Rikkyo University
From the SelectedWorks of Kayoko Takeda 武田珂代子

January 1, 2007

Nisei Linguists during World War II
Kayoko Takeda, Monterey Institute of International Studies

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/kayoko_takeda/6/

January 2007
October 2006
Volume XXXVIVolume XXXV
Number 1
Number 10
A Publicationof theAmericanA Publication
Translatorsof theAssociation
AmericanTranslators
Association

The

CHRONICLE

In this issue:
2006 Conference Coverage
Nisei Linguists During WWII
Questions: An Editor’s Best FriendInterpreter Certification Programs in the U.S.

Our Authors

January 2007

Nataly Kelly is the director of productdevelopment with NetworkOmni
Multilingual Communications. She is also a
certified court interpreter (State ofMissouri) for English and Spanish. A
former Fulbright scholar in sociolinguistics,
her current research interests are interpreter certification, quality improvement
programs, and telephone interpreting. She currently serves on the
National Council on Interpreting in Health Care’s Outreach Committee.
Contact: nkelly@networkomni.com.

Jacki Noh has been a freelance Koreantranslator/interpreter/voice-over talent forover 20 years. She is a member of theInternational Association of Conference
Interpreters and a former member of the
Judicial Council of California Court
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conferences for three Olympic games (Atlanta, Sydney, and Salt Lake
City). She is currently serving on ATA’s Board of Directors. Contact:
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Tuomas Kostiainen is an ATA-certified(English→Finnish) translator specializingin technical and medical translations. In
addition to freelance translation work, healso provides TRADOS training and consultation, and has given several presentations
and workshops on the subject. He is thecurrent president of the Northern
California Translators Association. Contact: tuomas@jps.net.

Kayoko Takeda is a freelance English↔Japanese interpreter andtranslator. She teaches interpretation and translation in the Graduate
School of Translation and Interpretation at the Monterey Institute ofInternational Studies (MIIS). She holds an M.A. in translation and interpretation from MIIS, and is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program intranslation and intercultural studies at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in
Spain. She is working on her dissertation on the sociopolitical aspects ofinterpreting at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. Contact:kayokot@msn.com.

Rina Ne’eman is a Hebrew translator
and interpreter with 25 years of experience. She is the managing director of Rina
Ne’eman Hebrew Language Services, Inc.
She has translated and interpreted forprime ministers, major television networks,
Fortune 500 companies, and premier law
firms. She is a member of ATA’s Public
Relations Committee. Contact: rina@hebrewtrans.com.

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The ATA Chronicle ■ January 2007

Nisei Linguists During WWII
and the Occupation of Japan
By Kayoko Takeda

During World War II and the occupa-tion of Japan, Nisei (second-generation JapaneseAmericans) played crucial roles as translators,
interpreters, and interrogators, and served in otherimportant language-related functions. Since they
worked in military intelligence, their contributions were not discussed in much detail until theearly 1970s, when a number of intelligence documents were declassified. This article presents an
overview of the recruitment and activities of theseNisei linguists.

The U.S. Army’s Japanese Language School:
Before and After Pearl Harbor
Prior to Pearl Harbor, a division of the U.S.
Army on the West Coast started a classified military intelligence training program for personnel
with Japanese language skills in preparation foran anticipated war with Japan. This classified program, based in the Presidio of San Francisco,
began operation on November 1, 1941, with fourJapanese American teachers and 60 students (58Given the proven value ofJapanese linguists in various fields
of operation, the U.S. government
started recruiting hundreds ofNisei from the internment camps
to train at MISLS.
Nisei and 2 Caucasians). After six months ofintensive training, most of the 45 graduates weresent to various military fields of operation to workin intelligence.
Soon after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941, all Japanese Americans werereclassified as 4-C (enemy aliens who were ineligible for military service). In February 1942, U.S.
President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive
Order 9066, which resulted in the forced relocation

The ATA Chronicle ■ January 2007

of nearly 120,000 Japanese andJapanese Americans on the West Coast
to internment camps. As a result, theU.S. Army’s Japanese military intelligence training program moved toMinnesota in late May of 1942.
By that time, the valuable contributions being made by the first graduatesof the program had been reported backfrom the war front. The Army was also
becoming acutely aware of the needfor more Nisei linguists for military
intelligence. The program was reorganized under the direct supervision of
the War Department, and reopened onJune 1, 1942 as the Military Intelligence Service Language School(MISLS). Given the proven value ofJapanese linguists in various fields ofoperation, the U.S. government started
recruiting hundreds of Nisei from theinternment camps to train at MISLS.
Finding qualified Nisei, however, wasa challenging task. According to Bill
Hosokawa: “[o]f the first 3,700 men
interviewed, only 3% proved to speak
Japanese fluently. The next 4% could
be considered fairly proficient in thelanguage. Another 3% knew justenough so that they could be throwninto intensive training; only 1 Nisei in
10 understood a useful amount of hisancestral tongue. And even the best ofthem had to be taught military vocabulary and usage.”1

Translation and Interrogation
More than 6,000 Nisei received six
months of rigorous training at MISLS,
after which they were sent mainly to the
Pacific military operational theater.
They served in the Allied Translator andInterpreter Service (ATIS) and in otherunits as translators, interpreters, interrogators, code breakers, and “caveflushers.” Some of these individuals
were “loaned” to the U.S. Navy, since it
did not accept Nisei enlistments. (TheNavy had its own Japanese language

The ATA Chronicle ■ January 2007

schools just for Caucasian officers, butthey did not produce many competent
linguists.)

men and to their families which it
can never fully repay.”3

Prior to Pearl Harbor, a division of the U.S. Army on
the West Coast started a classified military intelligence
training program for personnel with Japanese language
skills in preparation for an anticipated war with Japan.
Nisei linguists translated captured
enemy
documents,
interrogatedJapanese prisoners of war, persuaded
Japanese soldiers and civilians to surrender, and participated in propaganda
activities. One of the most vital tasks
they engaged in for the U.S. military
was the translation of Japan’s “Z
Plan,” which called for a Japanesecounterattack in the Pacific. The
knowledge obtained through the translation of these intercepted documents
led to a significant victory for U.S.
forces. This is considered by historians to be “one of the greatest single
intelligence feats of the war in theSouthwest Pacific Area.”2
Nisei linguists earned much recognition for their valuable contributions
to the war effort. Colonel Mashibir,
the ATIS commander, wrote in his
autobiography:“Had it not been for the loyalty,
fidelity, patriotism, and ability ofthese American Nisei, that part of
the war in the Pacific, which wasdependent upon intelligencegleaned from captured documents
and prisoners of war, would havebeen a far more hazardous, longdrawn-out affair. The United Statesof America owes a debt to these

According to a 1945 report, the Nisei
linguists had translated 20.5 million
pages by the end of the war.

War Crimes Trials and Occupation
Nisei linguists were also indispensable during the occupation of Japan.
The enrollment at MISLS actually
peaked after the war in response to theneed to address the language needs ofvarious operations of the occupation.
The focus of instruction shifted frommilitary to civilian language andJapanese culture.
More than 5,000 Nisei linguists
worked in occupied Japan, functioning
as a “bridge” between the occupation
forces and Japanese authorities andcivilians. Their duties covered a varietyof areas, including intelligence, disarmament, civil affairs, education, andfinance. They even participated in thedrafting of the Japanese Constitution
and the formation of the National
Police Reserve (which later became
the Japanese Self-Defense Force).
Nisei linguists also provided translation services for Japanese war
crimes trials. Some worked as interpreters at Class B/C war crimes trials,
such as those in Manila andYokohama. (There were three categories of war crimes: “Class A” ➡
15

Nisei Linguists During WWII and the Occupation of Japan Continued

for crimes against peace, “Class B”
for war crimes, and “Class C” forcrimes against humanity.) At theInternational Military Tribunal for the
Far East (IMTFE), a Class A trial,
four Nisei linguists worked as monitors to check the performance of theinterpreters (who were Japanesediplomats and other Japaneseinternment camp to teach at MISLS,
and later worked in military intelligence during the war. He broke codedconversations (spoken in the dialectof the region where he grew up)
between Japanese government officials. For this and many other intelligence activities he received theLegion of Merit, the highest medal

According to a 1945 report, the Nisei linguists had
translated 20.5 million pages by the end of the war.
nationals). These Nisei monitors also
simultaneously read the translationsof the closing statements, the judgment (verdict), and other preparedstatements as they were delivered by
the prosecutors, defense counsel, andthe president of the tribunal.

