INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2000', 'Aiso', 'John', '1909-12-14', 'Burbank, CA', '1941-0-0', '1941-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2001', 'Amioka', 'Wallace', '1914-6-28', 'Honolulu, HI', '1944-1-3', '1952-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2002', 'Fukuhara', 'Harry', '1920-1-1', ' Seattle, WA ', '1942-0-0', '1977-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2003', 'Gosho', 'Hank', '1921-2-4', 'Seattle, WA', '1942-11-0', '1945-5-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2004', 'Inouye', 'Kazuo', '1919-5-22', ' Kingsburg, CA ', '1942-1-27', '1945-11-27', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2005', 'Inouye', 'Masato Mas', '1917-1-17', ' San Luis Obispo, CA ', '1909-5-1', '1909-5-21', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2006', 'Ishida', 'William Tsuyoshi', '1917-1-18', ' Lindsey, CA ', '1941-6-10', '1945-12-22', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2007', 'Ishio', 'Sunao Phil', '2018-1-12', 'Berkeley, CA', '1942-6-0', '--', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2008', 'Kadani', 'Gary Tsuneo', '2015-11-16', ' San Juan Bautista, CA ', '1941-3-10', '1948-9-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2009', 'Kaneko', 'Arthur Masaki', '1912-10-27', ' Riverside, CA ', '1941-3-7', '1946-3-1', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2010', 'Kihara', 'Shigeya', '1914-9-11', 'Suisun, CA', '--', '--', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2011', 'Kishiue', 'Nobuo Dick', '1920-5-20', 'Armona, CA', '1941-11-4', '1945-11-12', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2012', 'Komoto', 'Kazuo', '1918-11-9', ' Sanger, CA ', '1941-3-10', '1945-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2013', 'Kono', 'Yeije Gene', '1920-3-10', ' Fresno, CA ', '1944-11-14', '1950-9-30', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2014', 'Koyama', 'Spady', '1917-6-4', ' Ferry, WA ', '1942-1-8', '1970-7-16', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2015', 'Morimitsu', 'Arthur', '1912-3-28', ' Sacramento, CA ', '1943-9-0', '1946-1-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2016', 'Nakamura', 'George Itsuo', '1923-11-13', 'Arroyo Grande, CA', '1942-12-0', '1949-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2017', 'Saiki', 'Barry', '1919-6-21', 'Stockton, CA', '1944-11-0', '1966-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2018', 'Sakamoto', 'Tom', '1918-3-5', 'San Jose, CA', '1941-2-26', '0-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2019', 'Tagami', 'Kan', '1918-2-21', 'Selma, CA', '1941-2-16', '1951-4-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2020', 'Tanaka', 'Walter', '1918-2-19', 'Watsonville, CA', '1941-6-1', '1961-6-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2022', 'Uratsu', 'Gene', '1917-7-5', 'Berkeley, CA', '1941-3-1', '1962-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2023', 'Yamamoto', 'Steve Shizuma', '1917-8-16', 'San Gabriel, CA', '1941-3-11', '1961-4-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2024', 'Yamane', 'Kazuo', '1916-12-8', 'Hawaii', '1941-1-0', '1945-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2025', 'Yempuku', 'Ralph', '1914-5-23', '0/0/0', '0-0-0', '0-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2026', 'Inoshita', 'Masaji', '1919-12-9', ' Fresno, CA ', '1942-12-0', '1946-1-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2027', 'Kido', 'Fumio', '1924-4-14', ' Hilo, Hawaii ', '1943-3-23', '1946-3-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2028', 'Honda', 'Ben Sanaye', '--', ' Fresno, CA ', '1945-9-0', '0-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2029', 'Kitahara', 'Kei', '1920-12-29', ' Reedley, CA ', '1943-1-0', '1946-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2031', 'Kayano', 'George Kenichi', '1920-2-19', ' San Francisco, CA ', '1941-10-17', '1947-7-14', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2032', 'Kishi', 'Sherman', '1945-5-15', ' Livingston, CA ', '1943-9-0', '1946-3-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2033', 'Kadomoto', 'Thomas', '1917-3-24', ' Phoenix, AZ ', '1941-7-21', '1946-3-26', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2034', 'Ito', 'Sueo', '1919-6-0', ' Kurtistown, HI ', '1944-7-0', '1946-7-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2035', 'Ichikawa', 'Grant', '19-4-17', 'Suisun, CA', '1941-0-0', '0-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2036', 'Iida', 'Harry Shinichi', '20-7-19', 'San Jose, CA', '1942-11-0', '1962-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2037', 'Hurt', 'Haruko Sugi', '15-1-3', 'Parlier, CA', '1944-1-0', '46-9-16', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2038', 'Ishikawa', 'Moffett Mitsuo', '18-4-2', 'San Jose, CA', '42-1-14', '1945-11-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2039', 'Inouye', 'Kaoru', '15-12-5', 'Los Gatos, CA', '1944-8-0', '1946-70-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2041', 'Kai', 'James Tsutomo', '20-2-1', 'Denver, CO', '41-10-7', '1945-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2042', 'Kasai', 'Mitsugi M.', '18-1-30', 'Milford, UT', '1946-6-0', '73-3-31', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2043', 'Meyer', 'Allen H.', '25-12-6', 'Chicago, IL', '1944-0-0', '1947-9-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2044', 'Kobayashi', 'Hisao Koby', '15-1-23', 'Brawley, CA', '41-12-2', '1946-2-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2046', 'Matsui', 'George Shigeo', '15-3-1', 'Long Beach, CA', '1941-2-0', '45-12-10', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2047', 'Kanemoto', 'Wayne Masao', '18-3-9', 'San Jose, CA', '1942-7-0', '1946-3-0', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2048', 'Kawashiri', 'Roy Iwao', '--', '', '41-6-5', '45-9-28', '<BR>', '');\g
INSERT INTO veterans (veteran_id, last_name, first_name, date_of_birth, birthplace, army_entered, army_discharged, notes, honors) VALUES ('2049', 'Kimura', 'Rusty', '15-1-19', 'Sacramento, CA', '42-12-5', '1945-0-0', '<BR>', '');\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2000;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2001;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2002;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2003;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2004;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2005;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2006;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2007;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2008;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 2009;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2010;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2011;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2012;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2013;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2014;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2015;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2016;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2017;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2018;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2019;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Autobiography, Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 2020;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2022;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2023;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2024;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2025;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2026;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 2027;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2028;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2029;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2031;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2032;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 2033;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Biography' WHERE veteran_id = 2034;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2035;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2036;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2037;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2038;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2039;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 2041;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire, Photos, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 2042;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire, Articles' WHERE veteran_id = 2043;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2044;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2046;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History, Questionnaire' WHERE veteran_id = 2047;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Autobiography' WHERE veteran_id = 2048;\g
UPDATE veterans SET resources = 'Oral History' WHERE veteran_id = 2049;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Aiso's unique upbringing colored his entire life, from his experience as the director of the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) to his eventual judgeship. His parents, who converted to Christianity and lived outside of the Japanese ethnic enclave, encouraged him to reach out to non-Japanese people. His face appeared in Los Angeles newspapers when his junior high school classmates elected him president. The Caucasian parents, adamant that Aiso not serve his term, shut down all student-led activities until the end of the year. In high school, he was forced to choose between participating in a national oratorical contest (he won the Los Angeles-area contest) and becoming valedictorian. The school did not want him to represent them in both. 
<BR><BR>
Although his academic success and willingness to stand up in the face of racism challenged him, it also brought him supporters. Introduced by the Japanese Consulate, he met the president of Brown University, who later would support him financially and academically in college.
<BR><BR>
After high school graduation, Aiso did not feel ready for university life 'on his own' and instead decided to visit his parents' home country. He discovered, contrary to what he learned in America, a proud, modern nation that looked down on its emigrant sons and daughters: &quot;An immigrant was considered rubbish that they wanted to get rid of in some other country. They didn't want to keep them in Japan.&quot; 
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I realized that Japan was not the place for me. They didn't want me. For instance, I am the offspring of immigrants, get the hell back to America, you don't belong here. Even after I became a director of the Manchuko subsidiaries of the British American Tobacco Company (after law school). I was invited to a Peers' Club... so when I went there I did hear said behind my back, &quot;Oh, he may be a director of a company, but he is only the son of an immigrant.&quot; [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
It's a situation where you find yourself in some ways as a man without a country-racial discrimination in the United States and social discrimination in Japan. This is part of the background that plays a part in the MIS work later on. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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After one year in Japan, he returned to the United States and attended Brown University. He successfully graduated and then went on to study law at Harvard Law School. He looked for work in San Francisco and Los Angeles but the firms responded saying, &quot;John, we like you personally, but if you sat in our office, you would chase out white clients away. So sorry, but we can't take you in.&quot; Instead, he took a position where many Japanese companies had set up offices-New York City. There he met a Japanese businessman who encouraged Aiso to study Japanese. Aiso traveled to Tokyo, found a job, and eventually went to Occupied China in Manchuko to represent the company.
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As Japan steadily increased its military activity around Asia, Aiso fell sick with hepatitis. His mother, worried about his health, came from Los Angeles and brought him home to recover. While he rested in the United States the Army drafted him and sent him to boot camp.
<BR><BR>
While he worked as a truck repairman Aiso was visited by Col. Kai Rasmussen who tested his language ability. A few months later, Rasmussen summoned him to the Presidio to meet Col. John Weckerling and two other Nisei they had hired, Akira Oshida and Shigeya Kihara. At first Aiso had been brought to be a student of the school; then the officers told him he would be a part-time teacher and a few days later said, &quot;You're going to be the head instructor, the chief instructor.&quot;
<BR><BR>
Known as a tough teacher, Aiso instilled a sense of duty and fear in his students. He was a role model, willing to work as hard as his students, &quot;I tried to show that I would go through everything I was asking them... It's been my nature all along that if you have a job to do, you've got to do the best you can with it.&quot;  He also felt that this experience had meaning deeper than just job satisfaction or loyalty:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
It's the first time in my life that there was a cause greater than yourself. There were times at nighttime that you couldn't wait until dawn to come because you had to get certain of your jobs done. That's the thrill I have never re-lived since then. I think it was somewhat the same type of spirit that the students had to do. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In the middle of the first class of the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), Pearl Harbor was bombed and Aiso had to think not only of his past in Japan, but the responsibilities he held as the chief instructor of the school:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I felt as if someone had cut my guts out... So the question was, &quot;How am I going to approach them (the MISLS students)? It seemed completely out of my power. I did actually get down on my knees and prayed hoping for some kind of divine guidance to help me make the proper choices and do my duty, which is properly owing. It's an experience that I would never want any of my ancestors or children to ever go into. It's an indescribable type of feeling. You knew where your duties were, but at the same time you are going to say there are relatives, close friends and benefactors, and so forth. Then there certainly would be kindling of hostilities by the American sector that didn't like us to begin with. 
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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One worried student pulled him outside to have a private conversation:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
A Kibei student in the class came up to me and said, &quot;Sensei, can you guarantee that we won't be lined up tomorrow morning and shot? Isn't it now the opportunity for us to go over the hill?&quot; It was during noontime that I was told that they (the Army) had picked up the rifles and side arms of the Nisei students, and that's what got him worried. He was thinking in Japanese terms. I told him, &quot;Where would you go? What would you do? By doing such a thing like that, you would destroy the entire future of the people of Japanese ancestry in America. I am staying here, and you are going to stay, also.&quot; I am happy to report that he was the first Nisei to win a Silver Star in the Pacific Theater of Operations... His name was Kozaki-Sgt. Kozaki. 
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The next morning Weckerling came and addressed the first class, &quot;Don't raise a fuss. Just stick by your duties as if nothing had happened. I went partially through the feelings you are going through in that I was of German ancestry in World War I. I expect you people to act like men in this situation.&quot; 
<BR><BR>
From that moment, Aiso worked hard through the rest of the war, graduating qualified students as quickly as possible. Throughout his tenure, he worked by trial and error, constantly adjusting the curriculum and working with his teachers to establish a rigorous course for his students. Often, students were better than their teachers in one or both of the languages. 
<BR><BR>
Instead of using the traditional teaching method, where the teacher must have superior knowledge in all areas, he remembered how a professor at Harvard would approach new material, &quot;His first words were, 'I don't know much about this subject, but let's, you and I, get together and study it together.' They (his former law school professors) don't expect the person who is going to be the teacher to be superior in every respect the way the Japanese concept of a teacher is.&quot;  
He worked long hours, supervising teachers, disciplining students, and counseling many of the young Nisei in uncertain times:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
It was something that I thought was naturally part of your responsibility from Japanese custom. You are nominally at the head and it is something that you will probably understand better than Col. Rasmussen who wasn't raised in a Japanese family. And also the Nisei problem-there is quite a difference in views between some Nisei and their parents and I think my being a Nisei helped in that type of situation.  (p. 64)
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
As these students and teachers worked hard to become proficient in Japanese, some grew anxious and wanted to be placed on the frontlines. Others had to ponder the possibility of meeting friends and family on the battlefield:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
It wasn't a question of individually meeting them, although I think that was a part of the silent, unexpressed portion of it. I think it was in the back of their minds. As a human being, you can't help it. For instance, Sgt. Hachiya-his mother and sister were in Japan at the time he was killed by American troops as he was returning from a scouting mission. It would be humanly impossible not to think of your mother and sister in Japan, and you are fighting against Japanese soldiers. Duty, yes, duty. But still, a strain on the heart you might say. Heart breaking. Yes, they went through that experience. I can sympathize with them because to a certain extent, I think I went through somewhat the same thing on Pearl Harbor day. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
As the war ended, he received orders to stop teaching military vocabulary and the school began to train students to help with the Occupation of Japan. Aiso, too, went to Japan to help with the Occupation.
<BR><BR>
In Japan, he worked on the political purge of Japanese militarists in the government. As Occupation forces grew more zealous in their purge, they began to target businessmen. Aiso knew some of them and disagreed with the policy. After a confrontation with Colonel Cadies, he decided he had enough with the Army and returned to the United States.
<BR><BR>
In retrospect, Aiso has remained modest and appreciates the role he played in Japanese American history and U.S. military history:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I can't say that I planned it or carried it out. I did only what was placed in front of me. That I tried to do thoroughly, but that's all I can say. I didn't realize that any of that would be considered part of the United States military history at the time. [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
I never thought that what we were doing would be considered historically of interest or importance. I thought our primary thing was just to prove that we were loyal Americans and having proved that, I thought that was it. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Aiso, John (Judge) - bio.doc
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Scott Hoshida	Page 4	4/2/03
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2000;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "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).
<BR><BR>
From Hawaii, he traveled to Camp Savage, Minn. and arrived in the middle of a snowstorm:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
 After graduation the Army sent him to Infantry Officers Training School at Fort Benning:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The Vice Admiral removed his sword and handing it to General Griner stated, &quot;Sir, I hand you my sword as a token of surrender of this installation to you.&quot; General Griner replied, &quot;I accept this sword as a token of your surrender of this installation and relieve you of your responsibilities for it.&quot; 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...
<BR><BR>
General Griner handed the sword back to the Vice Admiral stating, &quot;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.&quot;  [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In the first few weeks after arrival, Amioka helped relieve some of the tension between Japanese civilians and American G.I.s:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Amioka continued to work in Japan. He traveled around the country and witnessed the devastation the war had brought:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
 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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In March of 1946, the Counterintelligence Corps headquarters ordered him to Hiroshima, placing him on a temporary assignment. He entered the city by train:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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. 
	
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2001;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 2002;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Hank Gosho was born a middle son on February 4, 1921, in Seattle, Wash. His father wanted to open an import-export business and realized that his sons would have to learn Japanese to work for him. He sent Gosho and his younger brother to Japan with his younger brother in 1933.
<BR><BR>
In Japan he attended high school and college where the Reserve Officer Training Corps ROTC was compulsory:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
One of the things that I discovered in ROTC in Japan was it didn't do any good to say, &quot;I am an American citizen and why am I going through with this?&quot; because you only got hit on the head.... My attitude was, the best way for self-preservation was, number one, learn the language so well that you could speak like a native. And number two; go along with it to see how far you can get away from all this business of punishment. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
As Japan's militarism grew, his father brought him back to the United States in August 1941. Gosho's brothers, who were studying at prestigious Japanese schools, stayed to finish their studies, and ended up being stuck in Japan during the war.
<BR><BR>
Gosho was preparing for entrance into a U.S. university when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We learned that there was an immediate curfew... No one knew what was going to happen or what was happening. I think almost immediately, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) swept through the city and picked up so called &quot;key&quot; Japanese leaders, community leaders. My father was not taken until the very last wave in February of '42. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
A few months later, the War Department sent Gosho and his family to Minidoka Detention Camp in Idaho. He left the camp quickly to go work on the sugar beet and potato farms:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We called it bucking the spuds. A truck would go five miles an hour between two rows of potatoes, sacks of potatoes. Each weighed approximately eighty pounds. The idea was to stack the potatoes on the back end of the truck. It seemed reasonable enough to me at the time. Five miles an hour wasn't much. Boy! Maybe that's why I volunteered for military intelligence! (Laughs) [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Gosho's father assumed that all the Issei would be deported and doubted he would see his American son again. In that moment, Gosho remembered his father giving him a speech about honor:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
As long as I am an American citizen, he said that I must not be hesitant about doing whatever I can to serve the United States. He said, &quot;After all, you were born here. This is your country.&quot; [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The treatment Gosho received in Japan reinforced those sentiments:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The discrimination I felt in Japan by the Japanese against Japanese Americans was far more subtle and fierce than the discrimination we met or might have met here in the West Coast. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In November 1942, the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) snuck him out of Minidoka Detention Camp early in the morning and brought him by train to Camp Savage, Minn. Six months later he had graduated from the first class. Recently married and with a young daughter on the way, Gosho put his name down for a special assignment that promised to bring him back to Camp Savage in half a year. He didn't know he would be going to Burma, and he did not know that it would take two years for him to return to the continental United States.
<BR><BR>
He arrived in India and began training for jungle warfare. Assigned to Merrill's Marauders, Gosho marched through the jungles of Burma and snuck up on Japanese soldiers for reconnaissance, sometimes hearing more than he bargained for:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I could hear the Japanese officers giving their instructions on where to aim, to fire, and I knew, I understood they were firing at us in our particular location. Really scary. [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
The Japanese patrol would come by and I could hear them saying, &quot;What in the hell are we doing here?&quot; My platoon officer, leader would say, &quot;What did they say?&quot; I'd say, &quot;Never mind, I'll tell you later.&quot; When they left, I said to him, &quot;They were saying the same thing I was thinking.&quot; &quot;What's that?&quot; &quot;What in the hell am I doing here?&quot; [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The Marauders' mission was to try to cut off Japanese supply routes along the Burma Road and to help relieve the pressure on British troops fighting along the Burma-India border. 
