When Don Oka was five, he and his four brothers were sent to Japan for education. Oka remained there to complete agricultural high school and returned to the United States in 1937. When the war began, he was just starting his schooling at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. The U.S. Army drafted Oka on February 12, 1942. For few months after basic training, Oka and other Nisei soldiers were told to do kitchen duties and other menial labor. Not wanting to continue such work, Oka considered volunteering for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) but had qualms until his German-American captain shared his own experiences with the Japanese Americans: "In World War I, I was treated the same way you guys are treated right now, and I know how you feel. But you should go to interview [for the MIS]." Those words helped convince Oka and his friends to transfer to the MIS Language School in Minnesota, whereOka studied for three months and was immediately assigned to work with the Alaskan scouts in the North Pacific Command.
<br><br>After Alaska, Oka served with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Central Pacific. He and the other MIS men participated in a number of assignments including translating documents and persuading enemy soldiers to surrender. At times, they would use a small plane with a loudspeaker system to broadcast surrender messages; other times, they would enter caves and air-raid shelters to coax people out of hiding. Other responsibilities led Oka to work with civilians to establish a school and hospitals in Saipan and Tinian. Oka was also heavily involved in the creation of a farmers cooperative that began with use of U.S. tractors and seeds flown in from Hawaii. In the end, the farm produced enough vegetables to feed the captured civilians.
<br><br>Typically, the MIS linguists were in pairs or in teams of five or six men. These arrangements worked well for translations and interpretations. For example, Oka remembers in his team of five, one of them would be highly fluent in Japanese while at least one other would be so in English, so that "when we work together, the final product, it comes out just perfect."
<br><br>Also in the Central Pacific, he became a part of a 30-man team that worked with the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area (JICPOA). One of the most important contributions he made at JICPOA was in the translation of a large volume that contained valuable information about Japanese heavy industries involved in war-making efforts. He also scanned diaries of Japanese soldiers for clues that would lead to names and sizes of units and other information that gave the U.S. side a good picture of the enemy's strength and plans. Ironically, though Nisei soldiers could not serve with the U.S. Navy or the Marine Corps, these two branches of the military desperately needed the help of the linguists. Even more hard-hitting was the fact that, as Oka states, 
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Our job was to work in cooperation with the Navy, yet we were not allowed to have offices inside of Pearl Harbor [where JICPOA was stationed]. Instead, we were quartered in one of Honolulu's most inconspicuous buildings located behind a sewing factory.
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<br><br>Oka's next assignment after the Iwo Jima campaign led him to Occupied Japan. During the few months in Kyushu, Oka participated in the processing and release of Japanese political prisoners as well as locating downed U.S. planes and missing American airforce soldiers.
<br><br>With the war's end, Oka returned to the United States only to learn that he had contracted tuberculosis during his service days. For the next seven years he had to remain hospitalized. Despite his illness, he graduated from art school and embarked on a successful career as a graphic artist. In one of his first design jobs, Oka recalls how his loyalty was put to the test by a prospective client.
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[The] Client questioned my loyalty and how trustworthy is this guy. [My boss] said that Don is more American than all of us in this room put together, and if you doubt that, he said he doesn't want the job....when I heard that, I mean, that's just one person but he [the boss] knew my war experience. And I doubt that he would have said it if I didn't serve and I sat out the war. For that instance alone, fairly clear that if all of us sat down...I don't think we would be this far in advance as a full citizen.
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<br><br>In his own words, Oka has lived his life without "having to take a backseat to anybody." Whether in the MIS or in post-military career, Oka has always taken a proactive approach to living his life. And in reflecting back on choices he and others around him made, Oka relates how a strong sense of duty and of doing the "right thing" permeated their decisions. For example, in contemplating how one of his brothers ended up in the Japanese Army as a <i>kamikaze</i> pilot, Oka comments,
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I think most of the young guys...were fighting for Japan and just like I was doing my job for the United States. That's what I know for sure[about] my brother; he didn't think, he was just doing his job for, you know, what he was asked to do for Japan....I know my brother. He's not the type of person to hate someone. So, when I, first chance I got to go to Japan after the war, I went to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, that's where Japan's war dead are enshrined. So I pay my respect to him and all the other war dead....
<br><br>Because you know, when you're taught to do the right thing, I think no matter where you are...And you try to learn, whether United States or Japan, even here, I tried to learn, you know, whatever is the right thing and proper thing to do most of the time...
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