The Beginnings of the United States Army’s Japanese Language Training: From the Presidio of San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota 1941-1942

Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park

The United States Army, realizing the need for Japanese language specialists, in 1908, began a language program in Tokyo, with four officers, including George V. Strong. When they completed their program in 1911, a new group began that year followed by another in 1914. By 1917, eleven Army officers had graduated from the program. No officers were sent to Japan during the 1915-1918 period, but in 1919 the program was begun again. By the end of 1932 eighteen more officers graduated from the program, including Rufus S. Bratton and John Weckerling. Two other officers, Joseph Twitty and Sidney Mashbir, also received language training in Japan. During World War II, Twitty would command the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area and Mashbir became the head of the Allied translation work in the Southwest Pacific Area. Bratton would head the Far East Section of the Military Intelligence Division, Strong served as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, and Weckering served later as Chief, Intelligence Division, in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2.^[1]

As relations worsened with Japan during early 1941, the need for an increased number of Japanese language specialists to engage in translation and interrogation work became more apparent to the United States Army. Questions were being raised at this time about the possibility of using Japanese-Americans, or Nisei, with language skills, in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). The turning to Nisei was the result of the Army learning that the number of Caucasian personnel qualified in the language were dishearteningly few, and with the crisis rapidly approaching, there was little time to train additional Caucasian personnel.^[2]

In 1940 there were 127,000 persons of Japanese ancestry residing in the continental United States and 158,000 residing in Hawaii. Two thirds of them were American citizens by birth; the others were mostly parents of these citizens who had resided in America 20 to 40 years but who had been denied naturalization due to their Asian ancestry by the 1922 Supreme Court decision of Ozawa v. U.S. (260 U.S. 178).^[3]    

On the mainland approximately one in eight of all Nisei were Kibei.^[4] (term often used to describe Japanese Americans born in the United States who returned to America after receiving their education in Japan). Many Nisei in Hawaii received language training because parents often insisted they be exposed to Japanese culture and language.^[5] Some parents sent their children from Hawaii to Japan to better learn the language and attend school. One such student recalled that they did not do well because such students spoke to each other in English. But, it has been suggested the subsequent overwhelming success of the Military Intelligence Service Language School was the presence of large numbers of Kibei in the program. They were, according to one source, the most fluent linguists.^[6]

Capt. Wallace H. Moore, (of missionary parentage in Japan) Intelligence Branch, MIS, in response to a request for his thoughts regarding the use to which Nisei could be used in the MIS, more specifically, the use to which they could be put as translators and interpreters, provided, in late March 1941, his response to Col. Rufus S. Bratton, the Chief of the Far Eastern Section of the Military Intelligence Division (G-2).  He suggested how they could be selected. “Although the Japanese haven’t been given very much of an opportunity actually to express their loyalty,” he observed, “a number of them feel indebted to the United States for what our country has done for them. These Americans of Japanese ancestry would be willing, in all probability, to come enthusiastically to the defense of the United States if called upon and if they are given an opportunity.”^[7]

In mid-April informal plans began being formulated for establishing a language school under the auspices of the Fourth United States Army with students to be selected from Nisei enlisted personnel serving in the Fourth Army and trained at the Presidio of San Francisco. The Fourth Army was directed to establish a list of Japanese-speaking personnel. Early in May, MIS sent Moore’s memorandum to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Headquarters Fourth Army, for his information and such action as he desired in connection with the list of Japanese-speaking personnel. By June more than 1,000 Nisei had been inducted, many in the Fourth Army area. Discussions in June between MIS and Col. McClure, G-1, and Acting G-2 Fourth Army disclosed that there existed no method or agency for training a group of interpreters and translators for use in case of hostilities with Japan.^[8]

By June, when the probability of war with Japan was rapidly mounting and those few who realized the language difficulties involved in prosecuting a war against Japan were alarmed by the lack of military preparations in this respect. Maj. Carlisle C. Dusenbury, a former Japanese language student on duty in the Intelligence Division, proposed the utilization of Nisei and with Capt. Wallace Moore, planned the organization of a language school. Col. Moses W. Pettigrew, executive officer, Intelligence Branch, endorsed their plans and Col. Bratton approved the plan. Bratton, who had spent four years in Japan, first as a language student, then in Japan’s General Staff College, and later as the Military Attaché in Tokyo, took steps to obtain the support of the Training and Operations Division (G-3), which had general supervision over the Army’s school system.^[9]

The MIS, by mid-June, determined that Nisei could and should be used to solve the linguistic problems presented by contact with Japan. “It was,” according to the Military Intelligence Service Language School in 1946, “admittedly a gamble for the United States, for many believed then that the Nisei could not be trusted to stand the acid test of battle employment against their own race and blood.”^[10] It was also decided that a program was needed to select and train the Nisei, and that the best officer to oversee the program was Maj. John Weckerling, then engaged in counter-espionage work in the Panama Canal Zone. Weckerling had completed the Japanese language course in Japan; served as Assistant Military Attaché in Tokyo (1935 to 1938); and graduated from the Command and General Staff School in 1939. On June 19, the MIS requested the Adjutant General to relieve Weckerling from duty in Panama and assigned him to Headquarters Fourth Army, indicating that Weckerling was well fitted on the basis of his qualifications for the task of investigating, selecting, and training personnel.^[11]

Col. Charles H. Mason, Chief, Intelligence Branch, MIS, wrote the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, on June 23, requesting that he establish an intelligence school in the Fourth Army to give intensive training as interpreters to enlisted men who had a basic knowledge of Japanese. He recommended the school be in the vicinity of San Francisco and suggested that a minimum of 50 Nisei soldiers could be selected and examined for the course. He recommended that not less than two courses of at least six months’ duration be completed by March 1, 1942. Mason wrote that the Adjutant General had been requested to assign Weckerling to the Fourth Army to oversee the program. Mason added that the Marine Corps had already established a school in the Hawaiian Islands and the Navy had taken steps to establish such a school in San Diego. Bratton on June 23 sent the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, an almost identical memo recommending the establishment of the language program.^[12]

During the late summer of 1941, the War Department realizing that a special training school would be required to make the Nisei reasonably useful to the armed forces as Japanese linguists, directed the Fourth Army to implement the plan for a Japanese language course to train individuals to be Japanese-language interpreters and translators. The course was to last six months. Because most of the Nisei were on the West Coast, the Presidio of San Francisco was selected as the logical location for the school. Weckerling was given the assignment of organizing and directing the school as well as procuring both faculty and student personnel. Capt. Kai E. Rasmussen, who had spent four years in Japan learning the language and observing the Japanese Army (1936-1940), would direct the training course.^[13]

While Weckerling was still in Panama, Rasmussen was busy evaluating potential students for language training. It was hoped at first that there would be enough Japanese-speaking Nisei so that only a few weeks’ review in general Japanese vocabulary and a little instruction in military Japanese terminology and combat intelligence would be sufficient to fit them for field duty. These hopes did not materialize. He met with nearly all 3,700 Nisei on active duty and tested their linguistic abilities. He found that only three percent were accomplished linguists, only about another four percent were proficient and a further three per cent could be useful only after a prolonged period of training. The Americanization of the Nisei on the Pacific Coast had advanced more rapidly than the United States public was aware. Weckerling arrived back in the United States in September, and he and Rasmussen visited the Army posts under the Fourth Army jurisdiction to conduct examinations and select qualified personnel. During this time approximately 1,200 men were examined from which fifty-eight qualified Nisei were chosen. Weckerling felt that not more than 15 could be considered true linguists-proficient in both languages. Additionally, none had any training in Japanese military vocabulary and special forms of Japanese writing.^[14]

The Fourth Army Intelligence School, as the language school was initially termed, opened on November 1, with 58 Nisei. Two Caucasian officers with previous language training joined the first class after January 1 when it was determined after the declaration of war that the existing reserve of trained, commissioned personnel was insufficient. The school was located in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field. Half of the hangar space was for classrooms and the other half for barracks. The instructors quickly began preparing textbooks and class room exercises. There were few textbooks available, just the ones Rasmussen and Weckerling had brought back from Japan, and they had to be completely revised. Those which contained Japanese military terms had to be reproduced on mimeograph at first because there was not enough money to acquire more copies. Additionally, because of lack of funds, there were no chairs, so the school used orange crates. There were no tables so the post carpenter shop was wangled into making primitive fixtures. The school borrowed typewriters, papers, and other supplies. The school began with four Nisei instructors. The number of instructors would soon grow to eight Nisei. Among the instructors Rasmussen recruited was 31-year old private, John Fjuio Aiso, then working as a mechanic. Aiso, an attorney, had graduated cum laude from Brown University and received his law degree from Harvard, and subsequently undertaken additional studies in legal Japanese at Chuo University while working as an attorney for British businesses in Japan. In short order he became the school’s director of academic training. Because his senior position necessitated a commission and one could not initially be obtained, Aiso was discharged and re-hired as a civilian employee.^[15]

Upon the return of Lt. Col. Joseph K. Dickey from the Japanese Language School at Tokyo, Rasmussen, was relieved from his assignment and transferred to another duty. Following the Japanese attack Weckerling was transferred to the Headquarters, Western Defense Command, becoming Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, and Dickey was appointed Commandant.^[16]

Five weeks after the instruction began, Pearl Harbor was attacked and not too long afterwards the War Department issued orders that no Nisei would be allowed to serve overseas. Col. Pettigrew and others in the War Department fought this decision and the order was rescinded, thereby allowing the new school to continue operations.^[17] At this point, there were approximately 5,000 Nisei serving in the United States armed forces.^[18] Many in the military doubted the loyalty of the Nisei. Many Nisei were discharged and some of draft age were reclassified as 4-C, “enemy aliens” not desired for the armed service.^[19]

After the war began the first course’s pace increased. Fifteen students could not keep up with the intensified training and were relieved of their studies. During early 1942, pressure for Japanese linguists increased. At the end of April, 43 Nisei and 2 Caucasians graduated. One Nisei who did not graduate with the first group, Kei Kiyoshi Sakamoto, was pulled out of the school early and sent to the South Pacific. Considered one of the best linguists in the class, Masanori Minamoto, was the first MIS Nisei to be shipped overseas in April 1942. He was sent to Tonga, where he would be joined in June by Tateshi Miyasaki. They would later distinguish themselves on Guadalcanal. Two officers and 26 enlisted men were assigned in small teams to combat zones ranging from Alaska to Australia. Five, Yoshio Hotta (team leader), Masami Mayeda, William Nishikawa, Sam Sugimoto, and Hideo Suyehiro, went to the Aleutians. Capt. John Alfred Burden, a doctor from Hawaii who had been raised in Japan and was one of the school’s two Caucasian graduates, led two Nisei to Fiji. Six, including Sgt. Mac Nagata, went to New Caledonia, where they would join up with the Americal Division. The other Caucasian graduate, Maj. E. David Swift, son of missionary parents in Japan, led eight men, William Hirashima, Gary Kadani, Steve Yamamoto, Kazuo Kawaguchim Paul Kuyama, Fred Nishitsuji, Hiromi Oyama, and George Taketa, to Australia. Ten enlisted men, all Kibei Nisei, were selected because of special instructional ability to remain behind and serve as enlisted instructors.^[20]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 (February 19, 1942) forced Japanese Americans to relocate to War Relocation Authority camps in the western United States. Rasmussen, who had been reassigned to the school after Dickey had been assigned to the China-Burma-India Theater, believed that it would be safer for the students to be moved from the West Coast. Additionally, he believed that limited facilities available at the Presidio would not allow for the school’s expansion. Sharing these views the War Department in March 1942 ordered him to search for a new school site. He decided that Minnesota, which had an excellent record of racial amity, would be the best placed. He obtained for Army use 132 acres near Fort Snelling, called Camp Savage after the tiny nearby town. Once the November 1941 class completed its training, the school moved to Camp Savage in May. On April 22, 1942, an expansion of the training program was decided upon in order to provide, as far as possible, trained interpreting and translating teams to all units expected to come into contact with the Japanese forces. On May 21, the Secretary of War approved the establishment of the Military Intelligence Service Japanese Intelligence School, under control of the War Department’s Chief of the Military Intelligence Service, and it became operational on May 25. Shortly thereafter, upon direction of the War Department, the name of the school was changed to Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). At Camp Savage the school was enlarged. The first Camp Savage class began on May 28 with 200 enlisted men (193 were Nisei and seven were Caucasians) plus several officres carried over from the Fourth Army Intelligence School for further training. Instruction was carried out by a staff of seven or eight civilian instructors, all of whom were brought from San Francisco, and 10 enlisted instructors selected from the previous graduating class. More emphasis was placed on practical problems which had arisen during the first six months of the war. Subjects taught were expanded to include Japanese history, Japanese geography, military language, as well as general Japanese conversation, translation, and reading of sosho (often termed grass writing). To facilitate the understanding of military terms, Army, Navy, and Air Force officers often came to MISLS to give detailed explanations.^[21]

