Orphaned at age six, George Sankey went to Okinawa to live with his relatives. Though he grew up poor, Sankey excelled in school and once placed first in a nationwide IQ test. For this feat he received much publicity and the Okinawan community lauded him as a genius and a <i>shindo</i> (child prodigy). He returned to the United States in 1939 to finish secondary school and start college. Few months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sankey volunteered for military service, eventually making his way into the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Hawaii. As a CIC agent, he interrogated Issei whom the government planned to place in the Department of Justice internment camps. He later joined the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) without having attended the Military Intelligence Service Language School. 
<br><br>In March 1944, he and another Nisei, Yoshikazu Yamada, were put in charge of deciphering a captured Japanese document found at sea when Japanese planes went down in a heavy storm. Colonel Sidney Mashbir, head of the Intelligence Center, entrusted his top translators to work on the so-called Z-Plan. Aside from the two Nisei enlisted men, three Caucasian officers were also assigned to this task. Dissent evolved during the translation process as the Nisei soldiers and the Caucasian officers differed on one crucial point about a particular evasive maneuver described in the document. To resolve the dispute, the document was sent to a government translator in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, the translator agreed with Sankey and Yamada's interpretation.
<br><br>This piece of evidence turned out to be one of the most important documents captured during the war. The document revealed details about the status and projected plans of the Japanese Navy's all-out attack to defend the Philippines and the Mariana Islands. It is believed that the translation of the Z-Plan led directly to the U.S. Navy's victory known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"--a major turning point in the war.
<br><br>Sankey was on leave when the war ended. He was subsequently discharged on October 24, 1945. In 1947, he went to Tokyo and worked as a civilian at ATIS for three years. In early 1953, Sankey received orders to serve in Korea once he finished a short training course in the Korean language. After he completed the Korean course, instead of leaving for Korea he began work as a language aide for top-level officers and civil administrators. On occasion, his Okinawan background proved invaluable in interpreting and escorting for these top administrators. 
<br><br>In his later years, Sankey worked as an instructor in a few intelligence schools. He also served as a language aide once again, this time to four High Commissioners of Ryukyu Islands, for a total of nine years. In 1969, Sankey retired from the U.S. Army but still continued his linguistic work as a civil service employee. Upon leaving this post, he accepted a position as Director of Liaison for the newly created Japan office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He continued his work at MIT in other capacities, finally retiring in 1989.
