When the U.S. Army began recruiting for combat troops from the Hawaiian islands, Toma Tasaki found himself volunteering for what would later be the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Rejected from the unit, however, he opted for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and began language training at Camp Savage in the spring of 1943. Prior to this language experience, Tasaki had attended daily Japanese classes at the local Buddhist temple.
<br><br>After graduation from the language school, Tasaki served with the Mars Task Force in the China-Burma-India Theater. Before Tasaki left for Burma, ex-Merrill's Marauders had warned him about serving there: "Whatever you do, don't volunteer for Burma. It's rough." As members of Mars Task Force, the 10 Nisei linguists were divided into pairs and sent out with different units to translate captured documents and interrogate prisoners. Though their main jobs required them to be in the back lines, Tasaki remembers being positioned "anywhere--in the middle or alongside" the combat units. Like the Marauders who had preceded the Mars Task Force in the Burma campaigns, Tasaki and others in the special unit had to climb treacherous mountain trails while carrying heavy loads of weapons and dictionaries. They received food and other supplies by airdrops and constantly found themselves digging foxholes for protection. In one particular incident, Tasaki helped save a native soldier who had been mistaken for a Japanese.
<br><br><BLOCKQUOTE><I>
On the way [to investigate sighting of Japanese troops in the hills], we came across a Kachin native soldier who had served with the British and he was in British uniform, which was different from ours, and he had a rifle with him. And he was using a hand grenade to try to get some fish out of the stream and he used the hand grenade to get the fish out....our patrol members looking down into the stream bed and seeing this Kachin soldier in uniform, must have wondered what kind of soldier he was, whether he was a Japanese soldier or not....So I went down and we had a translation sheet using Kachin words and English. I tried to communicate with that person and there was a family, wife and children around. Anyway, on closer look I could tell he's not a Japanese soldier, so I referred back to our boys up above...And they're very happy and relieved. But if I were not there, I wondered what they would have done, you know?
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<br><br>After Mars Task Force disbanded, Tasaki was sent to the MIS headquarters for Southeast Asia in India. Despite precautions taken against diseases, he suffered twice from dysentery while stationed in Calcutta.
<br><br>Because Tasaki had earned enough points to return home, he decided to go back to Hawaii and was officially discharged in December 1945.
<br><br>Tasaki's experience with the MIS remains a fond one to this day, as he explains,
<br><br><BLOCKQUOTE><I>
Getting to know about different people, meeting different people, getting to know them, I think was real educational experience, aside from combat experience....For me, it was more a duty to perform, something I can do. The U.S., white U.S., had taken care of us all the way through. We had had free education, freedom, certain amount of freedom and all of that, all the nice things in life were provided by the U.S. government. Here's a chance to repay, where we could do the most good....
<br><br>We have our bad times and, what shall I say, miseries, poverties, and so on. But it's nothing compared to the hardships one sees in other countries...When you think about how miserable it can be, we should be thankful for whatever we have here in the United States in the Hawaiian islands...
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<br><br>Tasaki believes that Nisei efforts during the war changed the climate for those Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. After the war, more and more Nisei found employment with public safety departments and other institutions, in which Japanese Americans were hard to find prior to the war.
<br><br><BLOCKQUOTE><I>
I think the war years, because of Nisei's efforts in the war, changed everything in Hawaii...especially so-called Plantation attitude or white supremacy over other racial groups....they [the Nisei] tended to break down the racial barriers that had existed before....opened doors that were closed before.
</I></BLOCKQUOTE>
<br><br>