Although the term of the course of instruction was six months, a group of 21 enlisted men and two officers were given special training and assigned to units in the Pacific early in September 1942. One of the officers was John Anderton, the only prewar Caucasian graduate of the Golden Gate Institute, the premier Japanese-language school of San Francisco.^[22] The rest of the May 28 Camp Savage class, 12 officers and 117 enlisted men, graduated on November 29. Of the graduates one was Chinese-American, twenty-three were Caucasians, and the rest Nisei. Twenty-nine enlisted men were held over for further study and the remainder of the original group were relieved from school either because of inability to acquire the requisite knowledge or because of improper attitude. Two of the graduates were retained to serve as instructors and the remainder of the graduates were assigned to the field in various linguistic capacities. The second class started on December 15, 1942, and it was scheduled to graduate 400 students around June 15, 1943. In February 1943, Maj. Gen. Strong, the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 wrote the Chief of Staff, that a third class, with 550 men would begin on or around June 25, 1943. Strong informed him that they were recruiting Japanese-Americans and requested commissions for 50 Caucasians. The Secretary of War approved.^[23]

The Camp Savage language program would expand. The class that begun on January 1944, had eleven hundred students and one hundred instructors. In August 1944, the MISLS, as class sizes exceeded facilities at Camp Savage, moved to Fort Snelling and continued its operations until 1946. On June 8, 1946, the last class gradated and the school moved to Monterey, California where it was renamed the Army Language School. In July 1963, it was renamed the Defense Language Institute.

During World War II the MISLS linguists would make significant contributions to the winning of the war in the Pacific.^[24]

It would take decades for the work of the linguists to be fully appreciated. Collectively they were awarded on April 3, 2000, the Presidential Unit Citation.

For more information on this topic please see:

Densho Encyclopedia: Military Intelligence Service Language School

Minnesota Historical Society: Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS)

and additional blog posts by the author:

From Rabaul to Stack 190: The Travels of a Famous Japanese Army Publication

The Sinking of the Japanese Submarine I-1 off of the Guadalcanal and the Recovery of its Secret Documents

Seventy Years Ago: The Makin Island Raid, August 1942

Footnotes:

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[1] Ronald Lewin, The American Magic: codes, ciphers, and the defeat of Japan (New York: Penguin Books, 1984) p. 134; Irwin Leonard Slesnick and Carole Evelyn Slesnick, Kanji & Codes: Learning Japanese for World War II (Self-published, 2006), p. 30; https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2012/10/05/seventy-years-ago-colonel-sidney-f-mashbir-and-the-allied-translator-and-interpreter-section-atis-september-october-1942/

[2] Military Intelligence Service Language School, The MISLS Album, 1946, p. 8, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319.

[3]  Harrington, Yankee Samurai: The Secret Role of Nisei in America’s Pacific Victory (Detroit, Michigan:  Pettigrew Enterprises, 1979), p. 13; Sidney Forrester Mashbir, I Was an American Spy (New York: Vantage Press, 1963), p. 243; Tad Ichinokuchi, assisted by Daniel Aiso, ed., John Aiso and the M.I.S.: Japanese-American soldiers in the Military Intelligence Service, World War II (Los Angeles: Military Intelligence Service Club of Southern California, 1988) p. 186; Clifford Uyeda and Barry Saiki, eds., The Pacific War and Peace: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Military Intelligence Service 1941 to 1952 (San Francisco: Military Intelligence Service Association of Northern California and the National Japanese American Historical Society, 1991), p. 13; Hilary Conroy and T. Scott Miyakawa, eds., East Across the Pacific: Historical & Sociological Studies of Japanese Immigration & Assimilation (Santa Barbara, California and Oxford, England: American Bibliographical Center-Clio Press, 1972), p. 73.

