John Aiso and the M.I.S. Japanese-American Soldiers in the Military Intelligence Service, World War II
by Tad Ichinokuchi, Daniel Aiso
Category: California

At the Presidio of San Francisco, Aiso was originally assigned as a student, but was soon promoted to assistant instructor and then head instructor. At this time, Aiso was introduced to Akira Oshida and Shigeya Kihara, who worked with Aiso as civilian Japanese instructors. Together with Oshida and Kihara and several other civilian instructors, Aiso prepared teaching materials and the school was formally opened on November 1, 1941. Following the outbreak of war on December 7, 1941, and the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast to incarceration camps, the school was transferred from San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota, and placed directly under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Army, Military Intelligence Division. The army provided personnel, logistical, and administrative support, but the doctrine, development, and implementation of the program remained with John Aiso, now the director of training. By the end of the war in 1945, Aiso had turned out over 6,000 military intelligence specialists. General Charles Willoughby stated that the MIS men shortened the war by two years and saved a million lives.