During World War II, Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) served in the Military Intelligence Service(MIS), performing secret intelligence work against the Japanese military. Their work dispelled any doubt that as Americans the Nisei were willing to fight an enemy with whom they share a similar ancestral background.

On November 1, 1941, the U.S. Army secretly opened a Military Intelligence Service Language School at the Presidio in San Francisco to teach and give training in military intelligence in the event of war with Japan. Following the outbreak of World War II, Japanese Americans with the required language background were recruited from the 100th Battalion, 442nd RCT, and from Hawaii and America's internment camps. In all, 6,000 Nisei graduated from military language schools at the Presidio, and Camp Savage and Fort Snelling in Minnesota.

The MIS graduates were dispatched to every combat theater and participated in every major battle and invasion against the Japanese military. They were "attached" to the US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Corps and "loaned" to British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Chinese and Indian combat units in every phase of the Asia-Pacific war until Japan was defeated.

Beginning in May 1942, MIS participated in the Aleutian and Solomon Islands invasions, in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's drive through New Guinea and the Philippines, and in the Central Pacific invasions of Tarawa, Kwajalein, Majuro, Eniwetok, Saipan and Guam. Nisei were included in the final assault on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Operating out of New Delhi, India they helped drive the Japanese Army from Burma, reopening the Burma Road to China.

Nisei served in front line combat units and were awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge. They fought as ferociously against the Japanese as the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team fought in Italy and France. When the Pacific war ended they served with the same intensity in the demobilization of the Japanese armed forces and subsequently in the development of an industrialized Japan allied to the United States. An additional 3,000 trained Nisei linguists served in the Occupation of Japan in various capacities such as the writing of the Constitution, in the educational, political, women and other reform movements and in the lowest public administrative unit to the national government. With their knowledge of the Japanese language and custom, the Nisei served as a bridge between the Japanese officials who did not speak English and the American officials who did not speak Japanese.

The Nisei linguists translated enemy documents, including orders, battle plans, maps, diaries and letters; interrogated Japanese prisoners of War; served under cover in Japan-occupied Manila; served as order-of-battle specialists; intercepted and deciphered enemy communications; composed and broadcast surrender appeals and other psychological warfare tactics; sand flushed caves of enemy soldiers and civilians. Volumes of intelligence material were gathered in the process and converted into a successful Allied strategy and operations against the Japanese.

Until recently, very little was known about the invaluable service provided by the Nisei of the MIS, primarily because their work was strictly classified.

The Nisei who served in the MIS was America's secret weapon in the war against Japan - a secret weapon that MG Charles Willoughby, G-2 Chief in the Pacific, credited with saving a million lives.

Edited from Japanese Eyes, American Heart. 1998. Reprint approved by Ted Tsukiyama, Esq