[4] Uyeda and Saiki, eds., The Pacific War and Peace, p. 25.

[5] Hawaii Nikkei History Editorial Board, Japanese Eyes American Heart: Personal Reflections of Hawaii’s World War II Nisei Soldiers ( Honolulu: Tendai Education Foundation, 1998), pp. 95, 177, 279, 306, 328, 329, 335-336.

[6] Hawaii Nikkei History Editorial Board, Japanese Eyes American Heart: Personal Reflections of Hawaii’s World War II Nisei Soldiers ( Honolulu: Tendai Education Foundation, 1998), pp. 95, 177, 279, 306, 328, 329, 335-336.

[7] Memorandum, Capt. Wallace H. Moore to Col. Bratton, Subject: The Japanese Selectee and Military Intelligence, March 27, 1941, Formerly Security-Classified Intelligence Reference Publications (“Regional File”) Received From U.S. Military Attaches, Military and Civilian Agencies of the United States, Foreign Governments, and Other Sources, 1922-1944, Entry 77 (NAID 1560885 ), File 6740, Military Intelligence Division, RG 165.

[8] Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, p. 1, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Lt. Col. Ralph C. Smith, Executive Officer, G-2 to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Headquarters Fourth Army, Presidio of San Francisco, Subject: The Japanese Selectee and Military Intelligence, May 5, 1941, Formerly Security-Classified Intelligence Reference Publications (“Regional File”) Received From U.S. Military Attaches, Military and Civilian Agencies of the United States, Foreign Governments, and Other Sources, 1922-1944 , Entry 77 (NAID 1560885), File 6740, Military Intelligence Division, RG 165; Memorandum, Col. C. H. Mason, Acting Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 to The Adjutant General, War Department, Subject: Assignment of Major John Weckerling, June 19, 1941, ibid.

[9] Ichinokuchi, ed., John Aiso and the M.I.S., pp. 187-188; Edwin T. Layton, with Roger Pineau and John Costello, “And I Was There”: Breaking the Secrets – Pearl Harbor and Midway (New York: William Morrow & Co, 1985) p. 292; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, p. 8; Lyn Crost, Honor by Fire: Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific (Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1994) p. 22.

[10] Military Intelligence Service Language School, The MISLS Album, 1946, p. 8, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319.

[11] Memorandum, Col. C. H. Mason, Acting Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 to The Adjutant General, War Department, Subject: Assignment of Major John Weckerling, June 19, 1941, Formerly Security-Classified Intelligence Reference Publications (“Regional File”) Received From U.S. Military Attaches, Military and Civilian Agencies of the United States, Foreign Governments, and Other Sources, 1922-1944, Entry 77 (NAID 1560885), File 6740, Military Intelligence Division, RG 165.

[12] Memorandum, Col. C. H. Mason, Chief, Intelligence Branch to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Subject: Intelligence School, Fourth Army, June 23, 1941, Formerly Security-Classified Intelligence Reference Publications (“Regional File”) Received From U.S. Military Attaches, Military and Civilian Agencies of the United States, Foreign Governments, and Other Sources, 1922-1944, Entry 77 (NAID 1560885), File 6740, Military Intelligence Division, RG 165; Memorandum, Lt. Col. R. S. Bratton, Chief, Far Eastern Section, G-2, to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Subject: Intelligence School Fourth Army, June 23, 1941, ibid.

[13] Military Intelligence Service Language School, The MISLS Album, 1946, pp. 8, 30, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Ichinokuchi, ed., John Aiso and the M.I.S., pp. 46, 188; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, p. 8; Crost, Honor by Fire, p. 22.

