Growing up in Reedley, Calif., a small agricultural town in the Central Valley, Kei Kitahara enjoyed participating in many of the local youth activities. He learned kendo and judo, attended Japanese school, joined the Boy Scouts, and participated in the YMCA. Although most of his time was spent around other Japanese-American youth, he remembers feeling connected to people from other ethnic groups in Reedley.
Immediately after graduating from high school, Kitahara entered the University of California, Davis, and studied viticulture and horticulture. Before he could complete his degree, the Army evacuated him and his family to Poston Detention Camp in August 1942. His father had worked with the kendo group and the FBI picked him up for questioning, but later he joined the rest of the family in Poston. In the detention camp, Kitahara taught agriculture at the high school until January 1943 when he volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Unit.
After he finished his basic training with the 442nd at Camp Shelby, Mi., a representative of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) interviewed him and he was transferred to Camp Savage, Minn. Although he had studied Japanese as a youth, Kitahara was far from fluent and had a difficult time learning the language. Finally, in spring 1944 he finished the course, and the Army assigned him to the South Pacific where he worked with the 81st Infantry Division:

> Our job was primarily to interrogate Japanese prisoners of war that were captured and to do some broadcasting, teach our G.I.s simple words and phrases in Japanese. We told our troops what kind of enemy soldiers they would confront in combat. Peleliu was our first campaign. Leyte, Philippines, was our second campaign. [Oral History]

In Peleliu he contracted severe hepatitis and was sent to New Caledonia to recover from a temperature of 107 degrees. It took him three months to recover:

> While in Leyte, a Japanese officer was brought into division headquarters with two broken legs. This [the injury] was caused by native Filipinos who were showing their anger and hatred to the Japanese Army....
> One particular captive who had been shot complained of something moving in his inner ear. After he surrendered, I took him to a field first aid station where he was checked and treated. Maggots rolled out of his ear after treatment. This was my first personal contact with a POW.

Kitahara was in Leyte when he found out that Japan had surrendered. Relieved that the war had ended, he and his troops had no time to rest.
The 81st Infantry Division was sent to Japan to help with the Occupation. He accompanied the Artillery Division to Hirosaki and interpreted for a brigadier general. Working with Occupation Forces and Japanese officials, Kitahara helped the local government install civilian leaders in the local government.
Once the civilians gained control, Kitahara was reassigned to Yokohama, Japan, where he worked with the defense attorney for the war crimes trials until 1946 when he was discharged and returned to the United States.