Both of Frank Masuoka's parents were prominent members of the city of Sebastopol. While his mother taught Japanese in Sebastopol as well as in the surrounding cities, Masuoka's father gained fame among the farming circles for his apple orchards. Because of his status in the close-knit Nikkei community, the elder Masuoka was visited by FBI agents soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. 
<br><br>With two brothers in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Masuoka felt it a duty to volunteer for the Army and he did so while interned at the Amache Detention Camp. Leaving behind his parents and sister in the Colorado camp, Masuoka completed language training at the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) school at Camp Savage and headed to Saipan with the 7th Infantry Division in June 1944. Subsequently, he was assigned to the 27th Infantry Division and shipped to the Philippines and later to Okinawa.
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My mother gave me a quasi-religious talisman called a "thousand stitches." A thousand people had each sewn a stitch to a cloth and this cloth was to protect me from harm. I carried it through all those campaigns, Saipan, the Marianas, the Philippines, Okinawa...I had it with me all the time.
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<br><br>During the landing in Leyte, Masuoka had a near-death experience when a fellow soldier mistook him for the enemy.
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We went in our small landing craft and everyone was raring to go. As soon as our landing craft hit the beach and the landing flap dropped, we rushed ashore and set up our position in a protected area. In a lull, a GI came over and told me that I had almost "got" it. If he hadn't stopped him, another GI would have shot me, for the other GI had yelled, "We've got a Jap soldier in the crowd."
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<br><br>From that experience onward, the regimental commander made sure that Masuoka was accompanied by two bodyguards. It was also in Leyte that while nursing his wound from a mortar shell, Masuoka learned of his brother's death in France during the rescue operation of the "Lost Battalion."
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As to underscore the finality of it all, mail that I had sent to my brother were returned, stamped "KIA." That was quite a blow. I was wounded but I had survived. My brother had not.
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<br><br>On the island of Okinawa on August 16, 1945, Masuoka and a fellow MIS soldier volunteered to enter an enemy area to convince Japanese soldiers to surrender. They left their bodyguards behind and began walking toward the enemy, completely unarmed and carrying only their canteens and a few cigarettes. Soon enough they were surrounded by rifled soldiers from all sides. The two  were able to convince them that they were American soldiers and that because Japan had surrendered, it was their duty to have the Japanese soldiers give up their weapons. Later the entire enemy camp, numbering approximately 600, assembled themselves for surrender. Masuoka and Tatsuo Yamamoto were awarded Silver Star medals for their service in Okinawa.
<br><br>After the war, Masuoka participated in other assignments: working in the interrogation center at the NYK Building in Tokyo, serving as an interrogator for Chinese and Korean prisoners of war, and numerous duties with intelligence units in the United States and abroad. By retirement, he had served more than 45 years with the U.S. government.