<BR><BR>
On the march Gosho suffered all types of jungle diseases: jungle rot, typhus, and malaria. A leech that had stuck itself to his eyeball almost blinded him, and he suffered from hunger that drove him to risk his life to steal rice and takuwan (pickled radish) from Japanese camps. When water became scarce, he squeezed elephant grass and bamboo trees for liquid. Once while Gosho snuck up to the Japanese frontlines to eavesdrop on their conversations the two sides began shooting at each other.  He lay flat on the ground avoiding fire and later received the moniker &quot;Horizontal&quot; Hank for all the time he spent on the ground.
<BR><BR>
While the Marauders fought merely to survive, they also had to contend with the enemy:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
One of the ways we derived intelligence from the Japanese was, the Japanese had a mess kit, which they cooked their rice in. You could tell by the length of the groove they dug to put this mess kits in, how many men they had. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
 The Marauders respected and protected the Nisei linguists.  One soldier told Gosho, &quot;If you're ever captured by your ancestors, you've had it. I don't see why in hell you volunteered.&quot; [Oral History].  After months in the jungle, climbing up and down mountains, they finally reached their destination-Myitkyina airstrip.
<BR><BR>
The constant movement and jungle warfare made it impossible to catch POWs so it was not until they arrived at the airstrip did Gosho begin interrogations. One prisoner was a man who had been left in his hospital bed with a grenade and instructions to pull the pin if captured. Unconscious when captured, the Japanese soldier opened his eyes to the sight of Gosho, who gently explained how he had been caught. After the initial shock, Gosho remembered when the prisoner began to talk:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The reason he opened up so much was, the more he thought about it, the more angry he got that he was abandoned there, and not only abandoned by the Japanese, but given a hand grenade and told to commit suicide... [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After capturing the airstrip, Merrill's Marauders left Burma's jungles, but Gosho continued his work along the frontlines. With the idea that the Army could use his Japanese skills for propaganda, the Office of War Information (OWI) requested his service. Using a large speaker and microphone, he would call out to the Japanese soldiers to surrender, but all they gave him were some bullets shot at the speakers.
<BR><BR>
In May of 1945, two years after he left the West Coast by boat, Gosho was discharged. In 1950 he returned with his family to work in Occupied Japan worked in the Foreign Service.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2003;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Born in rural California, Kazuo Inouye grew up in the small community of Kingsburg. There he attended regular high school on the weekdays and Japanese school on Saturdays and Sundays where felt he lived a relatively prejudice free life.
<BR><BR>
Then he received his draft notice, and instead of waiting for the draft to call him, he decided to enlist in the Air Force:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I didn't feel any prejudice until the draft. I tried to volunteer for the Air Force, and I was turned down because I was Japanese. However, they told me I can go into the Army. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He waited, and then Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December. In January the Army drafted him. After training on the West Coast, he moved to Camp Riley, Kan. He met a recruiter for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School, but the commanding officer told all the Nisei soldiers that they would never get a promotion. On Easter Sunday, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the base:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
That's when they threw all the Japanese in the warehouse and had Caucasian officers with machine guns guarding the door. That's the kind of an officer he was, the Command General. He would mow us down, so who would volunteer? [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Eventually, Inouye received orders to board a train, and he found himself at Camp Savage, Minn. On December 4, 1942, he graduated and shipped out to Brisbane, Australia, to work with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). 
<BR><BR>
As an interrogator, he worked with &quot;hard-headed&quot; Japanese soldiers-the ones who refused to talk. Later, he went to the Philippines and interrogated prisoners as they were brought in. At San Fernando, about 20 miles north of Manila, he had to interpret for five Japanese soldiers who had been caught as spies:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They all snuck out of the hills, came to Manila and stole civilian clothing so they won't attract too much attention. They said they came to assassinate General MacArthur. They actually said that. They had a trial and I was the interpreter. A captain of the U.S. Army was on the defense and he was very good. We gave them a fair trial. If you're caught behind enemy lines in wartime in civilian cloths, you're a spy. So they were tried as spies and sentenced to hang. One fellow had a lump in his pants pocket, so we said, &quot;What do you have in there?&quot; He had his army cap, Japanese Army cap. That saved his life. Yes. The others were hung the following morning because they did not show that they were soldiers. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In another incident in Pampanga Province, Luzon, he was speaking with four Japanese prisoners at the local jail:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
One prisoner that I was talking to, he had a photographic mind. He was a former college instructor in Japan. He came out voluntarily and he wanted to tell us. He told all about their defense. The second day I went, he asked me, &quot;Is there a Lieutenant Silver in the Air Corps?&quot; I said, &quot;How come you know that?&quot; He said, &quot;Well, one of the prisoners was an air corps pilot and he was interrogated by this Lieutenant Silver from Clark Airfield Base.&quot; That was 20 miles north of where I was staying, San Fernando. So I went back that evening and I asked my Lieutenant, &quot;You know a Lieutenant Silver of Clark Airfield?&quot; &quot;We were classmates. I know him.&quot; So, he called this Lieutenant Silver and told [him] about this prisoner, his name was Koike. And before he left, Koike and three other classmates gave Lieutenant Silver a bon voyage party. They were friends, you see. And that's when I realized that while war is hell, and their countries are fighting, people don't hate each other. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
On a sailboat in Subic Bay, Inouye heard over the radio that Japan had surrendered. He left for Japan, but had enough points so he would be among the first to return to the United States. Assigned to Kyoto, the one large city not destroyed by bombs, he stayed with the G-2 6th Army:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
When soldiers gather, they get into trouble, for stealing a keg of beer from a beer joint, and we had to track it down where it went. I remember when they stole the Geisha clothes. That's about all. [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
When we were in Kyoto, we asked the civilians how did it feel to be defeated. They gave us a surprising answer. They said [that] we were glad. You see, they've suffered so much under the military, that if Japan won, civilians would be like slaves. So they were happy. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After only a few months in Japan, in November 1945, he returned to Kingsburg, Calif., and continued to farm and work as a welder and machinist. He met his family who returned from Jerome Detention Camp, and in 1949 he married Kazuye Yamasaki.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2004;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Masato &quot;Mas&quot; Inouye was born on the central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo and grew up in nearby Santa Maria and remembers having a &quot;normal&quot; childhood.
<BR><BR>
Although the Japanese in Santa Maria numbered only two or three hundred people, they did have a small Japanese school that Inouye attended. After regular school, the Japanese students separated from their Caucasian friends and studied Japanese:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My friends were both Caucasian and Japanese. However, I'll have to say that outside of school hours, relationship was mostly with the Nisei group. The relationship with the Caucasian friends terminated after school hours, so it was very much outside the school environment. Of course, in those days, we had to go to Japanese school several days a week after school. And so they kept up pretty busy. We didn't have much time to socialize in any way except to bear down and study.
<BR><BR>
 After school, which would normally be about three o'clock, we would go to the gakuen [school] as they say which is the Japanese language school and spend anywhere from one to two hours studying Japanese. Of course, we had recess and we all looked forward to recess because nobody seemed to want to study too hard, especially after a full day at the public schools. But somehow, it worked out. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After he graduated from high school in July 1935, Inouye's parents encouraged him to continue his education in Japan. He boarded a ship and 14 days later arrived in Tokyo. After finding a boarding house for Japanese from abroad (mainly from Hawaii), he began studying Japanese in preparation for studies at Meiji University. Despite his limited Japanese proficiency, he decided to pursue a degree in law and graduated with an equivalent to a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1939. 
<BR><BR>
During his stay in Japan, he spent most of his time studying to keep up with the other Japanese students and became involved in the Japan America Student Association. With this international group he took the opportunity to visit Korea and Manchuria, which were then under Japanese control-a sign of the growing Japanese militarism:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Although I was just a plain civilian going to school, I did notice a lot of activity, especially around the railroad stations where the Japanese soldiers were going to war and there was quite a bit of this so-called martial atmosphere-waving of flags, singing of songs, quite a bit of that going on. I noticed my classmates at Meiji University-they were concerned that they would be conscripted-drafted into the army. I heard many stories about some of these guys would drink a lot of shoyu [soy sauce] so that it would show up in their urine test so that they would be exempt from the draft. Not everybody, all the Japanese, wanted to be the drafted.... But for the most part there was great support for whatever the Japanese government was seeking to achieve. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Sticking to his original plan, Inouye decided to return to the United States in 1939. Inspired by a visiting professor from Yale University whom he met in Tokyo, he applied and was admitted to Yale's graduate school in international relations.
<BR><BR>
In 1941, the Army started the draft and as his number drew near, Inouye decided to enlist. He visited his widowed mother in Guadalupe and then went for his medical check. The doctors discovered a spot on his lung, which they thought was active tuberculosis. The Army rejected him and he went to a sanitarium in Monrovia, Calif. Lying in his hospital bed, he heard the news that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.
<BR><BR>
He spent two months recovering and then returned home for more rest, but Executive Order 9066 evicted his family from their home and sent them to detention camps. He and his family moved into Tulare Assembly Center and then to Gila River Detention Camp:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My feelings [were] not of anger. It was a terrible disappointment in the government for doing such a thing to us. Even with all that going on, I never lost faith in our country. They'd realize the gross injustice [that] they did to us. But still you can't help but feel [that] this meant a lot of suffering for innocent people. And I was especially concerned about my mother.... But I felt at the same time that if they issued such an order that we should go along with it. [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
Imagine, living in barracks... some people had to live in these, what is it, horse stalls was it? We were in one of these new tar-paper barracks.... You don't have any freedom, no privacy, poor sanitation, bad food. As a matter of fact, I had a bad case of diarrhea for several months. Worst part of it is [that] you don't have a life ... like you're put in jail.... The old people are the ones that suffered the most, I think. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Despite the hardship, Inouye accepted the government's orders. In camp he worked in community service, playing records in the evenings to keep people occupied. 
<BR><BR>
While in Tulare, he courted his future wife Kimiko, and then in Gila River Detention Camp they married. With some help, she found a wedding gown and he rented a tuxedo. For their honeymoon, they were driven from Gila River Camp 2, where they lived, to Gila River Camp 1, one mile away. They spent their first evening together in an empty barrack.
<BR><BR>
Inouye spent only a short period of time at Gila River, from April to December, 1942. When Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School representatives came to recruit, he decided to apply for a position at the University of Michigan instead of the MIS Language School in Minnesota. He wanted to stay close to an academic institution. After being accepted, he and his wife moved to Ann Arbor, Mi., where he taught Caucasian students from top colleges around the country. His students studied with him for one year of basic Japanese and then continued their studies at MISLS:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I think all of us felt that we were doing our share in the war effort in training these young men so that we could do our share in winning the war. Because there's a definite need for linguists. And these fellows we taught could never achieve the proficiency of, say, a good Nisei linguist. But their job is, I guess, as detachment commanders.... I had some fellows I know who became good linguists. [Oral History]
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
<BR><BR>
The war ended in 1945 and the Japanese school in Michigan closed. Over the next two years, he worked on various projects translating documents. On one assignment, he worked for the Manhattan Project, and another forced him to move to Dayton, Ohio. At age thirty and with two daughters, he remembered his first rejection from the Army and decided to enlist. He went to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for basic training and then received orders to teach Japanese at the language school in Monterey, Calif.
<BR><BR>
He taught for two years and then applied for a commission in military intelligence. In April 1950, he received his orders as First Lieutenant for the Far East. He moved to Japan and became General Ridgeway's interpreter, but in June the Korean War began and his family could not join him. The following year, his wife developed stomach cancer, and he returned to the U.S. to be with her, but she passed away three months after surgery.
<BR><BR>
The Army allowed him to change his assignment and he stayed in the United States for three years. The Army asked him to study Korean. After a year of study he left for Tokyo in 1955. Instead of going to Korea, they sent him to Army Headquarters in Japan where he interpreted for General Taylor and then became the aide-de-camp for General Lenmitzer for three years.
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
In 1950 when I first reported as a serviceman in Tokyo, there were still signs of the devastation. But when I went back for the next tour, which was in 1955, there was a tremendous difference. Japan was well on its way back to normalcy. They were building the nation up and that was quite a pleasant surprise. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
During these two tours through Japan, Inouye had the opportunity to meet international dignitaries at high-level meetings, interpreted speeches at banquets and baseball games, and helped open communications between the United States and Japan.
<BR><BR>
In August 1967, Inouye retired from the service and returned to California. At his retirement ceremony, received the Legion of Merit for &quot;exceptionally meritorious service as Director, Office of Doctrine and Literature, United States Army Intelligence School, Fort Holibird, Maryland from January 1966 to July 1967.&quot; [Oral History]
For the next 15 years, he worked as a counselor for the Veteran's Administration. Thinking back to his childhood Inouye says:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I remember when I was young, growing up in Santa Maria Valley, California, they spoke often how great it would be if we, the Nisei, could somehow contribute to the understanding and friendship between the two countries, United States and Japan. And I always had in the back of my mind this ideal or dream. And even now at my age-ripe old age of 75-I still have that dream of closer relations between our two countries. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2005;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "William Tsuyoshi Ishida grew up in the small town of Lindsey, Calif. His father had come first arrived in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and then moved to Lindsey to work on the railroad between San Francisco and Yosemite. His parents married through the 'picture bride' service, and his father raised citrus and olive trees. In 1923, when Ishida was six and his youngest brother was just one, his mother became sick from tuberculosis and passed away.
Growing up Ishida remembers being the only Japanese in his class. He hated his Japanese name &quot;Tsuyoshi&quot;:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I hated it because Hakujins [Caucasians] couldn't pronounce it or couldn't write it. During my grammar school days, they spelled it about a hundred different ways. What I really went by when I was going to grammar school was Tayashi, that's what they got out of it. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
But despite this one memory, for the most part, his childhood experience was trauma free. He skipped fifth grade, and his father pushed him into kendo, although the rigid routine and regime did not suit him.
<BR><BR>
On July 10, 1941, the Army drafted him and he went to basic training at Camp Roberts. The Army first sent him to Fort Ord with the 7th Division and he worked as a guard at the Presidio prison. Only an hour after completing his shift did he hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The radio was blaring that the Japanese had dropped the bomb on Pearl Harbor. It was hard to believe at first. It really took about an hour or so before it really sank in that this is war. It's hard to believe. And I'm glad I wasn't in there guarding the cell when the war actually broke out and the prisoners knew about it. 'Cause all I had was a whistle. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Next he worked at the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds where he &quot;pulled&quot; guard duty. He saw a large group of Japanese-American soldiers just &quot;laying around, rolling around&quot; while he had to work. For some reason, those soldiers had been pulled out of duty, but Ishida continued to work.
<BR><BR>
Around the same time, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, evicting all people of Japanese ancestry off the West Coast, and the Army brought all Japanese American soldiers in the same area to Gilroy, Calif. Army officials kept the soldiers busy by digging trenches until they decided to send them all inland to the Midwest. Ishida moved to Fort Custer, Mich., and three months later was assigned to the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Camp Savage, Minn.
<BR><BR>
As a youth, Ishida served as the president of the Young Men's Association (YMA) and had to deliver speeches in Japanese. He also attended Japanese school on Saturdays and Sundays but remembers that he was more interested in having fun than learning Japanese. 
<BR><BR>
After graduating from the MISLS, he was selected to go to the Detention Centers to recruit for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team-an all-Japanese-American infantry group. Before entering the detention camps, they had learned about the &quot;loyalty oath&quot; questions administered to the internees, but the recruiting soldiers did not understand the tension and hostility those questions had brought. The recruitment leaders assigned Ishida to Topaz Detention Camp in Utah. On the third night he and two Caucasian sergeants appeared before a rowdy Kibei group to give their side of the story:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
As soon as I walked in through the door, I could [feel] the tension, and I could hear them yelling in the back. [They were saying], &quot;Nagutte yare!&quot; [Let's get them!] But I was the only one that could understand it, so it didn't bother the others a bit. [Laughter] But anyway, they called on me to speak first, so I got up and said my piece and some of the phrases I used &quot;Yamato damashi&quot; [love for one's country] and all that worked in good stead because after I got through, well, they gave me a standing ovation for which I was surprised. And the other sergeants, they weren't even called on to even answer a question. Lieutenant Tracy said, &quot;Well, what'd you say anyway? Whatever you said must have been the right thing.&quot; I tell you, I think that was about the scariest moment I had in my service life. [Laughter] I'm supposed to go in there; you don't know what's going to happen. The wrong word and there could have been a riot. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After a month in Topaz Detention Camp, Ishida went to Poston to help another recruiting team. 
<BR><BR>
With the 10 other Nisei who recruited for the 442nd, Ishida left San Francisco on April 30, 1943, and 29 days later landed in New Caledonia. Despite his MISLS training, Ishida admits, &quot;My Japanese wasn't too good.... And my writing was worse&quot; [Oral History]. As a result, he volunteered to go to with a fighting regiment and fought through New Georgia, Bougainville, and the Philippines as a rifleman and interpreter.
<BR><BR>
While on the porch of the Malekanyan Palace in Manila the Japanese shot &quot;tree burst&quot; artillery over Allied troops. Falling fragments killed and injured many soldiers, and the medics needed help recovering bodies:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The medics were doing the best they can, but they just couldn't keep up because there were so many of them. And so one guy from Signal Corps and I went and ran out there and we brought two guys in. Unfortunately, they both died. But most of them, when we got there, were already dead. That's what I got the Silver Star for. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
	
When the war ended, Ishida had been in the service for almost five years and felt it was time to go home. Although he received offers to go to serve in Japan and Korea, both with opportunities to receive a commission, he felt ready to return to his fiancˇe and family.
<BR><BR>
He returned to the United States and helped his family sharecrop sugar beets and tomatoes in Brigham City, Utah.  A year later Ishida got married and returned to California.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2006;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Sunao &quot;Phil&quot; Ishio enlisted in the Army prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In June 1942, he received orders to report to Military Intelligence School Language School (MISLS) and studied with the first class at Camp Savage, Minn.
<BR><BR>
One of the first Nisei sent to the Pacific, he faced the initial skepticism held by U.S. officers who did not yet know the value of the MIS linguists. When he arrived at the Intelligence Corps headquarters in Australia, the commanding officer doubted his language ability and reduced all of his team members down one grade. At the time, Allied Forces worked with very little intelligence and almost no understanding of Japanese language or fighting strategies. The linguist team astounded the commanding officer by quickly assembling information about the units it fought.
<BR><BR>
After gaining the confidence of the Army officers, Ishio fought on New Guinea. Some native islanders called them &quot;Japs,&quot; not understanding on which side they fought. Later, one New Guinean saved Ishio's life, plucking him from the river he was trying to cross; a friend was not so lucky:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The drowning of Ken Omura hit close to home for us since he was in the Special Class with us. Our convoy was attacked by kamikaze planes on the way to Leyte. It was a helpless feeling for us as the planes circled high overhead and began to dive down on the convoy. We could not tell which of the ships, including ours, might be the target. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Despite his friend's critical injury, Ishio fought with a little more understanding of the tragedy of war and successfully continued to fulfill his duties:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
It was at Leyte and Luzon that (Intelligence) Corps language teams of the Sixth Army discovered the existence of unidentified enemy division and corps formations, which significantly affected U.S. plans. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In the Philippines, Ishio received the Bronze Star and U.S. and Philippine citation medals.
<BR><BR>
His work in the Pacific War, he believes, speaks to a legacy left for the next generation:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The legacy of the unique service which the Nisei established in The European and Pacific/Asia theaters for which they paid in blood and sacrifice despite prejudice and overwhelming odds at home. This service is unparalleled in the history of our country, and it is because of this legacy that the children of the Nisei are recognized as equals in our country. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2007;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Gary Tsuneo Kadani grew up in a large family in San Juan Bautista, Calif., where a small, but tight-knit Japanese-American community developed. 
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We were raised very strictly in the Japanese tradition. Every New Year's day we woke up early, brushed our teeth, my father and brothers faced toward the east. We were not allowed to speak English at mealtime. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
All of the families came from the Hiroshima area, and often the Kadani boys would help their neighbors for little or no pay. Together, the Japanese Americans called San Juan Bautista heiwa no mura, peace village. Upon high school graduation, Kadani wanted to work and his father took him to San Francisco to work for his friend at Nippon Dry Goods Store. In 1938 Kadani became the sales representative for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming. A year later, he became a salesman for California. 
<BR><BR>
In March 1941, the Army drafted him, and soon thereafter he traveled to Camp Roberts for basic training. Recommended for Non-Commissioned Officer's School, he received two stripes and then was interviewed by a civilian captain. By September, he arrived at the Presidio and began stuyding with the first Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) class. After December 7th, he could only travel as far as 50 miles from the base, but decided to break the orders to visit his family at the Salinas Rodeo Ground:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
This was the saddest day of my life. Trip to Salinas Rodeo Ground farewell to my parents.... My parents were sleeping in a horse stall and my mother asked me to get Clorox, all the Clorox I could find. I drove to Salinas, and that's over 50 miles. I'm not supposed to be there.... It smelled so bad they couldn't sleep so that's why I got in my car and drove to Salinas and bought dozens, they were only about nine cents a bottle, Clorox in those days, back in '41.... I loaded back of my Chevrolet trunk with that because when my mother was asking me, my sisters-in-law and friends asked me, &quot;Oh, Kadani ni san, can you get some for me.&quot; And so I just bought a whole bunch, as much as I could and put 'em in the trunk and took it back to Salinas Rodeo Ground and gave it to the people who were waiting by the gate. Then I went back to Presidio after saying good-bye to everybody and that was the saddest day of my life. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He also learned that the FBI had watched his house, probably conducting a background check on Kadani:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Father buried everything, including kendo equipment and beautiful picture of the Emperor, very valuable. I still remember my father with tears in his eyes telling me these things. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He returned to the base and eventually graduated from the MISLS. He did not return to visit his family again before he shipped out to Australia where he helped establish the first Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS).
<BR><BR>
After he arrived, Kadani asked Colonel Thorpe if it made sense that all of the MISLS graduates had not yet received a promotion. They were still privates:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
He said, &quot;Kadani, I'll see what I can do.&quot; He called General Willoughby, General MacArthur's G-2. On the 4th of July everybody got promoted to Sergeant. I got promoted to Staff Sergeant. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
At ATIS, his team worked on publishing a Japanese-English dictionary and studied Malayan. He followed ATIS when it moved to Hollandia and then to the Philippines. On one occasion, he interrogated a soldier who had been hiding in a cave when a flamethrower burned him. Kadani talked to the cooperative soldier who did not question his Japanese ancestry:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
He thanked me because he was in bed surrounded by all the American soldiers being treated. He couldn't get over the fact that he was being treated like all the other Americans who were wounded by the Japanese. He got on his knees on the bed and he thanked me. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
When Japan surrendered, Kadani was hospitalized in the Philippines. Toward the end of 1945 he returned to the continental United States and met his wife in Columbus, OH. They decided to move to California, and he found work in Monterey as a language teacher. The Army called him back for active duty in Japan, and he went to work in the Historical Section under Gen. MacArthur. 
<BR><BR>
In September 1948 he left the Army and returned to Fresno with seventeen boxes of Japanese gifts. He and his wife opened a Japanese gift store, and Kadani began a career as an insurance salesman. Remembering that visit, he said:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
You know, the irony of the whole thing about this horse stall, when we first went to Melbourne, they didn't know where to put us. They put us in some old Army camp, they said, &quot;You have to get your bedding....&quot; They take us to a place and they have straw, to put into a bag for mattress, and when I saw that, I thought of my parents again. 
<BR><BR>
And then, after we left Australia, we went to Philippines.... and we stayed at the Santana Race Track. Another horse barn.... It was a beautiful headquarters at Santana Race Track. 
<BR><BR>
Yeah. I hate horse tracks now. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2008;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Arthur Masaki Kaneko's grandfather was the first Japanese granted citizenship in the State of California. His grandfather owned the Golden State Hotel, tracks of orange orchards, and helped start the Rafu Shimpo-a Japanese language daily paper. Kaneko's father came to the United States as an infant and became an honor student, an All-Southern California Quarterback, and was voted valedictorian of his high school class.
<BR><BR>
Despite their successful start in America, tragedy struck the Kaneko family. His father passed away when Kaneko was very young, and then his mother died when he was eight. In her will, she specified that he should be sent to Japan to live with his grandmother. In 1920 he left to live in Nagano-ken, Japan, and though he knew no Japanese, he attended elementary school. 
<BR><BR>
After 10 years, he returned to the United States with an interest in architectural design, but by that time had lost most of his English. He continued his studies at evening school at the University of California, Los Angeles, but in March 1941 he was drafted and was sent to the Artillery Training Center at Camp Kelly near San Diego.
<BR><BR>
During his training, he received orders to go the S-2 headquarters. He interviewed with Capt. Kai Rasmussen who told him of plans to establish a Japanese language school for the Army. 
<BR><BR>
A few months later, the Army transferred him to 4th Army Headquarters, Presidio, San Francisco:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
And there I met John F. Aiso, Private Aiso, and myself. Our boss was David, he was a Captain then. Captain Swift. He was in charge of us. Our job was to edit teaching material, was to have been printed by the San Francisco Printing, and also Nagano Tokuhon was being printed by these same printers. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
While they prepared to open the first Military Intelligence Service Language School, Colonel Rasmussen offered to discharge Kaneko and Aiso from the Army to become civilian instructors. Aiso accepted, but Kaneko felt he did not know enough Japanese to teach. He wanted to 'properly' learn Japanese. After over two months of their preparation, the school opened on November 1, 1941.
<BR><BR>
After graduating, Kaneko worked as an instructor at Camp Savage, Minn., for two years. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he worked with Col. Rasmussen to recruit new Japanese-American students from the detention camps:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They were having many problems internally. Many violence was taking place. So one of the arrangements was that when I arrived at the post, they will give me a safe quarter, the headquarters for my, where I sleep.... Somehow word gets around, I think it gets around from the admin office area, so that the guys would go there and beat him [a potential recruit] up.... Because of this condition at Heart Mountain, my interview and testing began from 12 midnight to about 6 o'clock in the morning. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In June 1944, he transferred to Camp Ritchie in Maryland to work for the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS). When the Pentagon reluctantly decided that Nisei could be commissioned, Kaneko went to the Officer Candidate School (OCS). He protested: 
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I said, &quot;Sir, I decline.&quot; He [Kaneko's commanding officer] says, &quot;Goddamn it, Japanese American has a chance to go there, to Army, these ... open the OCS to you, you people, you go!&quot; Oh, so I had to go. I didn't want to go. No! ... I don't know why they kept me there, but, you know, somehow I endured that ordeal and graduated Second Lieutenant. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He returned to PACMIRS where he translated Japanese documents that detailed new weaponry and machinery:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
When we go through the document and uncover something new in a weapon we will prepare a description of this new equipment and we take it to Fort Aperby Technical Center, which had test all equipment.... So all these things were translated right away and then sent back out to the field, so that they will be aware of this new weapon. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
When the war ended in 1945, PACMIRS changed to the Washington Document Center. By this time, the United States wanted to track information about eastern Soviet Union. Kaneko began translating Japanese documents that contained that information, including documents on the the Trans-Siberian Railway, river systems, and other important developments.
<BR><BR>
In 1947 the U.S. government made a series of changes to the military and intelligence organizations. Congress enacted the National Security Act that established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Instead of choosing as a translator in Japan for the war crimes tribunals, Kaneko left the Army, signed-up for the reserves, and began working for the CIA where he stayed for 27 years.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2009;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Shigeya Kihara joined Military Service Intelligence Language School (MISLS) as one of the first civilian instructors. 
<BR><BR>
After attending a segregated school system in Oakland, Calif. Kihara entered the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in political science. After graduation he could not find a job. He returned to school and earned a Master's degree in international relations. The economy still suffered from the effects of the Great Depression. Taking his father's advice, he left for Japan in September1940.
<BR><BR>
Upon arrival, he followed Japanese procedure and reported to a local police office near his residence. A &quot;seedy-looking&quot; bureaucrat checked Kihara's papers and said, &quot;Huh. You're a son of an emigrant, aren't you?&quot; [Oral History]. While he could understand the treatment he received in America due to his racial difference, in Japan the discrimination felt different:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
 If I'm destined to be an object of prejudice, discrimination, and ridicule in life in the United States or in the country of my parents, Japan, I would prefer to receive prejudice and be discriminated against in the United States rather than to receive prejudice and discrimination from my own people in Japan. And so my mind began to switch in that way. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
As relations between the two countries deteriorated, Kihara decided to return to the United States. 
<BR><BR>
In September 1941, an UC-Berkeley professor contacted him about a job teaching Japanese for the Army. Kihara interviewed but thought he did not know enough Japanese to teach. &quot;If he (Lt. Col. Weckerling) had pulled out a Japanese military textbook and asked me to read and translate, I wouldn't have been able to do it!&quot; [Oral History]. Other university-educated Kibei, who had a greater knowledge of Japanese, could have been teachers. However, a torrent of rumors had circulated through Japanese American communities, and many refused to volunteer:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
(It was said that) the Army was looking for Japanese language instructors in order to serve as spies for the United States Army against individuals in Japanese communities. And the Kibei were absolutely reluctant to apply for a job; none of them, very few of them would apply. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Kihara, eager to start working at his first job, accepted the position. He went to the Presidio, San Francisco, where Col. John Weckerling introduced him to John Aiso, Akira Oshida, and Art Kaneko, the three other civilian staff members for the school:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
And after the introductions were finished, Colonel Weckerling said, &quot;Ok, let's pack these books in my car and we'll go down to your school.&quot;.... We left the manicured green lawn, tree-lined streets, or the Presidio proper. And then we went toward the Bay, crossed some railroad lines, and there was this huge empty area.... There was nothin' there. Just this one abandoned, empty, unpainted, crusty-looking, corrugated tin building. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
That building housed the first class of MIS linguists. 
<BR><BR>
In preparation for classes, Aiso sent him around the Bay Area to find Japanese language books, dictionaries, and anything else that would help them develop materials for the first class. Because Kihara's Japanese ability was the weakest of all the teachers, Aiso assigned him to teach the lowest level class:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The course consisted of six hours of classroom each day, plus two hours of supervised instruction from seven to nine in the evenings and four hours of examinations on Saturdays....
<BR><BR>
It was a day-to-day struggle of keeping one step ahead of our students and providing the mimeographed materials, preparing English to Japanese translation materials each day for our students and then preparing examinations on Saturdays. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
At first the students studied and hoped that Japan and the United States would not go to war. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, the students and teachers realized that this school was preparing them to be sent out to the battlefield. Their studying became fast and intense. Not much later, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 and Kihara's family had to move:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My family, Japanese Americans in Oakland (Calif.), were ordered to go to Tanforan. Colonel Weckerling assured us that school would remain at the Presidio of San Francisco until the first class had graduated. That all the instructors would be protected from the relocation. My family, father and mother and brothers and sisters, and my wife's family, all prepared to move, getting rid of automobiles, refrigerators, business equipment... washers, dryers, presses, inventories in stores, farm equipment, tractors, everything. And it was total chaos. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
While all other Japanese Americans packed their things and headed to assembly centers, Kihara and his wife stayed in their apartment. They were the only Japanese Americans left in the Oakland, Calif. Every night he drove home across the Bay Bridge where signs read, &quot;All Oriental people stop to receive authority or permission to cross the bridge.&quot; (p. 27). The guards stopped everyone who appeared to be Asian. Kihara's 4th Army pass granted him safe passage. After the first class graduated, the school, Kihara, and his wife moved to Minnesota.
<BR><BR>
As the war developed, new instructors introduced curriculum that helped students in battle. One teacher taught Japan's geography and topography, others introduced grasswriting (sosho)-a stylized calligraphy that Japanese soldiers used in their diaries. The instructors taught POW interrogation techniques; at first they taught a hard-nosed method but later learned from men in the field that a gentler approach worked much better. Tips came in from the field and the instructors adjusted.
<BR><BR>
By the end of the war, the MIS Language School had trained thousands of linguists. Kihara, one of the founding instructors, watched many men go into the field with the confidence that they would remain loyal to the United States:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
You can't conduct a war against a powerful enemy like Japan only using two-dozen military intelligence operators. And so Japanese Americans, the Nisei, were the only source. And Weckerling and Captain Rasmussen and other people who had associations with Nisei in Tokyo and after coming back from language duty in different places had confidence that the Nisei would be loyal to the United States and would be able to conduct military intelligence. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2010;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Born in Armona, CA on May 20, 1920, Nobuo Dick Kishiue grew up in central California. His father worked as a ranch hand.
<BR><BR>
Before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Army drafted Kishiue. He had taken a leave of absence from his training and was working on the ranch when news of the bombing came on the radio. The Army immediately summoned him back to the base. Even though almost all non-enlisted Japanese Americans had their draft status changed to 4-C, &quot;enemy alien&quot; Kishiue stayed committed to the United States and the Army. &quot;I was in the U.S. Army so my loyalty was with the United States.&quot; [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
With all the other Japanese-American soldiers on the West Coast, the Army moved his east to Camp Robinson, Ark., where a Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) recruiter interviewed him. Months later, his superiors ordered him to go to Camp Savage, Minn., to study at MISLS. He started classes in December 1942 and remembers the spirit of the classes: &quot;Well, it was in a way hard because, you know, Nisei have a competitive spirit, and we try to outdo each other.&quot; [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
Upon graduation he left for Hawaii with the Army's 27th Infantry Division. Despite the virulent anti-Japanese propaganda on the West Coast, he felt the MIS linguists were respected:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Well, the 27th Division, the General and the top brass and G-2 Colonel, I think they kind of went out of the way to, you know, they make us comfortable over there. I think they knew the importance of why we were there. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
On his first assignment, the Army sent him to Makin Island where he saw little battle action, but stayed on the secured island to translate captured documents.
<BR><BR>
He returned to Pearl Harbor by plane and his G-2 Executive Officer met him and two other Nisei linguists at the airport. Kishiue felt like he was receiving the royal treatment, but the major explained that the Navy's orders were: &quot;No Nisei will be allowed in Pearl Harbor.&quot;  The major had come to make sure they arrived without incident.
<BR><BR>
In June, Kishiue went with the 27th Division to invade Saipan. He interrogated a prisoner and learned of a mass suicide attack (gyokusai). He alerted his commanders who readied the troops for the attack:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
At daylight. Lieutenant Hazard and I surveyed the attack site to confront the consequence of the awesome slaughter. Only a few of the enemy soldiers had rifles; the majority were armed only with sharpened bamboo or grenades hung on the end of sticks. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
From Saipan, the 27th Division went to Okinawa, landed on the beachhead, and marched with combat troops to Shuri and Naha: &quot;I worked with Bob Sugimoto doing CIC [Counterintelligence Corps] work after our troops broke through the Shuri line. That is where the Japanese troops used civilians to seek out our positions by having them going in front of them in order to counterattack at night.&quot; [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
After the fighting, the G-2 colonel wrote a commendation for Jack Tanimoto, Bob Kubo, and Kishiue for their work on Makin. The War Department turned the request down because headquarters' personnel were not eligible to receive the award. The colonel wrote back and explained that the Nisei linguists had been sent down to work with the combat units, regimental units, and lower units on the frontlines. &quot;Eleven months later we received the Combat Infantry Badge and eleven months of back pay which was 10 dollars a month-$110 at one time.&quot; [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
When the war finally ended, Kishiue hoped he would go home with the other soldiers. Based on a point system, soldiers with 85 points could return home, but the military decided to freeze the points of all linguists.  Their language skills were needed in the initial stages of the Occupation. 
<BR><BR>
On September 5, 1945, Kishiue left with the 27th Division to participate in the Occupation of Japan. After one month he decided to return to his roots in the Central Valley and began farming once again.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2011;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Kazuo Komoto was eight years old his parents sent him to Yokohama, Japan to live with his grandparents for over 10 years. At the time, all Japanese high school boys had to train in the Reserve Officer's Training Corp (ROTC) and he learned about the strict and often abusive style of discipline Japanese officers inflicted on their soldiers. After his nineteenth birthday he decided to return to his family in Parlier, Calif., in 1938.
	
Three years later the U.S. Army drafted him, and he went to Camp Roberts for basic training. Col. Kai Rasmussen interviewed him and asked him to attend the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), but at the time Komoto only wanted to serve his two years of duty and then leave, so he refused. A few months later he received papers that sent him to Camp Savage, Minn., to join the first class of MIS to be trained in Minnesota:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I kind of hated to fight against my parent's country, but since I was in the U.S. Army, I felt that if I had to, I had to. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
While Komoto, the eldest of six brothers and sisters, trained in the Army, one of his brothers was studying engineering in Japan and was trapped there until the end of the war. The rest of Komoto's family was forced into Gila River Detention Camp in Arizona. Throughout the war Komoto worried that the Japanese army might have forced his brother into the military and that they might meet each other in the war. 
<BR><BR>
In March 1943 Komoto landed on Guadalcanal, where the division headquarters for the South Pacific were located. He led a team of 10 MIS linguists. In July they received an order that requested that two men be sent with a dangerous landing on New Georgia. Komoto's captain assigned two linguists to the mission, but one of the men wanted to go to the Officer Candidate School and Komoto volunteered to take his place. Three days into the landing operation, he was sitting in his foxhole with another linguist when a sniper perched in a coconut tree hit Komoto in his right knee. 
<BR><BR>
Sent by hospital ship, Komoto ended up on a hospital in Fiji. The captain of the hospital surprised him with the announcement that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt would be visiting the hospital: 
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
When I was in the hospital in Fiji Islands, Mrs. Roosevelt visited me. I was in bed with my wound. And she says, &quot;What can I do for you?&quot; I says, &quot;Well, there isn't anything you can do for me,&quot; but I told her I think it's wrong for the government to put my folks in the camp. And here I am, wounded in a hospital. And she said, it's not right, but the president is doing the best he can. And I just let it go at that. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Much later he realized that his anger had gotten the best of him, and he had not been respectful to the First Lady; every other patient had sat up in bed to greet her while Komoto lay down during their entire conversation. Later, the Army moved him to a general hospital in Modesto, Calif. where he continued to recover from his leg injury.
<BR><BR>
During his time in the Pacific, he had accrued thirty days of work furlough. After he recovered from his wound, he visited Gila River Detention Camp where his family was detained. 
<BR><BR>
Komoto received orders to lead a platoon of men to the European Theater, but after asking for help from the MISLS Director, John Aiso, he returned to Camp Savage to teach for two months. He soon realized, however, that he belonged back on the frontline, not in the classroom, and volunteered for combat.
<BR><BR>
Chosen as the team leader, Komoto felt that one of his responsibilities was to fight for the rights of the Japanese-American men. On the night before they shipped out of San Francisco an officer would not allow the MIS men off the boat. All of the other members of the ship left, and Komoto felt like they were getting a &quot;raw deal&quot; and confronted the officer. The officer relented and Komoto's team of 10 men enjoyed Chinese food in Chinatown on their last night in the United States.
<BR><BR>
On his second campaign, Komoto sailed to New Delhi, India, and then was assigned to Mars Task Force in Burma. Despite catching malaria and typhus while trekking through the jungle, he rarely encountered Japanese troops and never had to conduct an interrogation. When he returned to the Southeast Asia Translation Interrogation Center (SEATIC), he worked on a few documents and short assignments, but for the most part did not use his Japanese language ability to its fullest.
<BR><BR>
In July 1945, the Army offered him a commission, an upgrade in rank, with one condition-he must serve for one more year. The memory of his injury reminded him of how close he had come to dying and he decided it would be better to return home as quickly as possible. He refused the commission and returned to the United States.
	
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2012;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 2013;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Ayato &quot;Spady&quot; Koyama's father passed away when he was five, and his mother sent him, two sisters, and one brother to Japan. His mother's relatives separated the four siblings amongst her relatives, and Koyama spent five years with an aunt. He attended elementary school, and became fluent in Japanese. At age 11, his aunt passed away and he returned to the United States.
<BR><BR>
Upon return to the United States his uncle told him he should take an American name and recommended Koyama's father's nickname. Koyama remembers the conversation:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
He said, &quot;Your father had a good American name. His men gave it to him, the workers of the section gang of the railroad.&quot; And that's how I became Spady because my father apparently was very handy with the basic tool of the section gang, which is a spade. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
While he relearned English, Koyama joined Nisei sports activities, gained financial independence at age thirteen by working on vegetable farms, and after high school helped start a chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Koyama decided to enter the Army and officially enlisted on January 8, 1942.
<BR><BR>
After being accepted into the Army, he interviewed for the Military Intelligence (MIS) Language School, but it took two detours to bases in Arkansas and Kansas before he arrived at Camp Savage, Minn. In June 1943 Koyama graduated from the language school and two months later shipped out to Brisbane, Australia to join the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS).
<BR><BR>
First he worked as an interrogator at ATIS, and then moved to one of the largest POW compounds in the Pacific War on New Guinea. He managed to convince military police to allow the Japanese prisoners to organize themselves for daily labor detail. As the camp closed, the man Koyama had appointed as the compound's leader told Koyama that he would like to meet and properly thank Koyama after the war. Koyama promised to try to find him when the war ended.
<BR><BR>
En route to Leyte, Philippines, enemy dive-bombers attacked Koyama's ship killing his driver and good friend Andrew. Koyama caught shrapnel from the bomb and was hospitalized. One day in the hospital, suffering from cuts, burns, and a piece of metal lodged in his lung, he waited for a general to pin him with a Purple Heart:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
He turned around automatically and got the medal for the next one and he came towards me, took about two or three steps, saw me, and he came to a dead stop. The adjutant just about ran over him. The adjutant whispered which I could hear, &quot;He's one of us general, he's American, he's one of us.&quot; The general resumed his step and came up to me and pinned the Purple Heart on me. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The Army sent him back to the mainland for surgery and by April 1945, he returned to Spokane, Wash. 
<BR><BR>
At that time he read the newspaper and discovered that the Spokane chapter of the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) had denied a 442nd veteran membership. The VFW thought that &quot;Pacific theater returning veterans might find it offensive to find a Japanese-American member of the VFW.&quot; [Oral History]. Koyama wanted to expose this injustice and decided to apply for membership himself; this time the national press was invited as well.
<BR><BR>
After creating a national controversy, the Purple Heart association asked him to work for them. He accepted and toured the Spokane area, talking about his experience with the VFW and the Pacific War. Later the VFW asked him to apply for membership, and Koyama told them, &quot;No thanks.&quot;
<BR><BR>
Fifteen months out of the service and still recovering from his war injury, Koyama received a letter from the Pentagon. They needed linguists for the Occupation. After a year in counterintelligence school, he left for Tokyo in 1949. 
<BR><BR>
In Tokyo he remembered his promise to the Japanese POW he met on New Guinea and looked him up. Koyama found out that Takayama, the former POW, lived in Kagoshima, Kyushu, and paid for his trip to Tokyo where they held a &quot;heart-warming&quot; reunion. Takayama wanted to stay, but Koyama reminded him that he had a family to take care of and sent him home. Two weeks later an 18-year-old boy from the Takayama family came to Koyama's door and offered his services. This time Koyama offered to help the boy find a job in the city and the two stayed in touch. Years later, the young man from the Takayama family became a politician in the Tokyo area.
<BR><BR>
In 1989, Koyama received a phone call from the 18-year-old-turned-politician who wanted to come visit the United States with the elder Takayama. Koyama arranged a meeting with an American POW who survived the Bataan Death March, and local papers wrote an article on the historic occasion.
<BR><BR>
During the rest of his stay in the Army, Koyama participated in the Korean War, and in Vietnam was assigned Chief of Counterintelligence. After retiring from the Army, he helped start a Retired Officers Association in Spokane, Wash., and has become a popular speaker, giving numerous talks about his experiences in the Army. 
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2014;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "* After graduating from college, Arthur Morimitsu was working for the civil service in Sacramento, Calif., when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. War hysteria heightened the racism directed toward people of Japanese ancestry, and he lost his job:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My father got beaten up, you know. So, I thought, when the time came, I wanted to get away from this hate-ridden area, so some people.... I know nowadays young people say, &quot;Why didn't fight against it?&quot; Fight against what? With Army? So my feelings then was that all the people...like the Civil Service people, like us, we lost our jobs. No hearing. Nothing. Just lost our jobs. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
When the family packed up to go to the first assembly center, they had to find a place to store the things they couldn't take:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I know that we had a brand new refrigerator ... we loaned to a black minister, his family.... My dad had the restaurant and there was a man with German background that delivered coffee; he helped. He helped us a great deal. Very sympathetic. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Lucky to have friends in a position to help them, Moromitsu's family did not lose everything when the Army forced them to leave their homes. For a young man who had already completed his education, the whole experience was filled with adventure:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
See, I was a bachelor ... it was something new, you know ... we had people from all over, Marysville, not only that but ... out of state, from Portland, Seattle, Central California.... I was in charge of public relations for the community activities.... So, compared to Sacramento I think I had little more fun there in Tule Lake. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Involved in camp social life, Morimitsu met his future wife at Tule Lake Detention Camp. At age 30 he decided to join the Army and left for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School at Camp Savage, Minn., in late 1943.
<BR><BR>
In June 1944, Morimitsu graduated from the language school and joined Texans from the 124th Cavalry Regiment. He shipped out to the China-India-Burma Theater where the soldiers met other units at a prized airstrip at Myitkyina, Burma. The coalition of forces formed Mars Task Force:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We were to join with the 475th Infantry Regiment and other units to form the Mars Task Force, a commando unit. Mission, to cut off Japanese supplies and reinforcements deep behind enemy lines along the Burma Road. [Autobiography]
<BR><BR>
At the Military Intelligence School we had been instructed in the 'Order of Battle' procedure for the Japanese armed forces. We knew the identification of major Japanese units in the Burma area-where they originated, size, names of major unit commanders. [Autobiography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Their mules hauled their dictionaries and other language tools, and they marched up and down mountains, through cold weather and tropical rainstorms, and looked for airdropped food that appeared every three days, if they were lucky:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Before the first skirmish with the enemy the Texans wondered what we Nisei were doing in their outfit. After the first initial contact, the entire brass of the regiment, crowded into our makeshift shelter at night to check out diaries and documents brought in by some of the troopers. [Diary]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The Mars Task Force suffered some of the heaviest casualties in the CBI Theater. His unit received Combat Infantry Badges and Bronze Star Medals for their work.
<BR><BR>
After their mission ended, Morimitsu worked in the Office of Strategic Services and interrogated prisoners in India and China. The war ended and he took the opportunity to visit Japan for the first time in his life. In January 1946, the Army discharged him and he returned to Chicago.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2015;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 2016;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Barry Saiki grew up in the Sacramento Valley in Stockton, Calif. While he studied economics at the University of California, Berkeley, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. 
<BR><BR>
With only one semester left before graduation, Saiki returned from his winter vacation in Stockton to UC Berkeley hoping to finish school. However, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, the FBI picked up his father for questioning in Stockton and Saiki decided to return home. He took his finals at the College of the Pacific (now University of the Pacific) and received his diploma.
<BR><BR>
The Army moved Saiki and his family into a temporary assembly center. For the third and final time, the FBI came to the assembly center to pick up his father. Saiki remembers the incident well:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
[We] went to our barracks and about an hour later, a car pulled up with two FBI agents, had my father, said, he could take only one suitcase.... They pulled him out of this camp and took him to a special internment camp. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
From Stockton, his family went to Rowher Detention Camp in Arkansas where Saiki worked on the newspaper and taught high school for one year. On the advice of a childhood friend, he left Rowher for Chicago and found work at a machine factory. Living in Chicago changed his draft status, and the military called him for service.
<BR><BR>
The Army sent him to Camp Beeler, Ga., and he trained in an integrated unit. Of the 1,000 men in the battalion, only 17 were Japanese American. Surprisingly, his commanding lieutenant recommended him and two other Nisei for Officer Candidate School (OCS). 
<BR><BR>
Saiki did his basic training in Camp Beeler, Ga., officer training in Fort Benning, Ga., and then trained troops in Fort McClellan, Ala. By that time, the war had come to an end, and the military needed officers who had language ability in Italian, German, or Japanese. Saiki signed up and went to Tokyo to work for the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC).
<BR><BR>
While Saiki trained with the Army, his parents received a letter from a retired Air Force captain. The captain explained that a Japanese interpreter in Chofu, Japan told him he had family in the United States, and the captain decided to try to get in touch with them. That interpreter was Saiki's brother. 
<BR><BR>
On his second day in Tokyo, by sheer luck, Saiki received a chance to go to Chofu, Japan. When he arrived, he asked around for his brother. He recalls walking into an office and seeing his brother working with an American officer:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I walked in and he looks at me and I looked at him. He stands up and walks towards me, leaving the center of the room. This lieutenant is looking at us and he (brother) said, &quot;Is that you?&quot; And I said, &quot;Is that you?&quot; And I said, &quot;Yes.&quot; And the lieutenant says, &quot;Hey, what's going on here?&quot;... So I said, &quot;Oh, he's my brother.&quot; And he (the lieutenant) says, &quot;Yeah, yeah. He said he had relatives. Why don't you go in the mess hall and have a coffee.&quot; That's how I met [him] on the second day in Japan. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Later he took his brother to the American Consulate so he could return to the United States to see their family. The woman working for the consulate asked him if he voted in the election or served in the Japanese Army, and he replied no. In response to the last question, &quot;Did he sign up for Japanese citizenship?&quot; Saiki's brother answered &quot;yes.&quot; Saiki remembers the scene:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They took the [United States] passport and tore it up and put it in the garbage can. And I said, &quot;What does that mean?&quot; And she said, &quot;That means he lost his citizenship.&quot; [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Seven years later, their mother went to Japan to bring her son home. She brought the case to court and won. Finally, after over a decade in Japan, his brother was allowed to return to the United States reuniting the family.
<BR><BR>
Wartime devastation left many people homeless and hungry, and everywhere Saiki went he saw how difficult it was for Japanese civilians to survive:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Just before I dumped my powdered egg into the garbage can, there's a young kid standing there.... He saw the piece of omelet, put his hand into my tray, you know, and I ate it right in front of me. And I thought, gee, this guy's a nut, you know. But then I went back there and I asked the kid, &quot;What are those women doing there?&quot; He said, &quot;They're waiting for garbage.&quot;... I went up to them and said, &quot;What are you going to do with that can, when you get that?&quot; They take it home, make a fire and warm it up and eat it. They're eating the garbage. [Uncommon Courage]
<BR><BR>
There was a moat that surrounds the Imperial Palace grounds.... Ken and I were walking and we saw this guy, this old man fishing. And a couple of kids also were fishing. And I said to the man, &quot;What are you fishing for?&quot; &quot;I'm fishing for Imperial carp.&quot; &quot;Did you catch any?&quot; He said, &quot;No. I don't catch anymore.&quot; &quot;But,&quot; he says, &quot;Before the war ended, if anybody was caught standing here, even thinking of fishing, he would have been arrested.&quot; &quot;But,&quot; he says, &quot;After we lost the war, a period of time passed, everybody around here came over here to fish. And the fish of this moat saved a lot of people, you know. We fished out the moat. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
During the time immediately after the war, Saiki helped Occupation forces by maintaining contacts with newspapers, police, and other informants. In 1948 he returned to the United States but decided to reenlist for another three years.
<BR><BR>
This time he worked in the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) and helped Occupation officials investigate various espionage cases from Korea, China, and the Soviet Union. When Japan and the United States signed a peace treaty giving Japan independence, the espionage cases were handled by the Counter Intelligence Agency and Saiki worked with that organization for one year. Finally in 1966, the Army discharged him and he returned to civilian life.
<BR><BR>
His opportunities to work during the Occupation opened doors to employment in a Japanese public relations firm for many years:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
It [the Occupation] opened the road for many Nisei.... They were in Japan and they worked for the military and they worked for the Occupation.... There were many Nisei, MIS people, who later became foreign-service officers who worked for the U.S. Consulate in Japan.... And so in a way, the war created a situation that was bad for Japan. At the same time, it opened avenues for Nisei in other occupations, something that they would not have done if there hadn't been a war. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
Saiki, Barry - Bio.doc
<BR><BR>
Scott Hoshida	Page 3	4/4/03
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2017;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 2018;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 2019;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In June 1941, the U.S. Army drafted Walter Tanaka, and he began training at Camp Roberts, Calif. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the Army sent his unit up to Dillon's Beach to protect it against invasion. He received orders to report to company headquarters at the beach:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
All the Nisei that were called in, we had to load onto the three-quarter-ton vehicle and go back to Santa Rosa.... And gosh, when we got back there to battalion at Santa Rosa at the Fairgrounds, all the Nisei were there.... We were all ordered to go to the battalion headquarters where they're bivouacked in the building and then they never told us anything. We just sat there....
<BR><BR>
They didn't say anything to us. At that point we still had our rifles. But pretty soon, they took the rifles away from us. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
While all of the Battalion's Nisei waited, the commanding officers decided to put asphalt on the floor of the exposition building. They brought in convicts from the local jail and forced the two groups of men to do the work:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They called on us to work with them with a shovel, you know, to work with the convicts, work with the prisoners. And so we did that, and that's when I felt, boy things are getting pretty bad. If this is how they're going to treat us from here on. I had a pretty bad feeling-our guns were taken away, we worked with the prisoners. We weren't doing what other soldiers were doing. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The small group moved to Gilroy where more Nisei soldiers had gathered. After doing more menial labor, the Army put them on a train and shipped them all off the West Coast-the train's window shades pulled down so no one could see in or out:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I think it was since they didn't trust us, they thought we might support any kind of an invasion of the Japanese. Here they trained us to be soldiers to fight, with weapons and all that, so they felt they better get the Nisei out of the West Coast first. So, we were the first ones to leave. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Tanaka arrived in Fort Custer, Mich., and they called the group of Nisei the &quot;Detached Enlisted Men's List&quot;-a euphemism for a military labor force. The Nisei slept in segregated barracks, and Tanaka received coal-shoveling detail for several months during the cold winter.
<BR><BR>
While he was at Fort Custer, a recruiting team from the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School came to talk to the Nisei soldiers:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
This recruiting team of Caucasian officer and, I believe, it was a Nisei linguist came ... and asked for volunteers and then we took a test.... There was no point in having me read anything because, you know, I wasn't that good in reading and the translating of documents because I didn't get much opportunity to go to language school. It was during the Depression years, very hard times. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In June 1942, he joined the first class of MIS at Camp Savage, Minn.:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My reason for volunteering to go to the Military Intelligence Service, or to Camp Savage, was not that I wanted to, or that I felt that, you know, a question of loyalty or anything, I wanted to get the hell out of there. I thought, boy if I'm going to have to, for the duration of the war, I'm going to have to be pitching coal into the furnaces, there's gotta be something better than that. That's the reason I left. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
While the Army was moving Tanaka around, the FBI picked up his father and put him jail. The rest of his family first moved inland, and then were forced to move to Poston Detention Camp in Arizona.
<BR><BR>
At Camp Savage, although he felt confident speaking Japanese, studying the written language, especially kanji, was difficult:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I'm one of the guys that used, after lights out you know, we were supposed to go to bed and we'd sneak into the latrine, sit on the toilet, commode, and study until after midnight or thereafter, to try to keep up with the studies. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In six months Tanaka graduated and then was assigned to a team of linguists in the Air Corps. They specialized in technical aviation terminology. 
<BR><BR>
After arriving in Brisbane, Australia, he interrogated POWs from the Japanese Army Air Force or Navy:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I would be assigned to an officer interrogator. And at first, I was the interpreter for an officer who was an Air Corps, he was an Air Corps captain, American, and we would go down to the interrogation cell. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He and the officer would ask questions about units, commanders, aircraft types, markings on the airplanes, and any other information they could gather:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We never punished or treated the prisoners badly. We demanded information, of course, but in so doing, a lot of times, particularly early in the war ... tended to tell a lie and try to get away with it.... But our system is that we would ask questions we already knew the answer to and mix it up with questions we didn't know. And eventually they get to the point where they feel hopeless because they feel that we know everything and then they'll tell us something because they think we already know anyway and then it turns out that we didn't know and that information is confirmed from other sources. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
They also used other means of coercion:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
There were a few times when I had occasion to smoke a cigarette while I'm down there. I never smoked in my life, you know, and boy, somebody's dying for a cigarette. I said, &quot;Well if you cooperate, you know, we could give you a cigarette,&quot; or after the interrogation is over, they've been real good, give them a candy bar or something. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Japanese POWs never learned what to do when captured. In fact, the Japanese military told its men that Japanese people were &quot;invincible&quot; and should commit suicide upon capture. It did not teach soldiers how to cope with interrogation, and as a result, they willingly talked and provided valuable information.  Most of the soldiers felt ashamed they had been captured and did not want to return to Japan. They had already given up their allegiance:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Every single prisoner we had felt, &quot;Well, what are you going to do with me when the interrogation's over with?&quot; I said, well, we're certainly not going to kill them. &quot;When the war's over we'll return you to Japan.&quot; &quot;No,&quot; he says. &quot;I'll never go back. I'll jump off the boat. I'll commit suicide.&quot; They would beg that, when the interrogation's over, let us live in Australia. It's a big country, a lot of resources. All I ask is give me a little plot of land where I can grow some vegetables and live out my life. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
On August 13, 1945, the Army appointed Tanaka 2nd Lieutenant in preparation for the Occupation of Japan. He flew from ATIS, in Australia via the Philippines and Okinawa and landed in Japan on August 30, 1945. As the convoy of trucks and vehicles holding Occupation Forces drove from the airport, Japanese soldiers lined the streets guarding them against local resistance to the Occupation. Tanaka worked as an interpreter and remembers that the hostilities between the occupied and occupiers lay just below the surface: 
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
One night after supper, at a roundtable discussion at the International House among American officers, Japanese interpreters, and Japanese press, one American captain of the U.S. Air Force faced his Japanese audience and declared that he was disappointed that an atomic bomb was not dropped on every major Japanese city before the war ended so that Japan can never rise again and wage war against the United States. [Biography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In late 1945 and 1946, Tanaka worked as a commanding officer of the 166th Language Detachment and assigned linguists to daily interpreting duties. He continued to work in Japan until May 1950 when he returned to the United States to study Russian and Army Counterintelligence in Maryland. From 1953 to 1956, he worked in the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) in Japan, and then went to Seoul, Korea, for 13 months. He retired from the Army in June 1961,as a Major, completing 20 years of military service.
Tanaka, Walter - bio.doc
<BR><BR>
Scott Hoshida	Page 4	4/7/03
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2020;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Masaji Gene Uratsu grew up in a farming family in Placer County, a rural area northeast of Sacramento. 
<BR><BR>
At age nine, Uratsu's parents' sent him to Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan to study for five years. By 1931, he had become fluent in Japanese and returned to the United States and the Great Depression. After he graduated from high school, he spent two difficult years on the farm. He had planned to move to Berkeley to live with his uncle and in a city because farm life did not agree with him. When he checked his draft status and he discovered that he would soon be called for duty. Instead of waiting for the Army to call him, he enlisted in March 1941: &quot;My loathing of farming was so great, that any opportunity to explore other options was welcome.&quot; [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
After training to be a gunner, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School summoned him to the Presidio to be part of the first class of the MIS Language School. Finally, he had made it to a city.
<BR><BR>
Already fluent in Japanese, Uratsu spent most of his time studying military terminology, and after graduation he joined the language school as a teacher. He received the rank of sergeant and the title sensei (teacher). The teachers worked hard, developing curriculum and correcting essay tests during the weekends while students went into town to relax. Uratsu remembers how John Aiso, the school's director, kept the teachers motivated:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We just simply hated his [Aiso's] guts. As a matter of fact, he was known as Der Hitler among us and the civilian instructors.... I now realize that there was a method to his demeanor. He had a job to do. In his hands were the reputation and success of the language students. The failure to produce at the school would have had a disastrous effect in the future usefulness of the Nisei soldiers. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After one year of teaching-against the wishes of Aiso and Uratsu's parents, who were in a detention camp at Amache, Colo.-Uratsu made himself available for overseas duty. In October 1943, he led 60 men to Brisbane, Australia, to the Allied Translation and Interpreter Section (ATIS). For six months he worked behind a desk on translation, but the same urge he had on the farm made him ask for combat duty. He wanted to see action.
<BR><BR>
In the middle of 1944, he participated in his first battle-the Aitape landing in New Guinea. During his work in New Guinea, he received a Bronze Star:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We received word that there were Japanese soldiers holed up in a nearby cave and a call came for a linguist to volunteer to &quot;talk&quot; these soldiers into surrendering.... I did it on impulse. As I approached the cave, I called out to the Japanese soldiers that they would be safe if they surrendered. There was no response, but I continued, telling them that I was leaving my sidearm outside and was going in.... Entering the cave, I displayed my empty hands and my Japanese face, appealed to their reason and was finally able to convince them that they would not be killed. Ten agonizing minutes later, I was able to lead these soldiers out of the cave. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
His gutsy impulse saved the soldiers and gave him notoriety amongst the other soldiers. In another incident, Uratsu's &quot;face&quot; caused a comical incident of mistaken identity while he worked on a clean-up campaign in Sarmi:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I developed a generalized dermatitis, which was resistant to all the drugs available to the medics. A medical officer recommended that I go swimming in seawater and then dry myself in the sun. So, I followed his instructions and while bathing in the ocean-out of uniform, of course since there are no GI swimsuits-I was confronted by rifle-bearing GIs who mistook me for the enemy and apprehended me as their prisoner.... When &quot;turned in&quot; at RCT headquarters, I was recognized in my nakedness. Ironically, my &quot;captors&quot; were rewarded with &quot;R&R&quot; in Australia for their &quot;vigilance.&quot; [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He continued to work in combat zones, often &quot;cleaning-up&quot; an area after the initial battle had been won. He steadily moved through New Guinea and ended up on Luzon, the main island of the Philippines. There he heard news of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan's surrender. Like many other Japanese American linguists, he was commissioned in preparation for the Occupation of Japan.
<BR><BR>
In Japan, he interpreted and worked as a personal aide to a commanding general. In 1945, he returned to the United States for a short stint but realized that farm life was not for him and returned to Japan in December. First, he worked in the Civil Censorship Department and then in the G-2 Historical Section. He worked with Japanese military officers to write a history of the war from their perspective and integrated it with the perspectives of the U.S. officers to create full military history of the war in the Pacific.
<BR><BR>
For 21 years, Uratsu served in the U.S. Army, including service in the Korean War and acting as the liaison between the U.S. Far East Command and the Japanese government.
Uratsu, Gene - Bio.doc
<BR><BR>
Scott Hoshida	Page 2	4/7/03
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2022;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Steve Shizuma Yamamoto grew up in San Gabriel, Calif., and attended the Japanese school his parents and members of the community built. His language teacher doubled as a judo instructor. In 1939, as part of judo exchange tour, Yamamoto traveled to Japan, Manchuria (an area occupied by Japan in northeastern China), Korea, and North China for two months. 
<BR><BR>
On March 11, 1941, Yamamoto did not want to wait for the draft to call him, so he volunteered for the Army. When he was in basic training the Military Intelligence Language School (MISLS) recruited him and he left for San Francisco to join the first class of MIS linguists eventually graduating on May 1, 1942.
<BR><BR>
He shipped out to Brisbane, Australia, where he worked for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) translating captured documents. In December 1943, he left for Fort Moresby on New Guinea.
<BR><BR>
When he returned to Brisbane, he participated in an interrogation of one of the first prisoners taken in the Pacific War. The prisoner had been brought to Gen. Douglas D. MacArthur's headquarters in Australia and quickly turned over to ATIS for interrogation:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
This prisoner I had started interrogating and caught lying.... He thought that I still did not believe in him after he apologized, that he was telling the truth. He became disheartened because I didn't see him for 2-3 days while I had a three-day pass. So meantime, he got very disheartened. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Yamamoto had not visited the prisoner for a few days because he had received a pass to leave the Section to buy a new uniform. The POW thought Yamamoto had gotten frustrated with the lying:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
When I came back to ATIS, I got a note signed by him saying: &quot;I [POW] felt very badly that you [Yamamoto] didn't come see me and I thought perhaps you still did not believe that I started to tell you the truth.&quot; And so he did not know how to regain his face and committed suicide. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In the Southwest Pacific campaign Gen. MacArthur began island-hopping, and Yamamoto moved from Finschhafen up the coast of New Guinea to Hollandia. He then moved to Leyte, Philippines, where he received his first Bronze Star for interrogating 3100 POWs. 
<BR><BR>
When Yamamoto participated in one of the first beach landings in the Philippines, Japanese bombers hit two other MIS linguists and the mid-section of their boat. Luckily, Yamamoto escaped without harm and received his second Bronze Star for translations he made on the Philippines. Continuing up the chain of islands, he moved with troops to Luzon, the main island of the Philippines. 
<BR><BR>
After 45 days of Temporary Duty (TDY) on the U.S. mainland, he reluctantly returned to the war. In the Philippines, he was assigned as Chief of the Translation Section of the Language Detachment until the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
<BR><BR>
Yamamoto moved to Kyoto during the Occupation and decided to take some personal time to visit his father and stepmother's old hometowns:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They were quite surprised to see me.... In the distance I see the mothers, women folks of the house wait in the front yard, and as I come closer everybody starts to disappear.... And I greet them by hollering, &quot;Ohayo,&quot; [good morning] nobody comes out.... I waited around and my aunt slowly opened the shoji [rice paper screen door], peered out and saw me, and apparently, she recognized me although I was in uniform. And she says, &quot;Oh, Shizuma-san desu ka?&quot; [Are you Mr. Shizuma?].... Everybody was afraid of American forces, especially the guys in uniform. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He also visited his aunt in Hiroshima. She had eight children, and surprisingly, only one died in the atomic blast:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My aunt, that morning when the blast took place, she was out shopping in the suburban little shop up above the city proper, and she said she had her youngest ... on her back. The baby was blown off her back and still survived. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
For one of his assignments during the Occupation, Yamamoto sorted through a warehouse of old swords collected by Occupation Forces. He picked out quality swords for U.S. commanding officers who wanted to take them home as souvenirs.
<BR><BR>
Later, he moved into the legal section of the Occupation and traveled to Shikoku Island to pick up Admiral Nagano for the war crime trials. He also served as Chief of the Translation Section for the Prosecution staff of the Togo trials and after finishing, he spent 60 days on the U.S. mainland. Upon his returned to Japan, Yamamoto married and began working for ATIS in Tokyo. ATIS changed to the 500th Military Intelligence, and he began work for the Joint Processing Interrogation Board and received an Army Commendation Medal for his service:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
From the intelligence point of view, we were looking for any information concerning North Korea and the Order of Battle information concerning both. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
	
After the Occupation, Yamamoto continued his military duty for 23 years while working in various departments and taught interrogation techniques and Japanese. He retired from active duty in April 1961.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2023;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "In November 1941, the Army drafted Kazuo Yamane. He trained in Hawaii at Scofield Barracks, but after December 7th, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army did not know how to treat the Japanese-Hawaiian soldiers. First, they took their guns and ammunition, and later gave them back. Finally, after the Allies lost the Battle of the Midway all soldiers with Japanese blood were shipped off the islands in the middle of the night to Oakland, Calif., for training. These soldiers later became known as the 100th Battalion.
<BR><BR>
After six months of training at Camp McCoy, Wis., Yamane volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). He figured that since he had learned Japanese while attending Waseda University in Japan, he could use those skills in the Army.
<BR><BR>
On December 8, 1942, he left for Camp Savage, Minn., and studied for six months. After graduation, he received his first assignment:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
John Aiso, the director of Camp Savage at the time, said, &quot;Hey you guys are going to go to an assignment which is the first, you know, of the Nisei. The very first assignment and you men better give a good showing.&quot; He never said where we're going. When we got on the train, Gene Matsumoto opened the orders and it said we're going to Washington, D.C., not saying Pentagon. And that's where we ended up, Pentagon. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In the hallways, no one believed he could be Japanese, but they still wanted to know where he and the other linguists came from:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
One guy asked me, &quot;Where you from? What nationality are you?&quot; Oh, I'm Indian, American Indian. They look at me kind of puzzled, you know. Then he asked me, &quot;Well, what tribe are you from?&quot; The Osaka tribe. And he didn't know what Osaka was anyway because Japan, huh? They giggled.... But that's how much they knew.... We wouldn't tell them what we're doing. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
For a year and a half he worked with three other Nisei linguists as War Department staff. They translated a book of almost 50,000 Japanese officer names.
<BR><BR>
Next he moved to Camp Ritchie, Md., to help set up the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS). The Pentagon sent the linguists 15 boxes of documents from Saipan. At first, they thought the boxes held nothing of value, but Yamane's commanding officer assigned him to look through it and make a report. In the second or third box, he discovered a thick book:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
When I look at the title ... I was kind of shocked. It listed all the munitions plants in Japan with address, location, everything. An inventory of the weapons and stock, the spare parts that's available, inventory of the munitions.... How many they have where it's located, stored, everything.... So I call my colonel. Colonel, boy I got a hot document over here. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
He had discovered the Japanese Imperial Army Ordinance. The United States immediately began using the information to bomb munitions factories and warehouses in Japan. After the war, Occupation forces used the inventory information to quickly seize warehouses of ammunition without any conflict. 
<BR><BR>
After the team finished the translation, Yamane received word that he would be sent on another secret mission. Without knowing where he would go or what he would be doing, he quickly married on Columbus Day, 1944. They had met in Washington, D.C., where she had been working as a civil servant.
<BR><BR>
Almost immediately after his swift wedding, Yamane boarded a large C-54 plane in New York and flew to France. Once again, he learned of his mission en route. On the plane his commanding officer opened their instructions:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
We were going to be attached to the British commanders and we are to attack Japanese Embassy or any governmental agency that you're going to specify, look for Japanese documents.... I was given a personal order by a lieutenant at the Pentagon, &quot;You watch for Japanese documents on Russian intelligence. &quot;[Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After arriving in France they waited to enter Berlin. The Russian Army entered the city first and made U.S. Forces wait before entering. While the three MIS linguists waited, the Army sent two of them to interrogate Japanese prisoners in Austria, and Yamane went south to visit his brother and friends in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
<BR><BR>
The Russian Army never let the Americans in, and one soldier described it as, &quot;the start of the Iron Curtain.&quot;
<BR><BR>
After V-E day, Yamane's Berlin mission was aborted. Around the same time he learned that his father had fallen ill and decided to returned to Hawaii with his. The Army discharged him and he continued his father's work in real estate. Yamane successfully worked as a real estate developer, owning restaurants and building shopping malls and bowling alleys.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2024;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "In 1934, Ralph Yempuku's father had a stroke and because of his illness decided to return with the family to Japan. Yempuku, the oldest son, wanted to finish his education in Hawaii and stayed while the rest of his family moved to Japan. 
<BR><BR>
At the University of Hawaii, Yempuku joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the Hawaiian Territorial Guard recruited all University of Hawaii ROTC members to defend the island. When Caucasian soldiers came down to the harbor and saw all of the Japanese-American guards, they became confused and the Hawaii Territorial Guard decided to disarm the Japanese-American volunteers. The Japanese Americans still wanted to participate in the defense of the island and formed their own non-combat volunteer unit. Many Japanese Americans from that group joined the 442nd Infantry Regiment, and Yempuku signed up in May 1943.
<BR><BR>
While training at Camp Shelby, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) came to recruit Japanese-American soldiers to work for them. Yempuku signed up and then attended the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School. Unlike other MIS students, he went undercover and studied in separate classrooms. After four months of training, the Army sent him to the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater and then dropped him behind enemy lines in Burma. He commanded 50 to 60 guerrilla soldiers from the Kachin ethnic group. The OSS did not want to let the Japanese know that Japanese Americans fought for them, and neither did Yempuku:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I didn't want Japanese ever to find out that a Yempuku was in the American Army in Burma because they would certainly do something to my parents or to my brothers ... the Japanese are very vindictive people. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In Burma, in coordination with Merrill's Marauders, they ambushed Japanese troops:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
North Burma is densely jungle country. There's only one-way to get from one village to other, just a trail. There's no roads, no cars or anything, just a trail. And whoever controls the trail controls that area. And we tried to control the trails by setting ambushes (to) prevent the Japanese from using that area. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
When the war ended, OSS officials sent soldiers to enemy Prisoner of War-POW camps to make sure Allied POWs were not slaughtered. On his way back from a mission in China, Yempuku and two other American OSS soldiers attended a surrender ceremony in Hong Kong:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Unbeknownst to me, Donald, my brother was interpreter for the Japanese general. So I'm looking down, I don't recognize him [Yempuku's brother], you know. But he looked up and saw me. He recognized me. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Later, one of Yempuku's friends met a young man in the Japanese military who looked like Yempuku and asked him, &quot;Is your name Yempuku?&quot; As they talked, Yempuku's friend found out that Yempuku's brother had seen him at the surrender ceremony but had not said hello.
<BR><BR>
After the war, Yempuku wanted to go to Japan to see his family. He signed up for the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) and stayed in Japan for one more year. When he went to his family's small fishing village, the people were upset to see him in an American uniform:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
If I was fighting against the Germans and Italians, they could forgive me. But fighting against their, you know, my own kind, against the Japanese, this is what hurt them the most. So they were very, very upset.... My brother told me they wanted to harm me. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
His parents couldn't believe that he had come; they thought he had died. The Japanese military had sent out rumors that all the Nisei were killed and used as cannon fodder. Other rumors also prevailed:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They said that they found, when a B-29 came over Japan ... there was a Nisei crewman and he dropped his shoes out of the plane. And in those shoes was a message for the Japanese to ganbatte [persevere and fight hard] and about all these Nisei getting killed as cannon fodder ... they figured that ... I would be dead.... They were shocked, as if they had seen a ghost. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After reuniting with his family, Yempuku returned to Hawaii to be discharged. After returning to civilian life, he worked in real estate development and used his Japanese language to introduce sumo to American culture and to bring also some local Hawaiian talent to Japan. 
Yempuku, Ralph - Bio.doc
<BR><BR>
Scott Hoshida	Page 2	4/7/03
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2025;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "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.
<BR><BR>
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, &quot;You're going to take care of the family, you're going to buy land,&quot; [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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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, &quot;You're 1A, you're healthy enough to go to the service.&quot; They asked what I did, I said, &quot;I'm a farmer.&quot; They asked how much do you farm? I said, &quot;I'm in charge of 80 acres.&quot; 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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My mother used to tell me, &quot;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.&quot; 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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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. 
<BR><BR>
Not knowing what would happen to his family, Inoshita accepted his responsibility as the eldest son and kept the farm going:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Here was a federal agency stating, &quot;You have to continue your farming operation because your crops are necessary for the war effort.&quot; 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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The same Philbrick.... He walked up toward the Army personnel and pushes him aside, &quot;I'm going to talk to my friends.&quot; I could hear his voice. He hugs my mother and me and said, &quot;The government is making a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake. When this war is over, you come back.&quot; He turned around and got into his car and drove off. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After he enlisted, his family received cold treatment from their friends and community members:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In mid-November of 1942, a week after Inoshita volunteered for the service, the FBI released his father. 
<BR><BR>
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.
<BR><BR>
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. 
<BR><BR>
Sometimes his partner would be pulled away for a week, and Inoshita could not translate the documents handed to him:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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, &quot;The atomic bomb saved a million lives.&quot; 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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2026;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "After graduating from Farrington High School in 1942, Fumio Kido began working as an electrician apprentice for the Army United Engineering Department (USED) at Hickam Army Air Force Base until his induction into the Army on March 23, 1943. While he apprenticed, all workers of Japanese ancestry wore black identification badges that prevented them from entering restricted areas.
<BR><BR>
He was first assigned to the Anti-Tank Company but was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in December 1943. Starting in January 1944, he with 13 other Nisei lived under assumed names for security reasons and received radio operator and encoding training for several months at Camp McDowell in Naperville, Ill. Several months later they moved to Camp Savage, Minn., for Japanese language training, and eventually ended up in Miami Beach, Fla. From there they shipped out to New Delhi, India.
<BR><BR>
The team of Nisei was split up, and Kido was assigned to the OSS Strategic Unit 101 with which he researched roads in Burma. After a month his base moved to Bhamo, and he began translating documents. In July 1945, the OSS broke up that section, and he traveled by truck convoy to Kunming, China, on the Burma Road.
<BR><BR>
In Kunming he was assigned to fly to Mukden, Manchuria (northeastern China), with the Cardinal Team, a group of American and Chinese Nationalist Army officers. Flying over the city a B-24 bomber dropped leaflets to notify the locals that a group of soldiers would be parachuting into the area. After landing and having walked a short distance, the soldiers came across a group of Japanese soldiers:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I called out to them and told them: the war was over, you should have been so informed and that we were unarmed and will not resist.... I asked the squad leader if he had heard the war was over.... He told me he had no such information. [Biography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The Cardinal Team was taken back to the Japanese headquarters. The Japanese soldiers separated Kido from the others and shouted at him. The Japanese soldiers were incredulous that a Japanese worked for the American side. Kido tried to explain that he was Japanese American and that his group had come to bring medical relief for the Allied POWs. Not until the leader called his Japanese commander did the soldiers holding Kido prisoner learn of Japan's defeat. 
<BR><BR>
When Kido and his team finally got to the Kempeitai [military police] headquarters, the commander apologized and told them they had only received the cease-hostilities orders that morning. The commander had a bottle of Scotch that he had been saving for a victory celebration, but decided that under the circumstances they might as well celebrate the end of the war, and he opened the bottle
<BR><BR>
As they sorted out the details of the cease-fire, the Cardinal Team aided Allied POWs. At the time the Russian Army patrolled the streets, and the soldiers often stopped Kido assuming he was a Japanese soldier. The Allied POWs were evacuated, and the Cardinal Team remained in the city to remain as a contact for stranded westerners until the Russian ordered them out.
<BR><BR>
Kido returned to the United States and in Washington, D.C., he received the Soldier's Medal:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
As a member of a humanitarian team, formed at the request of the Commanding General, United States Forces, China Theater, for the purpose of locating and repatriating Allied personnel interned in Japanese prisons, this enlisted man was flown deep into the midst of heavily fortified and garrisoned installations, despite the fact that the Japanese had given no previous assurance that the mission would not receive a hostile reception. By his gallant determination to accomplish this humane mission, regardless of risks involved, this enlisted man brought comfort to those unfortunates who had suffered internment at the hands of the Japanese and facilitated their early repatriation to their respective countries. [Soldier's Medal Citation]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
The National Military Council of the Republic of China awarded Kido the 2nd class Kan-ch'eng, grade B, Medal for his work. He also received a letter of gratitude from the Dutch POWs rescued at Mukden. After his debriefing in Washington, D.C., Kido returned to Los Angeles where he was discharged in March 1946. 
Kido, Fumie - bio.doc
<BR><BR>
Scott Hoshida	Page 1	4/7/03
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2027;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Ben Sanaye Honda grew up in Fresno, Calif., where his parents struggled to make a living. For most of his youth, he worked with his father driving trucks for a farm and barely had time for any other activities. The only extra-curricular activity allowed was Japanese school and he appreciated it because he could play and eat lunch.
<BR><BR>
After graduating high school, he continued to work until the Pacific War began. After Executive Order 9066, the Army sent him and his family to Jerome Detention Camp in Arizona. They lost their land. His mother did not want to stay in America, and his father asked him not to join the all-Nisei combat unit. However, when the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School recruited him, Honda decided to go against his parents' wishes and left his family behind. He entered the school in September 1945. By then, the war had ended and the school had moved to Monterey, Calif. All of the language school's students studied to work as part of the Occupation.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In the spring of 1946 he shipped out with 1,200 other linguists to Tokyo and then immediately left for Hokkaido:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
My work was to instruct the Japanese mechanics how we want this work done, how to do it, and so forth. I think the Japanese people appreciated it. As a matter of fact, I was the first Nisei to go to Hokkaido. [Oral History]
<BR><BR>
At first when I went to Sapporo ... they instructed me at night, don't go out by yourself. There was a bunch of diehards up there in Sapporo that we had to, we weren't allowed to go, especially to me, to keep out of sight. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
For seven months he worked with both the American and Japanese mechanics to make sure they worked together harmoniously.
<BR><BR>
While he worked in the Occupation, Honda learned that his mother's family had all been killed by the atomic blast in Hiroshima. On his father's side, his grandfather had moved 20 miles out of town, and luckily, only witnessed the devastation. During the Occupation, Honda met his grandfather for the first time.
<BR><BR>
Upon returning to civilian life, Honda used the G.I. Bill to continue learning about car maintenance. He returned to Fresno and opened his own shop, working 15 or 16 hours a day. 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2028;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "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.
<BR><BR>
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.
<BR><BR>
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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
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.... 
<BR><BR>
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. 
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
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. 
<BR><BR>
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.
<BR><BR>
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.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2029;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Born during the celebration of Lunar New Year, George Kenichi Kayano's birth was marked by the sounds of firecrackers outside of his family's house. On the inside of the house, his parents spoke only Japanese--when his parents visited his teachers, they asked neighborhood children to interpret for them. In the fall of 1938 Kayano applied to enter the University of California, Berkeley. 
<BR><BR>
Around the same time, Bishop Fukuda, a minister at his church, convinced Kayano to accompany him to Japan before attending college. The bishop was going to visit sick and wounded soldiers in Japan and China. Upon their arrival they met the Minister of Education, General Sadao Araki, who greeted the foreign-born Japanese with a speech about where their allegiance should lie:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
You young people, being in America during these critical times should be aware that if anything happens between the United States and Japan, we in Japan could not do anything for you. The Japanese government considers you people to be expendable. Therefore, never expect any help from us.... Therefore, if and when the war occurs, we want you people to show the United States what a true Japanese of Yamato race is made of. Show them that you love the United States. Show them that the United States is the only country that you would give your life to. Do not do anything underhanded. Never be a traitor or a coward. Serve the United States to the best of your ability. Forget Japan. We can take care of ourselves. You fight for the United States. [Autobiography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After their visit with the general, the two visited Army and Navy hospitals in Japan and then went to Korea. They visited Seoul, Korea, and then made their way south to Mukden and Harbin in China. They traveled by train and sat above the freight as they visited Tientsin, Peking, and Nanking. From Nanking Kayano went to board the M.S. Chichibu in Shanghai which took him back to the United States via Japan. It was that ship's last voyage to the United States. 
<BR><BR>
Upon his return, Kayano entered UC Berkeley for a short stint, but was so restless he took a leave of absence from the university to work. On October 17, 1941, he received a notice appear at the National Guard Armory for his physical. 
<BR><BR>
After being accepted into the Army, he was sent to the Camp Roberts Field Artillery training unit. On the weekend of December 6th, he did not leave the base and heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor while he washed a pot on kitchen patrol. The next day all Japanese-American soldiers had their guns seized but soon had them returned--with less ammunition.
<BR><BR>
He moved south for assignments in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and then San Diego, but when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, all Japanese-American soldiers were moved off the coastal areas. When Kayano arrived in San Antonio with a train car of other Nisei soldiers, military police encircled his train. The police thought Kayano and the other soldiers were prisoners of war and threw them into a fort stockade. The mistake was soon cleared, and the military police moved them to the fort's main area. After two months, Kayano received orders to report to Camp Savage, Minn., where he joined the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) and studied Japanese for six months.
	
Before leaving the continental United States, he visited Topaz Detention Camp where his parents had been interned. He departed from his hometown of San Francisco, Calif., on February 11, 1943, and headed straight for Indooroopilly, Australia--headquarters for the Allied Translator Interpreter Section (ATIS). First he worked as a language checker for translations, and later was sent to Port Moresby, New Guinea. He continued to move to various locations in the Southwest Pacific campaign area, including Sydney, Brisbane, Dumpu, and the Philippines.
<BR><BR>
After the war ended, Kayano stayed in Manila and had to work day and night to prepare for the Japan's surrender. Working with Gen. Charles Willoughby and Col. Sidney Mashbir, he prepared for the arrival of Lt. Gen. Kawabe, Vice Minister of War and representative of the Emperor of Japan.
<BR><BR>
As the Occupation got under way, Kayano flew into Yokohama and was assigned to the newspaper section of ATIS. He searched for any unusual news items that appeared in the papers, then translated them into English. He also worked on the repatriation program, interrogating Japanese as they returned from overseas POW camps until his service ended. Although ATIS requested that he return for more duty, Kayano figured that six years was enough and returned to the United States.
<BR><BR>
He completed his Associates of Art degree and then entered the U.S. Postal Service where he worked for 30 years.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2031;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Sherman Kishi's father purchased a ranch before the Alien Land Law stopped Japanese immigrants from buying property in the United States. It gave the Kishi family the chance to work hard and live comfortably. In Livingston, Calif., many Japanese families embraced the Christian faith and Kishi remembers being baptized when he was six or seven.
<BR><BR>
Kishi participated in sports, Boy Scouts, and YMCA activities, and felt welcomed by the Caucasian families. However, in many cases Japanese and Caucasian communities lived similar but separate lives:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They're still our friends but there was never a friend like a Japanese friend that you have, where it was much closer. If we had parties and things which we didn't have too many of in those days, it was always with Japanese people. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
When it came to proving themselves to their Caucasian counterparts, the Nisei youth did well.  In their integrated Boy Scout troop, the Nisei gathered more Eagle Scout badges and a long string of Japanese-American students became valedictorians until the school changed the selection process. The high expectations for the Nisei were never verbalized, but were well understood.
<BR><BR>
At home his parents spoke Japanese.  Community activities, like Japanese film reels, helped Kishi balance the two cultures. On Sunday, December 7, 1942, Kishi and a few of his Nisei friends were practicing tennis when a car full of men stopped and cursed at them and called them &quot;Japs.&quot; Shocked, they returned home and listened to the reports on the radio. The idyllic life in Livingston had ended:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I know that after we were evacuated, I know my father talked to me one time and just really definitely told me that you were born here and this is your country and you are an American. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
His family moved to Merced into a temporary assembly center, and then took the long train ride to Amache Detention Camp. 
<BR><BR>
In Amache, Kishi finished high school and watched his older friends volunteer for the 442nd, an all-Nisei combat unit. When the Military Intelligence (MIS) Language School recruiters came to the detention camp, he tested and was accepted. In fall 1943 he entered Camp Savage, Minn., and began his studies.
<BR><BR>
Compared to many of the other students, Kishi did not have much experience in Japanese and had to study for nine months before he left for basic training at Fort McClellan, Ala. Finally in July 1945, Kishi arrived at the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Manila, Philippines. 
<BR><BR>
The war ended in early August and his team left for Yokohama, Japan. ATIS established its headquarters in the NYK building where the linguists slept and worked. From ATIS, Kishi moved to General Headquarters and was assigned to a British major who investigated people involved in the secret societies of Japan. Kishi even went to Sugamo Prison to interview, what he thinks, was the head of the &quot;Black Dragon Society.&quot; But for most of his time in Japan, he stayed in ATIS because his language skills were lower than those of the average Kibei.
<BR><BR>
When he first arrived in Japan, he noticed that the Japanese citizens were afraid of the conquering army:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
The women all wore the tied-down pantaloons called monepeis tied down at the seat, and they say that one of the reasons they wore those ... [because they] were afraid of being raped by the invading army and those would be much harder to get rid of than a dress or kimono. So, there were very few people that wore kimonos. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In March 1946, Kishi knew he would soon be returning to the United States so he decided to visit his parents' family in Wakayama Prefecture:
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
It was an incredible feeling when you go to visit your family you've never met before. You never even knew any of them, but when you go there they treated you like family and you just felt like you came home. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
His brother also worked as an interpreter during the Occupation, and they met and visited their family together. After six months of working in Japan, Kishi returned to the United States.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2032;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Before entering elementary school, Thomas S. Kadomoto was surrounded by Mexican laborers who worked on his father's farm. As a result, he spoke Japanese at home and Spanish on the farm, and it was not until he entered public education that he began speaking English. When he turned 12, his parents decided to return to Japan to school their two boys in a Japanese school. 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
When the family returned to the United States, his father learned that he had terminal stomach cancer. All the farm equipment they had bought was sold, and they returned to Japan where his father hoped to receive treatment. Nine hours after they landed in Japan, his father passed away.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
Using insurance money, Kadomoto's mother invested in real estate in Tokyo and continued to send her children through school. Seven years later, Kadomoto decided to return to the United States and worked as a salesman for a nursery in Gardena, Calif.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
On July 21, 1941, the Army drafted him and he trained as a medic at Fort Ord, Ill. When he learned that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor he immediately went to his captain and said, &quot;I am an American and I am willing to fight for America.&quot; [Biography]
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In March or April the Army transferred him to Fort Riley, Kan., where he found a thousand other Nisei doing menial work. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to visit the fort, without notice or explanation, all the Nisei were rounded up into a warehouse.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
The Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School came for recruits and Kadomoto decided to sign up, and in December 1942 he arrived at Camp Savage, Minn. After six months of training, he received a few weeks of leave and with his wife went to Arizona to visit her parents. When they stopped to buy gas, the woman attending the station told him, &quot;We can't sell gasoline to Japanese.&quot; A week earlier a nearby station had been fined $1,000 for selling to a local Japanese farmer thereby breaking Arizona's state law.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
On November 11, 1943, Kadomoto received the rank of Master Sergeant and led 90 MISLS graduates to Brisbane, Australia, to join linguists already working at the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
After a few months he left for New Guinea to join an Australian regiment. At the camp, he tasted mutton, learned to eat corned beef two or three times a day, and did not interrogate a single prisoner. 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
As the war progressed, Allied troops moved to Leyte, Philippines, and Kadomoto was put in charge of five Nisei linguists. After a visit into an inland headquarters, he returned to his station along the coast when a few scared and starved Filipinos saw him and began yelling, &quot;Japon, Japon.&quot; G.I.s pointed their rifles at him until one of them recognized him and said, &quot;Don't shoot, that's one of our men.&quot;
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In the Philippines, Kadomoto received a document from a G.I. who said it was from a Japanese Army captain. With fresh blood still on the paper, he translated the document, which contained information on an air raid that would take place two days later. Headquarters evacuated the area, saving many lives.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
After the war ended he received a Bronze Star and a field commission of 2nd Lt. From the Philippines the Army transferred him to Kure Naval Base in Japan. As soon as he could, Kadomoto wrote to his mother in Tokyo who had remained in Japan throughout the war. His brother also visited him and told him he had served in the Japanese Army and had been near Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped and had felt the concussion of the blast. Seven months later his brother died, possibly from radiation. After visiting his mother in Tokyo, Kadomoto returned to the United States to be discharged and settled in Arizona where he completed his business degree and began to work as an accountant.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2033;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Sueo Ito grew up in Kurtistown, Hawaii, where he graduated from high school in 1937. By that time, he had spent 12 years attending Japanese language school, approximate to a middle school education in Japan. He continued his education at the University of Hawaii and graduated in 1943 with a degree in vocational agriculture.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In July 1944, the Army drafted him and he trained at Camp Hellerman. After three months, the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) called him to Fort Snelling, Minn. After his language training, he left the United States for Manila and worked for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). The war ended and from Manila ATIS he moved to work for the Judge Advocate Office of the Army Forces Pacific (AFPAC) where he worked at the war crimes trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the &quot;Tiger of Manila and the Conqueror of Singapore.&quot; Although an informal poll of reporters covering the trial resulted in a unanimous not-guilty verdict, the court convicted and sentenced Yamashita to execution on the basis of his command responsibility. Ito also worked on the trial of General Masaharu Homma who received the same verdict.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
From the Philippines, Ito left for Tokyo where he worked at Tokyo ATIS in the NYK Building. Again, he received orders to work at the Judge Advocate Office, this time for the 8th Army headquarters in Yokohama, and interpreted for various trials concerning the mistreatment of POWs by the Japanese military. In these trials, Sueo noticed how cultural differences resulted in misinterpretations. For example, Japanese thought acupuncture and moxibustion (yaito) as standard medical treatments during that time, but Americans considered them forms of abuse. The trials also accused Japanese soldiers of withholding food from POWs, but actually they received the same amount of food as the troops. 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In July 1946, the Army discharged Ito and he quickly applied for a civil service job to continue interpreting. He worked on a variety of trials ranging from the smuggling of Saccharin from Shanghai into Japan to the court martial of a colonel who tried to smuggle gems from the Bank of Japan to the United States. Upon his return to the United States in 1950, Ito entered dentistry school, graduated in 1954, and practiced dentistry throughout his life.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2034;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "In 1942, Grant Ichikawa volunteered to go to Camp Savage, Minn., from Gila River Detention Camp. Before he made his decision final, he met with his family. His father said, &quot;Well this is your country and if you want to volunteer and fight, even against Japan, if that's what you want we'll support you.... The only thing is, don't do anything that will bring shame to the family.&quot; [Uncommon Courage]. 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
Ichikawa entered the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) on November 1942, became fluent in Japanese, and graduated six months later. After completing basic training at Camp Shelby with the 442nd Regiment, he left the United States and joined the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Brisbane, Australia. By the time prisoners had arrived at ATIS, the Allied forces wanted to extract strategic information from prisoners ranging from information on American POWs to the types of weapons being manufactured in Japan.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
At ATIS he worked in the interrogation section for about one year and then transferred to the 39th Division in the Philippines in July 1945:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
That's why I call our service extreme patriotism.... In our case, we know we're going to go to the Pacific Theater and fight against Japan.... You're in camp because you're being accused of being pro-Japan, or possibly espionage agent, cannot be trusted and all these things, and then here you are volunteering fro the same Army that put you behind barbed wire fence ... that you're willing to fight against the very country you're suspected of being loyal to. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After less than a month, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the war ended. Ichikawa first helped coax Japanese troops from hills in the Philippines by sending prisoners up to the Japanese camps to convince them to surrender. He soon left for Yokohama, Japan, and witnessed the destruction caused by firebombs:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Yokohama was heavily bombed because that's where they had the factory.... Yokohama was flat. They had firebombs, you know, dropped on it. It was devastating. So our first impression was, oh boy, war is terrible. My uncle lived in Yokohama. He had a business. He had a nice house. It was all gone. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In Tokyo, Ichikawa received orders to work with the United States strategic bombing survey unit:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Our group was the atomic bomb group. And we visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Hiroshima, the people were still picking up bones with chopsticks, you know, relatives dying, friends dying. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Teamed with scientists, mathematicians, and physicists, Ichikawa worked as their interpreter. The team gathered and measured the physical power and destruction of the bomb. On the mission he saw many Japanese walking around hungry and still sick from the radiation:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
When they looked at us [Nisei], I think many of them, many of them probably felt we sort of betrayed them or something, I don't know. But also many of them also were very thankful that we were there to bridge the difference between their culture and the Americans.... so we were there to be the bridge.... I ran into almost no opposition to our being there. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
After finishing his work on the atomic weapons, Ichikawa returned to Tokyo ATIS and became the assistant assignment officer. He soon received a promotion and became the head assignment officer for all of the linguists who had just come from the intelligence school. As soon as he could, he visited his relatives and brought them as many rations as he could:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They were all tired of the war. The whole Japanese population was tired of the war. And they were thankful that the war had ended the way it did. Now they can rebuild and I think they were happy to see us.... I was able to visit the family home. [Uncommon Courage]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In 1946 Ichikawa met his wife, one of the first women civilians to work in the Occupation. She worked in the censorship detachment, and they were the first Nisei couple to marry in Japan. 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
A year later in 1947, Ichikawa left the Army and returned to California to become a farmer. As he left the Army, he signed up for the inactive reserves which stipulated he would only be activated for a major war. Just as he started his civilian life, the Korean War began in 1950 and he returned to Japan. Luckily, his MIS training gave him the option of going to to work in intelligence in Hokkaido rather than fighting in Korea. 
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
Ichikawa completed his tour of duty, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made him an offer. Since the end of WWII, Occupation Forces continued to look for Russian spies who had entered the country during the repatriation of Japanese POWs from Siberia. The CIA needed his linguistic skills to carry out the search. Instead of returning to farming, Ichikawa took this new opportunity and made two tours of duty in Vietnam and Indonesia where he continued his career in intelligence and linguistics.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2035;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Harry Shinichi Iida was taking a break on his family's farm in Walnut Grove, Calif., when his brother brought him lunch and told him that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Months later, when Executive Order 9066 evicted his family from their farm, they moved to Waleriga Assembly Center and then in May 1942 left for Tule Lake Detention Camp.
<BR><BR>
After several months in Tule Lake, recruiters from the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) visited the camp. Iida, with 37 other Nisei, volunteered. They started school in December 1942 and he studied for six months at Camp Savage, Minn.
<BR><BR>
At the end of the language course, he took basic training at Camp Shelby, Miss., and then left for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) near Brisbane, Australia. 
<BR><BR>
From January 1944 to June 1945, he worked in the translation pool and enjoyed eating Chinese food and going to the beach on the weekends in Australia--a rather luxurious life compared to other linguists on the front lines. Right before the war ended, ATIS transferred most of their linguists, including Iida, to the Santa Ana Racetrack in Manila, Philippines.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
He worked at a POW compound and held casual conversations with the inmates. Cigarettes or candy helped him elicit basic information from the soldiers before their formal interrogations. With these small offerings of friendship, the Japanese soldiers became cordial. On the other hand, other U.S. soldiers treated Iida differently:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Well, there was always two kinds. Two extremes. Those who looked down upon us, and those that really believed that we were short-changed but then we were doing a good job, you know. That without us a lot of those things couldn't be done... [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Some of these soldiers still questioned his loyalty. One even believed that Japanese submarines had waited on the coast to give sabotage instructions to Japanese Americans:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
They still think we kind of ... had we been given a chance, we would have struck for the cause of the Japanese. Bakatare ga. [Stupid] [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
In August 1945, Iida and many U.S. Forces had already begun preparations for the invasion of Kyushu. Then, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his assignment quickly changed. He boarded a ship headed for Osaka Bay and became part of the surrender and Occupation Forces. Once in Japan he helped disarm the Japanese Army and interpreted for the Occupation Forces. 
 
The following year he visited his mother and father's families in Kumamoto Prefecture. He met his grandfather and grandmother, both of whom he had never seen, and also met half-sisters who considered him a close relative.
The Army assigned him to duty in Maizuru, the port through which Japanese POWs passed. Most of them had been in labor camps in Siberia, and Iida worked with an interrogation team that tried to weed out potential spies.
<BR><BR>
When the Korean War broke out, Iida decided to volunteer again and joined the 24th Regiment. He fought alongside the Buffalo Soldiers, an all-African-American unit, and received a Silver Star for his bravery in the field. He transferred to the 9th Army Headquarters and became the Commanding Officer of the Language Detachment whose job was to pick up Chinese Communists for interrogation. Iida received a Bronze Star for his work.
	
During the Korean War, he decided to join the airborne unit. While he trained he broke his leg on a practice jump, and returned to the continental United States and continued to serve with the 6th Army. He requested a move to Germany and spent three years patrolling the Berlin Wall.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In 1962 Iida retired from the Army and started his own insurance company in Salinas, Calif., and helped local Japanese-American flower growers develop a small cooperative supply organization.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2036;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "At the age of three Haruko Sugi Hurt's parents moved from Parlier, Calif., to Reedley, Calif., and settled down to farm in the Central Valley. The closest family to their house was the Stauffers. The fathers of the two families took turns taking the children to school, and when she turned 10, her family moved to Southern California.
<BR><BR>
Hurt graduated from Gardena High School in 1933 and had difficulty finding work. Finally, in 1939 she started domestic work in Beverly Hills. Although she had many Caucasian friends in school, she came to realize that those relationships never grew deeper. They never entered each other's homes.
<BR><BR>
Every day after school she attended Japanese classes, and continued this through high school. Only two other students graduated with her, so to celebrate their accomplishments her teachers took them out to Grauman's Theater to see a Charlie Chaplin movie. 
<BR><BR>
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hurt was working as a domestic for a Beverly Hill's family:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
When I heard the news, I didn't know where Pearl Harbor was. I was that naive. &quot;Pearl Harbor-where's that?&quot; That was the kind of reaction that I had. I would stay the weekend at home and would return on Sunday. 
<BR><BR>
She [Her Beverly Hills employer] was very nice to me. She was kind and treated me very fairly. But it was strange. Hysteria was fomented by the news media and everyone was suspicious of all Japanese. One day, the lady of the house, half smiling, but serious too, said to me, &quot;Haruko, you don't have a radio transmitter under your bed, do you?&quot; [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, and Hurt spent six months in Santa Anita Assembly Center and then another six in Rowher Detention Camp. In April 1943 she applied for a job as a nursemaid in Chicago, and when that job abruptly ended she signed up for a typing position at the War Relocation Authority (WRA). 
<BR><BR>
After hearing about the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), she sent in inquiry to see if they would accept her. In a reply, she learned that the MIS wanted to form a Women Army Corps (WAC) unit and wanted her to join. As she thought about the offer, the Army drafted her &quot;baby&quot; brother and she decided she also wanted to do something for the war effort.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
On the last day of January 1944, she finally joined WAC. She attended basic training in Des Moines, Iowa, and was the only Asian in the training camp. She moved to Fort Snelling and waited for more WACs to join her. In the meantime, she served as a clerk typist for John Aiso, director of MISLS.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
The WACs studied the same curriculum as the men, but in separate classes. Although their studies were separate, the WACs did share the dining hall--45 WACs to 3000 MIS students--and as a result became quite popular among the other students.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In November 1945 when she graduated from MISLS, the war had officially ended. The Army sent her to the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS) in Maryland where she translated documents. Hurt moved with the document section when it moved to Washington, D.C., and ended her military career in September 1946.
<BR><BR>
She returned to Chicago where she had entered the Army, and then paid for her own train ticket to Gardena, Calif., where her parents had resettled in their old house. A Caucasian friend had helped them keep the property in order throughout the war:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
She was single, a businesswoman. She voluntarily offered to take care of the family home--to pay the taxes, rent it out, and generally care for it. At the time, of course, we didn't know how long our exile was to last. My parents were so grateful, that they told her to keep whatever was left after expenses were paid. My parents owned their home and felt that they would lose it if there was no one to care for it. When my parents notified her that they were returning, she had the tenants move out, the furniture that she had stored, replaced, and the utilities reconnected under my father's name. She even met them at Union Station. Mother was surprised that their home was home-like already and when she opened the refrigerator, she found that the refrigerator was replenished with fresh food. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Using the G.I. Bill, Hurt followed her dreams and entered the University of Southern California in September 1947. She received college credit for her language training and graduated in three years, then returned for a Master's degree in social work. In graduate school she met her future husband, and soon they both began working. 
	
Because of her schooling, Hurt had married late and could not have children. She and her husband decided to adopt two children of mixed Asian and Caucasian heritage.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2037;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Born the third child of four, Moffet Mitsuo Ishikawa grew up in San Jose, Calif.  He attended San Jose State University for three years when the Pacific War began:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I remember vividly the morning after Pearl Harbor because I had received orders days earlier to report on December 8 for a physical prior to being drafted into the U.S. Army.  To put it mildly, I felt quite apprehensive about reporting that morning at the San Jose Civic Auditorium.  Although there were several hundred Caucasian young men undergoing physicals, I was relieved that nothing untoward happened to me.  [Autobiography]
<BR><BR>
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
On January 14, 1942, he entered the Army and did his basic training at Paine Field near Everett, Wash.  
<BR><BR>
When Executive Order 9066 forced all people of Japanese ancestry off the West Coast, the War Relocation Authority sent Ishikawa and other West Coast Nisei soldiers to Fort Riley, Kan.  They received orders to pick up scraps of paper around the post while Military Police followed behind them with loaded rifles.  Originally, the Army assigned him menial labor, usually Kitchen Patrol duties, so when the chance to sign up for the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) came, he jumped at the opportunity.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
In the summer of 1942, Ishikawa went to at Camp Savage, Minn., and began studies that fall.  Like many other Nisei, he received furloughs while at the school and visited his parents who were incarcerated in Heart Mountain Detention Camp.  The following summer he graduated from MISLS.  
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
On Columbus Day 1943, Ishikawa shipped out for Noumea, New Caledonia, in the South Pacific and translated documents on the island.  In early 1944, he left Noumea and finally landed on Guadalcanal with a team of nine other linguists joining the 40th Division from Hawaii.  In April they sailed northwest toward New Guinea and landed on the southern tip of New Britain.  They conducted reconnaissance during the &quot;Encirclement of Rabaul&quot;--one of the Japanese strongholds in the area.  By the end of 1944 they began preparing for the invasion of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
On D-day, January 9, 1945, he landed at Lingayen Gulf in northern Luzon.  The 40th Division advanced southward through Luzon toward Manila, but pulled back and landed on Panay and Negros Islands.  On Negros, they advanced into the mountains to where Japanese troops had retreated:
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
As soon as I arrived, I went to work to familiarize myself with the terrain and what knowledge we had about the Japanese forces.  Absorbed in my work, I had forgotten to dig a foxhole and as the afternoon faded into darkness and I could no longer continue working, I spread my poncho on the ground and lay down to sleep.  Around midnight, as the saying goes, &quot;All hell broke loose.&quot;  Mortars began dropping in and machine gun fire raked the area.  All I could do was hug the ground and make myself as flat as possible.  [Autobiography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR><BR>
Throughout his time in the jungle, he always had a Caucasian bodyguard accompany him wherever he went.  When he told his bodyguard that the U.S. government had sent his family into a detention camp in Wyoming, the Caucasian soldier was incredulous that such a thing could happen.  He offered to write to his hometown paper about the injustice.  Other soldiers looked at him and could only see his Japanese face.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
While Ishikawa's unit prepared for the invasion of Kyushu, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the war ended.  In September 1945, his division went to Pusan, Korea, for Occupation duty.  
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
Only a few months later he returned to the United States and met his parents in San Jose, Calif.  Ishikawa traveled to Chicago, but the cold weather turned him back to California where he began a career working for the post office.
<BR><BR>
" WHERE veteran_id = 2038;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Kaoru Inouye was born on Hume Ranch, located between Los Gatos and Saratoga, Calif., in 1915. Four years later the ranch closed, and Inouye's father wanted to buy some of the property but had to circumvent the Alien Land Law, which prevented immigrants from purchasing land. His father teamed with an American lawyer to establish a corporation that purchased a portion of the property.
<BR><BR>
Inouye's grammar school consisted of one room with students ranging from first through eighth grades. After graduation, he continued his education at Los Gatos High School, and in 1933 he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley.
<BR><BR>
<BR><BR>
At Berkeley, Inouye tried to enter the Reserve Officer Training Corps but failed his physical and was deferred. He wanted to enter a field with a promising future and decided to major in chemistry, but seemed exclusive--there were few Asians and no African Americans. After five years of studying, he graduated in 1938, and made the decision to continue his education. After one semester of graduate school his father fell ill, and Inouye quit school and found a job at a laboratory to help his family.
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On the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Inouye returned to his rented hotel room and found it boarded up. A Secret Service agent told him it had been seized by the government. Although he worked at his laboratory job until the eviction of all Japanese on the West Coast, he lost his room and moved in with an old classmate.
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When Inouye finally returned to Los Gatos, he helped his parents lease their property, sold their car, and then left for Santa Anita Assembly Center. In September 1942, Inouye moved to Heart Mountain Detention Camp and signed up to teach high school chemistry and physics. In the first year the camp did not have a school building, but by the second the school had stocked itself with supplies, developed sports clubs that competed with local schools, and became accredited by the State of Wyoming. 
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Although Inouye was in poor physical condition, the Army still wanted him for his technical expertise and university education and drafted him in August 1944. During his basic training at Fort Blanding, Fla., a replacement center for the 442nd Regimental Unit in Europe, the Fort's headquarters called him almost everyday for interviews. Finally, one evening the commanding officer announced all the men who would be transferred to the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Fort Snelling. Inouye looked around at the others who had been called and realized they all had studied at West Coast universities.
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This small group of educated linguists studied the school at Fort Snelling. Because of Inouye's background in chemistry, he translated documents on explosives for mines, aerial bombs, and torpedoes. Although his Japanese did not compare to that of the advanced classes, his technical knowledge helped him properly translate the documents into English.
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While Inouye studied, his father passed away and he returned to Heart Mountain Detention Camp for the funeral. After six months of studying at Fort Snelling, he received a promotion to S. Sgt., took a short furlough to visit his family and friends in Heart Mountain, and then with 536 MIS linguists boarded a ship headed into the Pacific War.
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When he landed in the Philippines, Inouye quartered in a tent at the Santa Anita Racetrack right next to the POW compound:
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I had the opportunity to talk to the POW's, many of whom were high executives/technical personnel of Japanese firms operating in PI [Philippines] and members of the Japanese Consular Service, besides Army and Navy officers. An interesting discussion was held with a captain of the aircraft carrier used for bombing Pearl Harbor. The discussion disclosed dissension between the Japanese Army and Navy, lack of logistics for invasion of Hawaii, miscalculation of war effort of United States; denouncing the use of English language, and the use of Niseis as linguists. [Autobiography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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After Japan surrendered, Inouye was scheduled to take one of the first planes to Tokyo but the weather stopped all flights. Instead he traveled with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) headquarters staff to Japan. When they arrived along the coastline, the captain could not find the entrance to Tokyo Bay. Inouye described to him what the bay looked like when he first entered the country in 1927, and they arrived safely.
