Having grown up in Colorado, Nobuo Furuiye's main exposure to Japanese culture and language came from his home and the language classes he attended at the local Buddhist temple. After completing high school, he spent two and a half years in Japan to continue studying the language. In his opinion, experience living in militaristic Japan made him more appreciative of life and people in the United States. 
<br><br>Soon after December 7, 1941, Furuiye volunteered for military service and reported to Camp Roberts for basic training. In 1943, he found himself at Camp Savage, getting ready to study Japanese once again. In his first assignment after graduating from the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), Furuiye served in the Aleutian campaign with the Canadian Grenadiers. Next, he was sent to Honolulu as the team leader of a group of Japanese linguists, who along with two other groups, would eventually form the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area (JICPOA). Under the direction of the U.S. Navy, they were kept busy translating Japanese documents sent from Pearl Harbor. In his work, Furuiye found that personal writings such as diaries revealed thoughts and emotions not unlike those that he and other American soldiers were feeling at the time.
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They're talking about how they missed their home, how they miss their family. It's just like they're human just like anybody else, although they don't come out and say so in front of their commander...you can see how they felt, just like we would. We missed our family, we missed our home. I don't think there's any difference as far as that goes.
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<br><br>During the infamous Iwo Jima campaign, Furuiye spent the first few days "just staying alive." As part of the attachment to the 5th Marine Division, he discovered one of the most important men to be captured during the war. The prisoner, a cipher specialist, was sent immediately to Honolulu to be interviewed by intelligence personnel. It was also during this harsh campaign that Furuiye was wounded by mortar shrapnel. For his actions in Iwo Jima, he received the Purple Heart in 1948.
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You just feel, what the hell, if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die....This is the kind of attitude I took....I'd seen people hurt and everything, but that's the first time I ever witnessed anybody that bad, you know. It really hits home when you see friend and foe laying side by side dead...
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<br><br>After Iwo Jima, he moved on to Saipan to help with Japanese and native civilians. Later, he served as interpreter during the surrender of Marcus Island and worked on war crimes trials in Guam and in Japan. Because of his work with the surrender documents, Furuiye received a samurai sword from the Japanese chief of staff. Told by a high U.S. official that enlisted men cannot receive such rewards, Furuiye was forced to give up the gift--all along trusting the official's words that the sword would be donated to the U.S. Naval Academy. The sword never reached Annapolis, Maryland.
<br><br>After another brief assignment in Japan, Furuiye returned to the United States. From September 1950 to November 1951, he served as an instructor of Japanese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.
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