When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Ted Tsukiyama remembers rushing to change into his ROTC uniform and report for duty at the University of Hawaii.
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With pounding hearts, we moved to the south end of the campus and scanned for the enemy. To put it bluntly, we were scared! But not for long. As we thought of the sneak attack that morning, a wave of fury and anger swept over us....We were proud to be in uniform. We were serving our country in its direct hour of need. [<i>Honor by Fire</i>]
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<br><br>Later, the Japanese-American members of the University of Hawaii ROTC program (also known as the Hawaii Territorial Guard) were promptly dismissed from their duties. Encouraged by a YMCA leader, they drew up a petition addressed to the commanding general, a part of which said,
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Needless to say, we were deeply disappointed when we were told that our services in the guard were no longer needed. Hawaii is our home, the United States is our country. We know but one loyalty and that is to the Stars and Stripes. We wish to do our part as loyal Americans in every way possible and we hereby offer ourselves for whatever service you may see fit to use us.
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<br><br>In early 1942, the petition was accepted by Gen. Emmons and the Nisei volunteers formed the Varsity Victory Volunteers, a non-combat labor battalion in charge of digging ammunition pits, building roads and warehouses, and operating a stone quarry.
<br><br>These civilian laborers would later become members of the 100th Infantry Battalion. In August 1943 the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) began to scout the unit for possible candidates into the MIS language training program. About 250 members of the 100th were subsequently transferred to Camp Savage to begin a six-month course in military Japanese. Tsukiyama had no desire to attend Japanese school, having had more than 12 years of language training in his childhood. He also wanted to stay among his friends in the field artillery. He remembers trying to convince the MIS recruiters that his language background was anything but stellar.
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I really put on a great, Oscar-winning performance of playing dumb and I went happily back to my artillery outfit. And a few days later, I was...engaged in target practice, firing....And while we're in the process of firing, somebody comes, taps me on the shoulder and says, "Pack up. You're going to Camp Savage." I was just so shocked, you know, because I thought I had escaped that.
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<br><br>Years later, he learned that there was no escape from an official record showing he had years of Japanese language training in his native Hawaii.
<br><br>Tsukiyama was one of 50 MISLS graduates who received assignment with the radio intelligence unit. More training followed, as the selected team of Nisei linguists became well-versed in radio monitoring and interception techniques. Tsukiyama was attached to the 6th AAF Radio Squadron Mobile unit, which was in turn assigned to the 10th Air Force in the China-Burma-India Theater.
<br><br>The MIS Nisei recorded and translated all air-ground radio traffic between Japanese fighter planes and the tower at six Japanese airfields in Northern Burma. The men worked on three-man teams in shifts around the clock. The intercepted messages were analyzed for information about Japanese flight activity, number and types of aircraft, and other tactical data.
<br><br>Though these MIS members involved in "electronic eavesdropping" did not partake in combat duties, they did their part in supporting U.S. efforts to win the Pacific War, becoming the "ears of the U.S. Air Force." As Tsukiyama remarks,
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Ours was a routine, dull and unglamorous task, far from the field of battle--nothing like what the Merrill's Marauders and Kachin Ranger MISers suffered and endured....But like the rear echelon MIS work at Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area, Allied Translator and Interpreter Section or Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center, we each contributed our little share toward the total MIS effort...and unquestionably proved we were more than willing "to go fight against our own kind!"
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<br><br>In Tsukiyama's view, at minimum, the Japanese Americans who served in the Pacific War could make the assertion that they had an easier time "dealing" with the enemy. Partly because of the Nisei's upbringing which may have included formal Japanese schooling, Tsukiyama considers those like him to be better understanding of the Japanese people.
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We had a Japanese education and part of it was the moral and spiritual values that came with it, that we were at least in a position, much better than the average American to understand the Japanese, you know, the psyche of the enemy....I think the Occupation was made much more tolerable for [the] Japanese.
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