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Upon arrival, Inouye looked for family members: his brother's house had burnt down and he had moved to Nagano; his uncle's house had also been incinerated and he had moved to Chiba Prefecture. The next day Inouye took a train from Tokyo to Chiba and saw his uncle, aunt, and cousins and learned that the entire family had survived the war.
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In his first assignment he reported to Kure to replace ATIS linguists who had returned to the United States. He met an ex-Japanese Army officer who knew his family in Hiroshima, and for the first time in 19 years he met his brother. They arranged to meet again at the family's home the next day. Taking an Army jeep through the city's ruins, he was followed by a pack of children to his family house where his other brother from Nagano had come to visit. Inouye lied to his 92-year-old grandmother that his father was okay, but told his father's oldest sister that he had passed away right as the war had started. 
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As the non-commissioned officer of the 167th Language Detachment of ATIS, he assigned linguists to various military organizations. Part of his work included escorting a well-known Life magazine photographer and helping stop a riot between Korean nationals and returning Japanese POWs. 
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In July 1946, Inouye finished his two-year tour of duty and he requested a discharge in Japan to accept a civilian position with the intelligence service in Tokyo. He signed up as a technical investigator and followed the chemical research activities in industrial, government, military, and education institutions. He also interrogated key scientific personnel returning from Manchuria during 1947-1949 and came across a Nisei friend who had been a Ph.D. student at UC-Berkeley. 
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In September 1947 Inouye married a Japanese-American woman who worked for the Miyagi Military Government. In 1950, as the Korean War began, he decided to return to the United States to put his education to use. He eventually moved to Los Angeles and worked for Aerojet, designing propellants for rockets and publishing papers on microchemistry.
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2039;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "James Tsutomo Kai was born in Denver, Colo., where his father had opened a photography studio. In 1936, he and his family moved to Los Angeles where he attended Japanese school and practiced kendo. On October 7, 1941, he enlisted in the Army at Fort MacArthur, Calif., and received medical basic training.
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After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the FBI picked up his mother and sent her to Terminal Island because she taught Japanese at the language school, and his father and siblings left for Poston Detention Camp in Arizona. Kai's three-year-old Chevy sold for 35 dollars.
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After basic training, he traveled to Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and ended up at Camp Robinson, Ark., at the base hospital. His commanding officer submitted his name in for a special training program at the University of Southern California to become a doctor, but the program denied his application. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to visit the base, all the Japanese-American soldiers were confined.
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Itching for combat, Kai volunteered for all the combat units, and eventually received orders to report to Camp Savage, Minn., for the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). Even though he studied in the lower classes, he retained his rank of Staff Sergeant and became a team leader. His Kibei friends from basic training made a special request to join his team, and unlike other groups, he had three top-notched Kibei working with him and six of the 10 linguists had graduated from college.
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His team joined the 81st Division and worked on the Palau Archipelago as translators and interpreters. They also mimeographed leaflets to encourage Japanese soldiers to surrender. Many of the soldiers heard rumors that U.S. Forces would torture and mutilate them, so instead of facing the pain and shame of capture they would commit suicide. Kai's commanding officers seemed more preoccupied with gathering bounty, samurai swords, or Japanese money, than winning the war.
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After Palau, the 81st went to Leyte, Philippines, to capture stragglers and then moved to Aomori, Japan, as part of the Occupation. In Japan, Kai caught pneumonia and returned to the United States. 
Kai, James - bio.doc
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Scott Hoshida	Page 1	4/8/03
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2041;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "Weeks after Mitsugi Murakami Kasai's brother returned from his Military Intelligence Service (MIS) duties in the Pacific War, Kasai decided to enlist in the Army. After completing the course at the MIS Language School in April 1947, he left for Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) training in Baltimore, Md. He completed his training and then taught Japanese for 10 months.
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From June 1948 to June 1950 he served in the Tokyo/Kanagawa District under the 441st CIC Detachment, General Headquarters (GHQ), Far East Command. Working with local Japanese police departments, he kept track of Communist Party leaders and their activities. His activities reminded him of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Office of Naval Intelligence operations that had &quot;enabled the FBI to roundup the so-called 'dangerous' enemy aliens (Issei) for confinement in the Department of Justice internment camps.&quot; [Biography] As tension among the United States, China, and the Soviet Union rose, the CIC's roundup operations prepared to pick up members of Japanese Communist Party (JCP). 
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The Air Force formed the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) at Tachikawa Air Force Base and Kasai went with Capt. Leo Carl to provide CIC coverage of the area. In July 1949, while Kasai was holding his first liaison party with all the police chiefs from the Santama District in Tachikawa City, one of the chiefs received an emergency call. A train had derailed killing six and injuring others and investigators suspected that Japanese Communist Party (JCP) members had caused the accident. Kasai followed the investigation of the 11 JCP members and reported to his headquarters. The evidence supported the conviction of only one of the 11 accused. Dubbed the &quot;Mitaka Incident&quot; it was one of many suspected communist plots the CIC tracked.
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On June 16, 1950, Kasai was honorably discharged and returned to the continental United States with intentions of completing his degree in forestry. His plans changed when on June 25, 1950, the Korean broke out and he reenlisted as a Master Sergeant with the U.S. Army with the intention of joining the war effort. His plans were quickly derailed by his linguistic experience, as the Army asked him to study with the 11th Airborne Detachment in Kentucky, and then took a yearlong course in Cantonese. 
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Instead of going to Korea, Kasai then moved to Niigata, Japan, with the CIC and monitored pro-Communist Korean organizations and Japanese who had been repatriated from Russia. It was not until 1953 that he got his wish to move to Korea where he monitored Chinese prisoners of war in a U.S. camp. 
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Over the next 20 years Kasai moved back and forth across the Pacific Ocean serving in various intelligence operations in Japan, Okinawa, Korea, and Vietnam. He also served at the Presidio of Monterey, Calif., Fort Douglas, and other military installations throughout the United States. When he retired on March 31, 1973, he had been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the United States Army and letters of appreciation from the Koza Police Station in Tokyo and the Okinawa Prefecture Police.
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2042;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "In the summer of 1943, after his first year of college at Harvard, Allen H. Meyer began studying Japanese privately at the University of Chicago. He had already studied six other languages, and in the fall he entered a civilian Japanese program at Ann Arbor, Michigan. In early 1944, the Army drafted him and he attended infantry basic training at Camp Roberts, but had already received recognition for his adept language ability.
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Capt. Kai Rasmussen, one of the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) administrators, pulled Meyer out of basic training and sent him back to classes at Ann Arbro as a private. After Meyer graduated from that program, Meyer went to MISLS at Fort Snelling, Minn., for additional training.
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In his first assignment after graduation, Meyer went to Tokyo, Japan, to work for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in the periodical section:
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We were mainly concerned with the treatment of matters such as possible war criminals (whose actions might be undemocratic), breaking up the zaibatsu [the financial clique that controlled the government], the role of women, and labor and management. [Autobiography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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While they translated the documents, Meyer often had discussions with other linguists about the nuances in their translation work, which created an excellent chance for engaging cross-cultural learning. Those discussions also sparked larger discussions on the changes the Occupations was brining to Japan, and even after his assignment at ATIS ended, Meyer would often visit his colleagues.
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Although not considered &quot;official&quot; work, he often traveled with military officers to parties and other social events to act as a guide and once helped calm disturbances between Occupation Military Police and homeless Japanese. With his free time, Meyer would travel around Honshu, Japan's largest island, by jeep or by local trains and practiced his Japanese with people he met through his travels.
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In March 1946, he moved to Uraga where many Japanese soldiers were returning from Southeast Asia and the East Indies. With a team of other linguists, he accepted the soldiers' surrenders and debriefed them as they returned. When Japanese prisoners of war began returning from Manchuria and Siberia, Meyer interrogated the returnees before they were allowed back into Japan. With hundreds of other repatriates watching them, he and the other linguists would talk to Japanese repatriates before allowing them into the country:
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Our basic concern always had to be with the impression we left on these people before they returned home.... Considering the lack of privacy, and the fact that we were being observed by hundreds of others at a distance, an appearance of not being overbearing was essential. [Article]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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On one ship returning from the East Indies, more than 8,000 soldiers, still armed, entered Uraga Bay. Meyer boarded the ship with a team of five men and successfully won the cooperation of the ship's general and all of the officers. In another incident, a ship from Europe full of Japanese diplomats came and expected special treatment. When Meyer asked them to open their trunks, they ignored him and spit epithets at the soldiers who forced their luggage open. Later, the evidence taken from the trunks was used in the war crimes trials. 
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In April 1947, Meyer received orders to survey and watch over the second round of elections in Hokkaido, Japan. The first elections, held in 1946, had not gone well, and the Occupation forces hoped that this election would speed Japan's progress toward a representative democracy.  With a team of linguists Meyer trekked through drifts of snow 20 feet high, visiting polling and ballot-counting places to make sure the process went smoothly. For the most part, the Japanese appreciated his team's interest in their country's early attempts at open elections. In a letter he wrote home to his family, Meyer recounts his work:
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Today, counting day, gave us a very satisfied feeling. This election was for the members of the local village, town and city assemblies, and the Hokkaido Assembly, and the people knew much more about the candidates and, therefore, showed much greater interest in the entire affair.... In one place, over 150 people stood for three hours to watch the &quot;democratic&quot; way an election should be handled, and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. When we arrived they seemed rather pleased at seeing us, for it probably gave them a certain feeling of thankfulness that we showed such a great interest in their election.... The end of a very interesting venture--another phase in the democratization of Japan. [&quot;Translator/Interpreter&quot;]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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In September 1947, Meyer returned to the United States to complete his degree at Harvard. Then, in 1951 he earned a law degree.
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2043;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "At age 18, Hisao &quot;Koby&quot; Kobayashi started his own produce-trucking business in conjunction with his family's melon farming business. Five days before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army drafted him into the Medical Corps. He was the second of four sons drafted by the U.S. military. His mother, sisters, and brothers went to Poston Detention Camp, and the Army detained his father separately in New Mexico.
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At Camp Robinson, Arkansas, Kobayashi worked as a mail carrier and had the opportunity to visit Rowher and Jerome detention camps in his family car. His captain encouraged him to enter the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), and despite his misgivings in December 1943, he entered Camp Savage, Minn. Because of his limited Japanese and age (he was 25), he did not graduate until early 1945. From there, he shipped out to the Philippines:
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The Filipinos pointed at us and, yelling &quot;JAPON! JAPON!&quot; We had to shove them away. Due to the hostility of the natives, we were cautioned to stay away from the downtown area. [Autobiography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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One highlight of his work in the Philippines was the interrogation of a high-ranked Japanese officer.
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Soon after Kobayashi's arrival in the Pacific War, the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan surrendered. He had served for four-and-a-half years and felt relief that the war finally was over. In September 1945, he arrived in Tokyo:
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I was shocked to see the destruction from the bombings. I saw people in a state of starvation. The women and children were hiding in the hills for they heard that the Americans were barbarians. However, it wasn't long before they started to return. The women were dressed in baggy pants and their stomach distended. They had been on a diet of sweet potatoes. [Autobiography]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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In Tokyo, he searched out family members. His uncle, rich before the war, did not have heat in his home and bought rice on the black market. In November 1945, the U.S. military sent Kobayashi to Hokkaido. 
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After five months in Japan, Kobayashi worried that his family and their business would suffer in his absence, and he decided to return to the United States despite requests by the Army to stay. In February 1946, he returned to the mainland and soon married. 
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2044;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "After George Shigeo Matsui entered the 7th grade, his parents took him to Japan for five years. He returned to the United States by himself in 1934, completed high school, and began to attend the local junior college. His brother Frank, who also lived in the United States, convinced him that they needed money first, and Matsui quit school to work at a local produce stand.
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In February 1941, the Army drafted him, and while in line to receive his physical he saw James Stewart standing in line in front of him. Matsui trained in an Asian and Caucasian unit, but after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor the Army reclassified him as an enlisted reserve--the Army could recall him at any time--and discharged him. Following Executive Order 9066, he moved with his married brother and sister to the Santa Anita Assembly Center in March 1942. The rest of his family--his parents, brothers, and a sister--were still in Japan:
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So you could understand why I had mixed emotions. What am I going to do? My brothers and folks back there and my older brother and my sister here and I'm an American in the American Army. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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In the assembly center Matsui worked in the personnel unit and processed all of the other internees before he left for Tule Lake Detention Camp. Around Thanksgiving, the Army asked him to reenlist and he left for Camp Savage, Minn., to start language training at the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). His five years in Japan had sharpened his speaking ability, but he still had difficulty with the kanji.
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With a team of 10 other linguists, Matsui left for the Central Pacific campaign in the summer of 1943. First his unit went to Honolulu, Hawaii, and then left for an operation on Marshall Island, Kwajelien. His team deciphered hydrographic maps that helped the Salt Lake City Heavy Cruiser navigate the shallow waters around the island and its harbors. When the captain of the ship found out that the Nisei team of linguists had deciphered the map, he wrote them a letter of commendation.
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For his next operation Matsui accompanied Allied troops on the invasion of Saipan and the Mariana Islands. After the main battle had ended, troops found Japanese soldiers and civilians lodged deep in coral caves:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
So, right away, they called us, Sergeant Honda and me, to the front line there. And, like I said, we had this guy come up from the cave and we talked to him about American soldiers never torturing or killing anybody yet. We would never do that.... I said there's no sense to committing suicide. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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After talking to the soldier for 30 or 40 minutes, the civilians came out of the cave and he convinced the soldiers to surrender. Both Honda and Matsui received Bronze Stars for their work on Saipan. 
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After some rest and recuperation in Hawaii, Matsui received his next assignment in the summer of 1945. The United States was preparing for the invasion of Japan and Matsui shipped out to Manila, Philippines, where the Army had brought Japanese linguists from all parts of the Pacific War. 
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Once the war ended, he accompanied Occupation forces to General Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. The Army assigned him to the Natural Resources Section, and with a lieutenant colonel he took a train to Fukuoka, Kyushu. When they arrived, the colonel let Matsui take a jeep and a driver to visit his family who lived in the city. His mother was happy to see him, but his older brothers had not yet returned from the war:
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Then I said, oh, my gosh. This is something like the American Civil War--brothers against brothers. That's me. And you can't do anything about it except fight for what you believe in. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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His youngest brother did not understand why he fought for the United States and said, &quot;You're Japanese.&quot; But George replied, &quot;Yes, but I believe and trust America. That's why I'm an American G.I.&quot; 
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After his work in the resource section, Matsui returned to Tokyo and the Army made him take a military aptitude test. He passed the test and Army Military Intelligence offered him a direct commission, but he refused and returned to the United States in December 1945:
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After I got discharged at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin.... Several months later, the War Department sent me another letter, come back in. We'll give you a direct commission. I turned that down again. A year later they still wanted me. I said, by god, they're persistent. I saw enough dead bodies around on battlefields and in the hospital. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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After starting a small produce market, Matsui worked for the post office in Minneapolis, Minn., eventually becoming a supervisor.
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2046;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 2047;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "" WHERE veteran_id = 2048;\g
UPDATE veterans SET biography = "When Rusty Kimura was two years old, his family moved to Oroville, Calif., a small rural town north of Sacramento, Calif. After graduating from high school, Reverend Johnson of the First Congregational Church offered to help him attend the California Institute of Technology.
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Kimura's younger brother fell ill, so instead of going to college Kimura started to work to help his family, missing college altogether. He moved to Marysville to work first as a store clerk and then at a laundry. He moved to Oakland and found a job at a large Japanese laundry and became a supervisor for one of the departments. 
<BR><BR>
Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and his family in Oakland was evacuated to Tanforan Assembly Center in March 1942. Instead of accompanying them, Kimura decided to take the car and move inland back to Marysville. His mother suddenly died in the Assembly Center, and with the permission of the Provost Marshall he took a Greyhound bus to San Francisco:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><I>
At the bus station in San Francisco, a young man, much bigger than I attempted to provoke me into a fight.... I then transferred to another bus where the driver made a special stop for me at Tanforan, formerly a racetrack. I could hear the snickering of a few of the passengers, especially the women as I got off. It had been raining and the mud was ankle deep. I recall seeing some of the elderly internees slipping and falling in the mud. It wasn't a pleasant sight. [Oral History]
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
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He attended his mother's funeral and decided to stay with the family. In September 1942 they moved to Topaz Detention Camp.
<BR><BR>
Kimura helped build the camp in the first month. When Army recruiters came he immediately signed up. On December 5, 1942, he arrived at Fort Snelling, Minn., and then transferred to Camp Savage. After six months of language studies, he moved to Camp Shelby for basic training, and finally in January 1944, he arrived at Brisbane, Australia.
<BR><BR>
Kimura worked in the Allied Translator and Interpreter Services (ATIS) as a translator until October 1944. With 20 other Nisei linguists, he went to Bougainville Island and quickly was dispatched to the front lines where the Australian troops appreciated his attitude and outspokenness. 
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On Bougainville, the Japanese had two large guns that the Allied Forces could not take out. Kimura artfully interrogated two POWs and figured out the exact location, within 40 yards, of the two guns. His captain radioed for planes that successfully destroyed the guns. 
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Australian soldiers went to the artillery site and brought back boxes of documents from which Kimura discovered that the Japanese planned an attack the next morning. Excited with the find, he notified his captain, who doubted the authenticity of the documents and who thought the troops were 20 miles south. Regretfully, Kimura did not further pursue the issue. The next morning when the Japanese attacked at precisely the given moment, the captain finally agreed to the authenticity of the document, but by then a company of Australian soldiers had already taken on the brunt of the attack.
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After his stint in Bougainville Kimura returned to ATIS in Australia and moved with the section to the Philippines. When the Army recruited him for the Occupation of Japan, they made him a second lieutenant. 
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Pay for civilian work was two-and-a-half times that of the military, and like many other Nisei linguists, Kimura began working for the Army as a civilian. During his 19 years in Tokyo, Kimura never returned to the United States and only kept in touch with his family by mail and telephone. 
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Kimura, Rusty - bio.doc
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Scott Hoshida	Page 2	4/4/03
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" WHERE veteran_id = 2049;\g
