Wallace S. Amioka grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii and attended Japanese school for nine years.  In 1931 at age 17, he began working for Shell Oil Company. Ten years later, he watched Japanese fighters bomb Pearl Harbor. When members of the University of Hawaii ROTC were mobilized into the Hawaii Territorial Guard, he joined. However, without explanation, all Japanese Americans were discharged. Eventually, he enlisted with three hundred other men to begin their military careers in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS).

From Hawaii, he traveled to Camp Savage, Minn. and arrived in the middle of a snowstorm:

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I can still vividly recall our arrival at that railway siding on February 7, 1944. We were greeted by a blinding snowstorm. We were ordered to line up in a column of twos, with our duffel bags on our shoulders and marched to camp. The camp was probably no more than a mile away, but to me and the others from sunny Hawaii that march... seemed like 10 miles or more. [Oral History]
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 After graduation the Army sent him to Infantry Officers Training School at Fort Benning:

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Soon thereafter, I was told to report to the Commandant's office and was informed by Colonel Hollingshead that a special team of enlisted men of Okinawan ancestry had requested that I be selected as its leader. [Oral History]
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In April 1945 Amioka and his team of Okinawan linguists arrived in Okinawa. A few months later Japan surrendered and the Army sent him to Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture to assist with the surrender of a gunpowder factory:

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The Vice Admiral removed his sword and handing it to General Griner stated, "Sir, I hand you my sword as a token of surrender of this installation to you." General Griner replied, "I accept this sword as a token of your surrender of this installation and relieve you of your responsibilities for it." Thereupon, General Griner noticed that the sword handed him was not an ordinary military ceremonial sword and asked me to ask the Vice Admiral about it. The Vice Admiral stated the sword was his personal property and was his family's heirloom...

General Griner handed the sword back to the Vice Admiral stating, "The war is now over, let's all work hard to heal the scars of war and work toward a more peaceful and friendlier world."  [Oral History]
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In the first few weeks after arrival, Amioka helped relieve some of the tension between Japanese civilians and American G.I.s:

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The G.I.s were disturbed that the civilians all turned their backs as they passed by. I explained to them that this was not an insulting gesture but one of highest respect. I related to them that it was a carryover from the old samurai days when the commoners had to kneel and keep their heads down as the lord's (daimyo's) entourage passed by. To look up at the lord was a crime and punishable by death. And since we were the conquerors, the civilians were making sure they did not gaze at us. [Oral History]
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Amioka continued to work in Japan. He traveled around the country and witnessed the devastation the war had brought:

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 There were many homeless who sought shelter at night under the canopies in the doorways of big buildings and in the subways. People scrounging for food at our camps were not an uncommon sight. [Oral History]
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In March of 1946, the Counterintelligence Corps headquarters ordered him to Hiroshima, placing him on a temporary assignment. He entered the city by train:

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The scene of complete destruction... greeted me as I emerged from the station was awesome and would have been unbelievable had I not seen it with my own eyes. [Oral History]
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After his first tour, Amioka briefly returned to Hawaii. Then in September 1946, he received orders to return to Japan to Saitama-ken. His wife joined him in Japan, and his first daughter was born in Tokyo. When the Korean War began he became the commanding officer of a small group of Nisei who went to Okinawa to audit the U.S. Civil Administration, Ryukyus. He extended his service until the end of 1952 and became an active reserve captain. His reserve commission expired in May 1953, and he resumed civilian life and returned to work for Shell Oil Company. 
	

