Published August 17, 2007
Major and minor actions of WWII Nisei in military intelligence come alive in James McNaughton's "Nisei Linguists." Besides interviews with 44 Nisei veterans, his bibliography runs 24 pages. Our P.C. is widely footnoted. Part Two dwells on MIS pioneers from Crissy Field (Nov. '41-May '42) in the South Pacific and Southwest Pacific campaigns.
With over 150 Nisei students recruited, many prewar GIs, at Crissy Field, Col. John Weckerling hired five more instructors: San Francisco newsmen Thomas Tanimoto and Tsutomu Paul Tekawa, Domei Radio reporter Satoshi "Bud" Nagase, Meiji University graduate Tadao Yamada and UCLA graduate Toshio Tsukahira, "all U.S. born-citizens ... committed to prepare their students to serve in the war against Japan," McNaughton adds. The course of study would run six months. The school trained nearly 3,000 students during and 3,000 more after WWII.
The two Hakujin in the first class of 60 were born and raised in Japan. Capt. David Swift, 45, was a customs inspector in San Francisco and a reserve Military Intelligence officer as was Capt. John Burden, 41, who spoke with a Tokyo accent, practicing medicine in Maui. Both received orders to report at the Presidio of San Francisco to refresh their Japanese.
The morning after Dec. 7, 1941, Weckerling gathered the classmates: "Well men, you've heard the bad news. I sincerely sympathize with you boys on your peculiar predicament. I was in the same spot when World War I broke out, as I happen to be of German descent ... Now the time has come to prove your loyalty and I expect each and everyone's utmost."
As Nisei students wondered if the Army would close the school, Weckerling knew the Army needed Nisei "more than ever and was determined to protect his students and instructors alike from the wave of anger and suspicion." On Feb. 9, the War Department directed him to suspend all civilian employees of Japanese ancestry at Crissy Field but sought an exception for the Nisei instructors. A week later, the War Department relented and allowed the instructors to stay.
The War Department then issued an order that "no Japanese American soldier were to be sent overseas." The Military Intelligence Division in Washington had that lifted (Apr.'42).
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In military history, Guadalcanal stands as the first land-battle between the United States and Japan in the summer and fall of 1942. Japanese forces had landed (May '42) on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the steamy British Solomon Islands. To counter the invasion, U.S. forces in the South Pacific required and relied on Nisei intelligence personnel.
The first Nisei to ship out from Crissy Field (April '42) to the South Pacific was Masanori Minamoto, who spent many years in Japan, to the 102nd Infantry at Bora Bora, 3,000 miles east of Guadalcanal.
Sgt. Mac Nagata and five Nisei joined (May '42) the Americal Division at Noumea, New Caledonia, 600 miles equidistant from Guadalcanal and Brisbane, site of MacArthur's Southwest Pacific headquarters and ATIS in Australia. Besides interrogating downed Japanese pilots, they translated Japanese letters, magazines and books confiscated from Japanese residents.
At the outbreak of WWII, 1,124 Japanese in New Caledonia were evacuated to Loveday Enemy Alien Camp, 120 miles north of Adelaide. Japanese residents in Netherlands East Indies, New Zealand, Australia and Allied colonies in the Pacific were also interned in Australia for the duration.
After the 1st Marine Division landed (Aug. '42) in Guadacanal, with only a few Japanese-speaking officers, documents captured at the front had to be translated "long distance" by Nisei linguists in New Caledonia. The Americal Division reinforced the marines on Guadalcanal.
On Tulagi, the marines forwarded a book listing the call signs of all Imperial Japanese Navy ships and air bases. "The Nisei (at Noumea) worked 24-hour shifts for several days to translate it."
One night Burden heard marines at Guadalcanal urgently calling for a language officer. He availed himself, but no orders till he met (Oct. '42) Admiral Nimitz visiting 37th Division headquarters, who said: "They're driving me crazy for one, but I don't know where to find one." Two days later Capt. Burden was in Guadalcanal.
As the U.S. offensive gained momentum, over 200 prisoners were in the stockade. Five marine interrogators, two marine officers and Burden worked around the clock. Burden saw the urgent need for Nisei at Guadalcanal, but met stiff resistance to bring his group in the Fijis, largely due to "a general distrust (then) of all persons of Japanese extraction."
Finally Capt. Burden successfully appealed to XIV Corps commander Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch to allow Nisei into "the forward area" (Guadalcanal). When the fighting was over and Japanese troops had evacuated the island without detection, commanders and intelligence officers came "to rely on the Nisei in action as close to the front as possible. Their quality and timeliness of combat intelligence demonstrated the Nisei could be trusted," McNaughton was to point out in many campaigns to come.
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