George Itsuo Nakamura had just turned 18 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The Army evicted him and his family from their home and sent them to Tulare, Calif., where they lived in horse stalls for two months. Then, the government forced them to move to Gila River Detention Camp in Arizona.

Nakamura's father had died earlier, and his older brother had become the head of the family. His brother wanted to join the Army, but felt responsible for their sisters and mother. Instead of joining himself, it was this older brother who encouraged Nakamura to volunteer. After a few months in camp, Nakamura decided to volunteer for the Army, but unfortunately, neighbors and friends who had heard that he had enlisted, chastised his mother:

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Our Arroyo Grande hometown neighbors or friends went to my mother saying, "Did you let your son volunteer?" And my mother got very frustrated. It was just before I was to get into the Army. [Oral History]
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Nakamura remembers hearing what these so-called friends said to his mother:

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[They said to Nakamura's mother] "You ought to be ashamed of yourself; you're letting your son go fight Japan where we're in a place like this, etc. etc." Interestingly, those same families have sons my age. I was the only one from my class that volunteered. [Oral History]
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Early in the morning he and 30 other young men shipped out to Camp Savage, Minn., for Military Intelligence Service (MIS) training. After graduation he took a ship from Los Angeles, sailed around the southern side of Australia, and ended up in New Delhi, India, to work with British soldiers. 

The Army sent Nakamura to China as a "test" to see how the Chinese would accept a Japanese face in an American uniform. In July 1944, he went to the Chinese Communist headquarters and began his work translating documents and interrogating prisoners:

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The U.S. Army originally got approval from Chiang Kai-shek to set up a "Dixie Mission" to go to Yenan.... I was the only Nisei sent.... I started to interrogate prisoners there and also translate documents for information to be sent back to Chungking and eventually Washington. [Oral History]
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From Yenan Nakamura traveled across the Yellow River close to the battle zone and spent one year translating documents and interrogating Japanese prisoners. Around Christmas in 1944, an injured American pilot arrived. At first the pilot did not trust Nakamura's Japanese face, but quickly realized they were on the same side in Chinese territory. In a show of unexpected hospitality, Chinese soldiers helped the two celebrate the holidays:

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The Chinese Communists realized that Christmas was important to us, so they had made up a special program for us that night. They gave us a nice dinner and we were very pleased that they had gone through trouble to make us feel more at home-two Americans who were directly or indirectly helping the Chinese Communists fight the Japanese. [Oral History]
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In July 1945, Nakamura received a direct commission and a Bronze Star Medal for his work in Communist China. Not only did he perform difficult work, he lavished in the company of Chinese leaders:

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Being invited to dinners and things like that with Mao Tse-tung and his associates and being young and treated so well, was something for me.... I danced with Mrs. Mao Tse-tung and great leaders' wives. American Dixie mission group and Chinese Communist leaders were quite friendly at that time. [Oral History]
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After the war, he worked in Formosa (present-day Taiwan) and in French-Indo-China (now Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia) interpreting for officers if they needed to communicate with the Japanese Army. He also helped repatriate Japanese citizens from Formosa, making sure they only brought one suitcase to Japan. In January 1947, he returned to the United States, but when he was offered a position in the Counterintelligence Corps, he returned to Japan and served for another two-and-a-half years. Reflecting on his work for the MIS, he says:

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I often thought about my hometown friends' family who used to say, "Why fight for a country that put you into prison?" When you think about things like that you think, "Why am I doing this?" Later others did the same thing. I'm glad I did what I did. In the long run it was much better than being in camp and just squatting there and saying, "You put me in prison so take care of me." [Oral History]
__END_QUOTE__

When he returned to the United States he attended Columbia University and completed a Bachelor's and then a Master's degree in Far Eastern Studies. He joined a battery company and worked in Japan and Korea, eventually meeting his future wife in Japan. 
Nakamura, George - bio.doc

Scott Hoshida	Page 2	4/4/03


