When Grant Hirabayashi was 12, he went to Matsumoto, Japan, to live with relatives. During his eight-year stay in the country, he attended middle and high school. Following advice from a Japanese professor, Hirabayashi returned to the United States in March 1940 and finished high school. Three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. At Jefferson Barracks, he and 19 other Nisei enlistees were rounded up and placed under "protective custody," meaning confinement to one barrack while under constant surveillance. After 40 days of confinement, they were finally released.
<br><br>He volunteered himself out of clerical duties to enroll in the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). After graduating in July 1942, Hirabayashi became a member of Merrill's Marauders--a group of special combat soldiers under Gen. Frank D. Merrill's command, who fought enemy troops in the Burmese jungles to clear the roads and airstrip for the Allied Forces. 
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What they failed to tell us was that according to War Department estimates, they had anticipated 85 percent casualty.
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<br><br>Having contracted dysentery, Hirabayashi was discharged from the team and sent to interrogate prisoners of war. It was during one such interrogation that Hirabayashi encountered resistance and animosity from the prisoner. During the questioning, the captured soldier spitefully called Hirabayashi a "traitor." To this Hirabayashi decried:
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Traitor? Let's get this straight. You are Japanese. I am an American. You are fighting for your country and I am fighting for mine. If we were to cut our veins, the same blood will flow. You may have been fighting for your ideals, but now that you are the prisoner, you are to obey and answer my questions.
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<br><br>The prisoner still refused to answer the questions, but after being faced with some humiliating circumstances he finally gave in. Hirabayashi's efforts were rewarded with invaluable information.
<br><br>After the war, Hirabayashi worked as an interpreter in China and taught at the army language school in Monterey, California. In November 1947, he moved to Japan to work in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's SCAP Legal Section as a court interpreter and monitor for the war crimes trials.
<br><br>Hirabayashi returned to the United States in May 1951 and finished his schooling at the University of Southern California, eventually earning a master's degree in international relations. He later worked as a government employee at the U.S. Department of State, Library of Congress, and the National Security Agency. He retired in 1979 after 30 years of combined government service.
