Just over 50 years ago, the United States became embroiled in another world war. In a yearlong series of weekly articles, the Deseret News is looking back on the major events of World War II with insight from Utahns who participated in those events. If you have "war stories" you'd like to share, call Chuck Gates, Deseret News assignments editor, 237-2100.Language isn't fired from a gun, tank or other artillery piece.
But language was a very potent weapon of war for Japanese-Americans during and after World War II.And some 25 Utah and Idaho residents - graduates of the Military Intelligence Service Language School - played a vital role as military intelligence linguists.
They were among 6,000 Japanese-American graduates of the school, which opened Nov. 1, 1941, at the Presidio of San Francisco but was transferred to Camp Savage, Minn., about four months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
"The Imperial Japanese Army bragged about how difficult the Japanese language would be and how hard it would be for Americans to communicate. To be effective in waging war against Japan, the U.S. military had to know the language. And the only ones who knew it were mainly Japanese-Americans," said Mits Kasai, 73, Salt Lake City, who attended the school from October 1946 through April 1947.
Then and now the school was located at the Presidio of Monterey. Since 1963 it has been known as the Defense Language Institute.
Although he didn't attend the language school until after the war, Kasai has kept records on the school, including the names of other Utahns and Idahoans enrolled and their military accomplishments.
They include Shoji Watanabe, Brigham City, who was trained at Camp Savage and who was among Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) who interviewed more than 60,000 prisoners in the Philippines.
Born in Milford, Beaver County, Kasai was living in Idaho Falls when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Before the war broke out, he attended a non-military Japanese language school in Idaho Falls.
"Some of my boyhood buddies were killed in action during the war in Europe. This made me want to serve in the military even more. About a month after my brother, Seiko, returned from military occupation duties in Japan, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. But the Military Intelligence Service Language School had priority on all Japanese-Americans."
Initially, there was strong opposition to use of Japanese-Americans in the military because of questions about their loyalty to the United States.
"Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor engendered a lot of hatred and distrust of the Japanese. When the war broke out, we had to turn in such things as our radios, guns, cameras and binoculars. I couldn't travel more than 25 miles without permission of the sheriff," Kasai said.
Language school graduates translated captured documents and were interpreters for U.S. and allied forces. They were involved in war crimes trials, atomic bomb surveys, land reform programs and civil censorship activities. The latter entailed checking newspapers, magazines, books and other printed material. Additionally, they monitored radio and telephone communications and checked on meetings and demonstrations.
They also participated in many other civic affairs connected with the U.S. occupation of Japan.
Graduates put their pride and lives on the line, striving to never let their country down, even when it appeared at times that their country had deserted them. Many of their parents and friends were placed in relocation camps and were victims of other injustices connected with the war.
Historical accounts of the linguists' service show they helped hand U.S. and other military forces a number of victories. One account states that on March 31, 1944, a plane carrying two high-ranking Japanese officers crashed into the sea during a tropical storm off the southern Philippines. One officer was killed, but the other officer, who was carrying valuable war documents outlining Japanese strategy for the war, survived the crash.
The documents, termed "Operation Z," later came into the hands of U.S. officials and were translated by Nisei linguists. When the U.S. invasion of the Marianas began in June 1944, U.S. Adm. Raymond Spruance's carrier fleet and submarines dealt a devastating blow to the counterattacking Japanese carrier force and land-based aircraft. Hundreds of enemy planes were swept from the sky in what was called the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot."
Kasai, who after graduation from the language training school went on to serve most of his 27-year military career in the Counter-Intelligence Corps in Japan, Okinawa, Korea and Vietnam, said he is proud to have been able to serve his country.
"Belonging to this group and the Military Intelligence Service Language School points out the utmost loyalty that all Japanese-Americans so involved displayed to our country," he said.
In the book, "Utah Remembers World War II," compiled by Allan Kent Powell and published this year by Utah State University Press, Watanabe said most of the prisoners he interviewed were high-ranking officers.
"We had a stockade of generals and admirals. There were 35 generals and admirals, and I talked to most of them. I was only years old then, talking to generals like General Tomoyuki Yamashita and General Masaharu Homma . . . That was like talking to General Eisenhower or MacArthur."
Watanabe told the Deseret News that he also took part in the war crime investigations and trials in Manila.