Overcoming Prejudice
Along with many other JapaneseAmericans, Nisei linguists lived
through the prejudice and discrimination directed toward them in the 1930s
and 1940s. In the midst of the war
hysteria and the fierce hatred against
Japanese Americans, they were sent tointernment camps as “enemy aliens.”
Kibei (Nisei who received an education in Japan and returned to the U.S.)
suffered even greater prejudice thanother Japanese Americans, as they
were suspected of being disloyal and“pro-Japanese.” Ironically, Kibei were
the best source of military linguists
because of their prior education andexperience in Japan.
One of the most documented figures of all Nisei linguists, David
Akira Itami, was Kibei. Itami served
as the leader of the monitor team at
the IMTFE. He volunteered from an

16awarded to noncombatants. After the
IMTFE, Itami stayed on at ATIS as atranslator until 1950, when, at age 39,
he shot and killed himself. His family
and friends point to the prejudice
Itami experienced as an Asian in
American society and as Kibei in the
Nisei community, and cite the emotional strains he suffered during the

IMTFE as one of the reasons for his
suicide.
Even within the U.S. Army, Nisei
linguists had to fight prejudice andsuspicions of disloyalty while they
served in the Pacific. Although anumber of testimonials by Nisei linguists show their pride in having
proved their loyalty to the U.S., theyalso discuss their complex feelings
about being sent to internment camps
by the same government that later took
advantage of their language skills in
the war against the country of theirparents. During my research, one ofthose I interviewed talked about the
resentment he felt when he was sent to
the Pacific from MISLS with a dog tag
bearing the address of the internment
camp where his parents were detained.
While trying to overcome prejudice
within the military they served, theNisei linguists also struggled withissues of cultural identity as they
worked to win a war against people oftheir own heritage. James McNaughton
provides the following insight into how

Further Reading
Discover Nikkei. Winning the Peace: MilitaryIntelligence Service Veterans and the Occupation ofJapan. www.discovernikkei.org.
Military Intelligence Service Resource Center.
www.njahs.org/misnorcal/resources/
resources_videos.htm.
Otake, Tomoko. “Between Two Worlds: Tried to the Limit
and Beyond.” The Japan Times (August 14, 2005).

The ATA Chronicle ■ January 2007

Today’s MISLS

Nisei interpreters assisting with an interrogation during World War II.
Images courtesy of the Hirasaki National Resource Center, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California.

the Nisei linguists may have viewed
their opponents, the Japanese:“At a deeper level of analysis, forthose who joined the MilitaryIntelligence Service to become linguists, the way they served wasguage was a major challenge
involving six months of hard work,
the knowledge and appreciation ofJapanese culture and society they
had absorbed from their parents
and upbringing gave them a uniqueperspective on the enemy they

One of the most vital tasks they engaged in was thetranslation of Japan’s “Z Plan” for the U.S. Navy.
more specific to their heritage, andthus psychologically more complex. Whether translating captured
diaries or radio messages, or interrogating prisoners of war, they had
to confront issues of identity andheritage in ways that most other
American soldiers could not evenimagine. Although for most ofthem, learning the Japanese lan-

The ATA Chronicle ■ January 2007

faced. They had a capacity, all too
rare at that time, for seeing theiropponents as human beings, rather
than animals.”4
This complex psychological aspect of
military linguists fighting an enemy
closely linked to their own heritage
seems relevant in the context oftoday’s war on terrorism as well.

In 1946, MISLS moved to the
Presidio of Monterey, California, andwas renamed the Army Language
School. In the midst of the Cold War,the school mainly trained military linguists in Russian, Chinese, Korean,and German languages. In 1963, theschool and the language programs in
the U.S. Air Force and Navy wereconsolidated into the Defense Foreign
Language Program under the supervision of the Defense Language
Institute (DLI). Currently, the DLI
Foreign Language Center in Monterey
offers instruction in a number of languages to military personnel andmembers of other federal agencies.
Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Persian
Farsi are among the largest programs
at the moment.

Notes
1. Hosokawa, Bill. Nisei: The Quiet
Americans (Boulder, Colorado:
University of Colorado Press,
1969/2002), 397.
2. Bradsher, Greg. 2005. “The ‘Z Plan’
Story.” Prologue 37-3 (The U.S.
National Archives & Records Administration, 2005). www.archives.gov/
publications/prologue/2005/fall/z-plan-1.html.
3. Hosokawa, Bill. Nisei: The Quiet
Americans (Boulder, Colorado:
University of Colorado Press,
1969/2002), 399.
4. McNaughton, James, C. Nisei
Linguists and New Perspectives on
the Pacific War: Intelligence, Race,and Continuity (1994). www.army.
mil/CMH-PG/topics/apam/
Nisei.htm.

17