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.
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.
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: "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."

> 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, "Oh, he may be a director of a company, but he is only the son of an immigrant." [Oral History]
> 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]

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, "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." 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.
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.
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, "You're going to be the head instructor, the chief instructor."
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, "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." He also felt that this experience had meaning deeper than just job satisfaction or loyalty:

> 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]

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:

> I felt as if someone had cut my guts out... So the question was, "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.

One worried student pulled him outside to have a private conversation:

> A Kibei student in the class came up to me and said, "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?" 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, "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." 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.

The next morning Weckerling came and addressed the first class, "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."
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.
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, "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." He worked long hours, supervising teachers, disciplining students, and counseling many of the young Nisei in uncertain times:

> 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)

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:

> 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]

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.
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.
In retrospect, Aiso has remained modest and appreciates the role he played in Japanese American history and U.S. military history:

> 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]
> 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]

Aiso, John (Judge) - bio.doc
Scott Hoshida Page 4 4/2/03