Tadashi Mori was fully occupied with farmwork on his father's land as well as on rented property when the draft notice arrived ordering him to report to Camp Roberts. Soon after basic training, he was recruited for the first class at the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) school in Camp Savage. After graduation, he left for his assignment with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) in Australia.
<br><br>Mori took a break from ATIS to enter the Officer Candidate School (OCS) in the nearby city of Wacol. After graduating in January 1945, he was sent back to ATIS to continue interrogation work. Later, he headed for Hollandia and then Manila as part of the advanced echelon of ATIS. Soon after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mori was appointed to become the personal interpreter for Gen. George C. Kenney, a four-star general in command of the Far Eastern Air Force. In one of the first interrogations during the Occupation, Mori was privy to information that came from a Japanese general who had been in command of the Japanese defense. Through interrogation, it was revealed that the Japanese military knew about U.S. plans to invade southern Japan and that the Japanese had prepared some 7,000 airplanes in its defense, 2,000 of which were "suicide" planes carrying loads of bombs. According to the general, the plan was to send waves of 300 to 400 planes per hour until they had depleted all the airplanes. The general made clear that though the U.S. side had claimed them to be "suicide" aircraft, the Japanese military considered those flying the airplanes as soldiers merely "following orders."
<br><br>After separating from military service at the end of 1945, Mori reunited with his brother at the family farm and later engaged in the poultry business in addition to harvesting produce.