[14] Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, p. 1, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Military Intelligence Service Language School, The MISLS Album, 1946, pp. 8, 9, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, pp. 8, 9, 10; Crost, Honor by Fire, p. 23.

[15] Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, p. 2, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Military Intelligence Service Language School, The MISLS Album, 1946, pp. 9, 30-31, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Ichinokuchi, ed., John Aiso and the M.I.S., pp. 46, 188; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, pp. 5, 8, 9, 11, 17; Crost, Honor by Fire, pp. 23-24. The first instructors were John F. Aiso, Tetsuo Imagawa, Shigeya Kihara, and Akira Oshida. They would be joined by Noboru Tanimoto, Paul Tekawa, Toshio Tsukahira, and Tad Yamada. Uyeda and Saiki, eds., The Pacific War and Peace, p. 16. Oshida and Kihara, donated their personal libraries to the language program. Harrington, Yankee Samurai, p. 9.

[16] Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, p. 2, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319.

[17] Crost, Honor by Fire, p. 24.

[18] Clifford Uyeda and Barry Saiki, eds., The Pacific War and Peace: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Military Intelligence Service 1941 to 1952 (San Francisco: Military Intelligence Service Association of Northern California and the National Japanese American Historical Society, 1991), p. 13.

[19] Uyeda and Saiki, eds., The Pacific War and Peace, p. 13.

[20] Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, p. 2, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Military Intelligence Service Language School, The MISLS Album, 1946, p. 9, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Uyeda and Saiki, eds., The Pacific War and Peace, pp. 17, 28; Ichinokuchi, ed., John Aiso and the M.I.S., p. 16; Crost, Honor by Fire, p. 24; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, pp. 5, 16, 17, 20; Stanley L. Falk and Warren M. Tsuneishi, eds., MIS in the War Against Japan: Personal Experiences Related at the 1993 MIS Capital Reunion “The Nisei Veteran: Am American Patriot” (Japanese American Veterans Association of Washington, D.C., 1995), p. 4.

[21] Memorandum, Maj. Gen. George V. Strong, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 to Chief of Staff, February 20, 1943, File OPD 350.03 Case No. 17, Security-Classified General Correspondence, 1942-1945, General Records-Correspondence, Office of the Director of Plans and Operations, Entry 418 (NAID 591836), Box 993, RG 165. Concurrence of Secretary of War noted on the document; Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, pp. 3, 4, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Military Intelligence Service Language School, The MISLS Album, 1946, pp. 10, 31, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Uyeda and Saiki, eds., The Pacific War and Peace, p. 18; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, p. 20; Ichinokuchi, ed., John Aiso and the M.I.S., pp. 16, 17, 43, 47, 189; Crost, Honor by Fire, p. 25; Falk and Tsuneishi, MIS in the war Against Japan, p. 5; General Headquarters, Far East Command, Military Intelligence Section, General Staff, Operations of The Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, GHA, SWPA, Volume V, Intelligence Series, 1948, p. 32.  One of the students, Chris Ishii, a former Disney Studio artist, designed a logo in honor of Minnesota’s state animal: a snarling gopher ready to fight. Crost, Honor by Fire, p. 25.

[22] Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, p. 4, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Entry UD 1055 (NAID 16624322) Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, pp. 27, 28.

[23] Memorandum, Col. T. E. Rockerick, Executive Officer, G-2 to Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations Division, October 20, 1942, File OPD 350.03 Case No. 17, Security-Classified General Correspondence, 1942-1945, General Records-Correspondence, Office of the Director of Plans and Operations, Entry 418, Box 993 (NAID 591836), RG 165; Memorandum, Maj. Gen. George V. Strong, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 to Chief of Staff, February 20, 1943, ibid.; Col. Kai E. Rasmussen, “History and Description of the Military Intelligence Service Language School,” ca. April 1944, pp. 4-5, Historical Studies and Related Records of G-2 Components 1918-1959, Box 24, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), RG 319; Falk and Tsuneishi, MIS in the war Against Japan, p. 5; Harrington, Yankee Samurai, pp. 27, 28, 32.

[24] http://www.javadc.org/background_of_the_presidential_u.htm.