Richard Sakakida Richard Motoso Sakakida ( November 19 , 1920 – January 23 , 1996 ) was a United States Army intelligence agent stationed in the Philippines at the outbreak of World War II . He was captured and tortured for months after the fall of the country to Imperial Japan , but managed to convince the Japanese that he was a civilian and was released . Employed by the Japanese Fourteenth Army ( though still under suspicion ) , he gathered and passed along valuable information to the Philippine resistance . He also planned and participated in the mass escape of about 500 Filipino prisoners . Early life . Sakakida was born and raised in Hawaii . He was a Nisei , the youngest of four children of Japanese immigrant parents . He was recruited into the U . S . Army in March 1941 , while America was still a neutral in World War II . Fluent in Japanese , he was sworn in as a sergeant and was one of the first two Japanese Americans to be assigned to the Corps of Intelligence Police ( the other being fellow Nisei Arthur Komori ) , which became the Counterintelligence Corps shortly after America ' s entry in the war . After intensive training , on April 7 , 1941 , he and Komori set sail for the Philippines , then an American possession , aboard the . Upon their arrival in Manila , they were assigned to spy on the Japanese community in the city , posing as merchant sailors who had jumped ship . World War II . After the outbreak of hostilities with Japan , Sakakida was rounded up by the Philippine Constabulary and eventually ended up in Bilibid Prison , still maintaining his cover as a civilian . Fortunately , he was recognized and released . He joined the American retreat , first to Bataan , then to Corregidor . His duties involved translating documents and interrogating Japanese prisoners of war . The situation on Corregidor being hopeless , Sakakida and Komori were eventually ordered to fly out on one of the last evacuation aircraft . Sakakida persuaded his superiors to let attorney Clarence Yamagata take his seat ; Sakakida was unmarried , while Yamagata had a wife and children living in Japan and his pro - American activities had been more public . The airplane left on April 13 , 1942 , and managed to avoid Japanese interception . Sakakida accompanied General Jonathan Wainwright as his interpreter during the surrender negotiations . After the surrender of Corregidor in early May , " Sakakida became the only Japanese - American to be captured by the Japanese forces in the Philippines . " By Japanese law , he was considered to be a Japanese citizen because of his ancestry , and was charged with treason . The " Kempeitai " ( military police ) interrogated and tortured him for two months , but were unable to shake his story that he was a civilian who had worked for the U . S . Army under duress . Fortunately , Sakakida ' s mother had taken the precaution of voiding his Japanese citizenship at the Japanese consulate in Hawaii in August 1941 , and the charge of treason was dropped . He spent nearly a year in one prison after another , before his case was reviewed in February 1943 by Colonel Nishiharu , Chief Judge Advocate of Fourteenth Army Headquarters . Nishiharu concluded Sakakida was most likely innocent , and hired him in March as a staff translator and personal houseboy . However , he periodically faced devious attempts to trick him into betraying himself . Despite this , security was lax , and Sakakida was often left alone with sensitive military documents , some of which he proceeded to memorize or steal . When a woman showed up at the Judge Advocate General ' s office to obtain a pass to visit her imprisoned guerrilla leader husband , Ernest Tupas , Sakakida took the risk of revealing his true identity to her . Mrs . Tupas put him in touch with the Philippine resistance , to whom he passed information . He also devised a plan for a mass escape for Tupas and other Filipino prisoners . On a night in October 1943 , it was set in motion . Sakakida posed as a Japanese officer and led a band of guerrillas into the prison at Muntinglupa . After knocking out or overpowering the unsuspecting guards , the rescuers freed nearly 500 inmates . Sakakida returned to his quarters with no one the wiser . According to the Associated Press 1996 obituary of Sakakida , three former guerrillas , including a Roman Catholic priest , claimed that he " fabricated his role in the escape . " Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii responded that " Sakakida ' s story has ' been confirmed time and time again . ' " In December 1944 , Sakakida decided that the time had finally come to flee . He hid in the jungle , cut off from any news . The war had been over for weeks when he made contact with Americans soldiers in September 1945 . Post - war . Sakakida returned to the Counterintelligence Corps and was promoted to master sergeant . He testified at the war crime s trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita , as he had been an interpreter in the office of the general ' s Judge Advocate . He remained in Manila for eighteen months , working on war crime investigations ; he encountered some of his former torturers , whom he forgave . He was commissioned in 1947 . He married Cherry M . Kiyosaki of Maui on September 25 , 1948 . He transferred to the United States Air Force and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel . After retiring in 1975 , he lived in Fremont , California . He died of lung cancer on January 23 , 1996 . He was survived by his wife . Awards and honors . For his accomplishments , he was awarded the Legion of Merit , Bronze Star and two Commendation Medal s , and was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame . He also received four medals from the Philippine government , including the Philippine Legion of Honor ( degree of Legionnaire ) , presented to him by Ambassador Raul Rabe at a ceremony at the Philippine Embassy in Washington , D . C . on April 15 , 1994 . Despite efforts to have Sakakida awarded the Medal of Honor , the Army refused to consider it on the grounds that a statute required that a recommendation be filed by 1951 at the latest . Senator Akaka introduced legislation to waive this condition . On February 17 , 1999 , the senator announced that Sakakida had been posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal .