History]
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After he enlisted, his family received cold treatment from their friends and community members:

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My sister keeps telling me, when you volunteered, you raised havoc in our family. I think that's true because all the families that came from Santa Maria valley were real friendly with one another, and we were included among the friends. The fact that I volunteered-complete association stopped.... People that I grew up with all my life no longer talked to me. [Oral History]
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In mid-November of 1942, a week after Inoshita volunteered for the service, the FBI released his father. 

In May 1943, he graduated from the Camp Savage school and shipped out to New Delhi, India, to establish the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Command (CSDIC) under the leadership of a British colonel. At first Inoshita talked to injured Japanese soldiers stationed at the hospital, and began to pick up Urdu from the locals. The British noticed his interest in the local language and sent him out to their frontlines in Burma. At the time, Allied Forces had cut off the shipments of malaria medication, and Japanese troops began to lose strength. Both American and Chinese troops had the reputation for not taking prisoners, so the sick Japanese soldiers gravitated toward the British frontlines where they were picked up and brought in for treatment and interrogation.

Inoshita's partner had graduated from Waseda University and could read complicated Japanese, while Inoshita could speak English fluently. Paired together, they worked through the interrogations quickly and helped give the POWs some relief in the form of cards, cigarettes, and a chance to cook their own meals. 

Sometimes his partner would be pulled away for a week, and Inoshita could not translate the documents handed to him:

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What I'd do is, I'd go to the prisoners and get an intelligent looking fellow that I can converse with and have him read it to me. I would translate it. I'd get commendation from the British for being so efficient, and I used the prisoners. [Oral History]
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After the war ended, he traveled to China to observe the surrender of Japanese troops and met Chinese officials who had studied in Japan before the war. He went through Nanking, Shanghai, Okinawa, and finally landed in Japan. In Hiroshima, he went not to inspect the damage, but to identify any military installations that would have been used for the defense of Hiroshima. He found little evidence that Japan had prepared for such an invasion:

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We looked everywhere, all though the back roads. The driver told me there aren't any, the only defense they had was a bamboo sharpened on one end. That's the way every man, woman, and child was going to repel the invasion.... Then you hear the President saying, "The atomic bomb saved a million lives." It makes me sad because the war was over and military Japan had asked for terms of surrender.... They wanted to demonstrate the atomic bomb. It was not a question that Japan wasn't ready to surrender; Japan was ready to surrender.... But that's only my interpretation and some of the other people's interpretation may not fit into what you're trying to say. [Oral History]
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After a short time in Japan, he returned to the United States to establish his own life. By then his younger brother had taken over the family business and it had begun to prosper. Inoshita felt like an outsider. He worked as a migrant laborer, started a small farm, got married, and settled in Arizona to raise his family.

