Military Intelligence Service

The first Japanese Americans to serve in the military during World War II were linguists involved in the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). The MISLS was charged with training soldiers in the Japanese language for intelligence purposes. Japanese Americans served as both instructors and students at the school, which opened on November 1, 1941. The Language School began recruiting instructors and later students directly from concentration camps as early as July 1942. MISLS graduates were assigned in small teams to units fighting in the Pacific and to intelligence centers throughout the Allied command. They translated captured documents, interrogated prisoners of war, wrote propaganda, encouraged Japanese soldiers and civilians to surrender, and monitored radio broadcasts. After the war, they acted as interpreters at the war crime trials and for the occupation government in Japan.

World War II (231)
Military service (2806)
Military Intelligence Service (1145)

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1145 items

img Log building (ddr-ajah-2-423)

Caption below photo: Day room

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-423/

img Large building with columns (ddr-ajah-2-728)

Caption below photo: Japanese Diet Building

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-728/

img Building with flags (ddr-ajah-2-619)

Caption below photo: A.M.P. Building

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-619/

img Men in uniform posing for group photo outside camp buildings (ddr-ajah-2-531)

Caption below photo: The members

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-531/

img Man sitting at desk (ddr-ajah-2-689)

Caption below photo: S/Sgt William Finkeldey Hasting-on-Hudson, N.Y.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-689/

img Man sitting at desk (ddr-ajah-2-691)

Caption below photo: S/Sgt Richard T. Watanabe Los Angeles

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-691/

img Men playing cards in barracks (ddr-ajah-2-784)

Caption: Joe Iwataki (taking the photo) and his U.S. Army pals relieve the boredom with a poker game in their barracks near Belden, which was in the Feather River Canyon of Northern California, February 1942. Iwataki was from Alameda, CA. Supplemental scan of ddr-ajah-2-376 with additional notes

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-784/

img Man sitting on cot playing guitar (ddr-ajah-2-486)

Caption below photo: Roy Nakada / Honolulu

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-486/

img View of military parade from above (ddr-ajah-2-616)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-616/

doc Sketch of Fort Snelling (ddr-ajah-2-566)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-566/

img Portrait of group of men in uniform (ddr-ajah-2-800)

Caption: Niseis from the Military Intelligence School at Camp Savage, Minnesota visit friends and family incarcerated at Topaz, Utah - December 4. 1942. Includes names.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-ajah-2-800/