Ayato "Spady" 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.
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:

> He said, "Your father had a good American name. His men gave it to him, the workers of the section gang of the railroad." 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]

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.
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).
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.
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:

> 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, "He's one of us general, he's American, he's one of us." The general resumed his step and came up to me and pinned the Purple Heart on me. [Oral History]

The Army sent him back to the mainland for surgery and by April 1945, he returned to Spokane, Wash.
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 "Pacific theater returning veterans might find it offensive to find a Japanese-American member of the VFW." [Oral History]. Koyama wanted to expose this injustice and decided to apply for membership himself; this time the national press was invited as well.
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, "No thanks."
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.
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 "heart-warming" 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.
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.
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.