Photo By Natela Cutter | An American Japanese family looks at the exhibits at MIS Historic Learning Center that...... read more read more
SAN FRANCISCO - After 20 years in the making, the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center opened on Veterans Day Nov. 11, at Crissy Field on the Presidio of San Francisco to commemorate and honor the legacy of Japanese American soldiers who were trained military intelligence linguists attached to combat units during World War II in the Pacific.
“It is here at this Center that the story of these veterans’ courage, sacrifice and love of country will be told, so that our children, grandchildren, and future generations will remember what happened here and will continue to honor that legacy,” said Bryan Yagi, president of the National Japanese American Historical Society.
Just one month before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a secret Army Language School was formed on Nov. 1, 1941, composed of 58 Japanese American, known as Nisei, and two Caucasian soldiers who were secretly trained as Military Intelligence Service (MIS) interpreters in Building 640, an abandoned airplane hangar on Crissy Field. Under austere conditions, with few books, using orange crates as desks and chairs, some 6,000 linguists eventually graduated from the program.
“Their specialized knowledge of the Japanese language and culture helped gain a tactical and strategic advantage over their opponents. In post-war Japan, under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, these ‘grassroots’ ambassadors helped lay the groundwork for Japan’s transition to a democracy,” Yagi said.
The school was moved to Camp Savage, Minn., in 1942, after Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps, ironically, by
the same government they supported.
“We began a long journey here to prove we are Americans….In 1943 we were allowed to enlist in the U.S. Army… and 33,000 of us volunteered in WWII. The Nisei fought all over, in eight major campaigns, received 18,000 decorations and 21 medals of honor,” said Major Gen. Arthur Ishimoto. A native of Hawaii, Ishimoto joined the military right out of high school, just after Pearl Harbor and attended the Camp Savage language school that was renamed the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS).
“We were taught to ‘not give up and hang in there,’ (by elders) and these values carried us through the war,” he said, adding that the work of MIS Soldiers included not only translation of documents and interrogating prisoners of war, but also entailed “chasing enemies out of caves, parachuting behind enemy lines, and blowing up bridges.”
Today, no graduates from the first MIS class at the Presidio of San Francisco remain. A few hundred of those who completed the MISLS program in Minnesota are mostly in their 90's and are extremely proud of the new Center which will keep history alive and their memories fresh.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Koji Ozawa, who was deployed to the Philippines with a war crimes investigation unit,
interpreted for Prisoners of War, translated documentation, and was later stationed in Japan.
“It has been 70 years since the war ended and I am lucky to be alive to see this. I was planning on coming with Tom Sakamoto,” said Ozawa, speaking of Col. Tom Sakamoto, who passed away a week prior to the event. Sakamoto was a first class graduate of the school as well as an instructor whose contributions included $100,000 and unwavering commitment to the 20 year plan.
“I am glad that they are carrying on the language program,” said MIS veteran Warren Eigima, speaking about the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, the successor of the original Army Language School, that is now located at the Presidio of Monterey, Calif., and teaches 24 foreign languages to all four branches of the service and select Department of Defense agencies.
The building of the 10,000 square-foot Center was initiated in 1993 by the National Japanese American Historical Society with support from the Military Intelligence Service Association of Northern California. Diligent work by the Golden Gate National Recreational Area/National Park Service, The Presidio Trust with Congressional support by Senators Daniel Akaka, Daniel Inouye, Dianne Feinstein, and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, with grassroots political support from the National Japanese American Citizens League and the Japanese American Veterans Association, led to the completion of this project.
The Center includes interactive exhibits about Japanese American history, development of the MIS, the attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 that interred Japanese Americans on the West Coast, as well as the history of MIS in Minnesota. Present is a classroom mock-up in Building 640, a database of MIS, 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team service members, and the MIS Honor Wall, containing names of over 13,000 Soldiers, instructors, support staff, and others who served alongside the MIS.
| Date Taken: | 11.11.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 11.18.2013 18:41 |
| Story ID: | 116964 |
| Location: | SAN FRANCISCO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 372 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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