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 (2819)
Military Intelligence Service (1146)

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1146 items

img Commandant at his desk (ddr-densho-397-21)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-21/

img Ceremony (ddr-densho-397-11)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-11/

img Captain at his desk (ddr-densho-397-10)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-10/

img Military Intelligence Language School building (ddr-densho-397-29)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-29/

img Woman in coat (ddr-densho-397-76)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-76/

img Military men pose on snowy road (ddr-densho-397-20)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-20/

img Female office workers (ddr-densho-397-75)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-75/

img Officer speaking at ceremony (ddr-densho-397-14)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-397-14/

av Frank Endo Interview (ddr-densho-400-1)

Frank Endo was born in Wilmington, California, on April 20,1923, and grew up on Terminal Island, California. He taught gymnastics at Santa Anita, California, Race Track and at the concentration camp in Amache, Colorado, where he was imprisoned. Endo worked in Chicago during WWII and served in the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service. He participated in …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-400-1/

img Men in military uniform pose with dictionaries (ddr-densho-404-430)

Men in military uniform pose behind a large desk lined with Japanese-English dictionaries and other texts. Tokeo Tagami stands on the back row, second from the left.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-404-430/

img Man in military uniform leans over a record player (ddr-densho-404-86)

A man in military uniform, possibly Tokeo Tagami, leans over a record player. The record player is labeled MISLS 26.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-404-86/

img Man writes at a desk (ddr-densho-404-401)

A man in military uniform, possibly Tokeo Tagami, writes at a desk.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-404-401/

img Man in military uniform works at small desk (ddr-densho-404-395)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-404-395/

img Man in military uniform sits at a desk (ddr-densho-404-84)

A man in a military uniform sits at a desk reading.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-404-84/

img Two men sit at a desk (ddr-densho-404-376)

Two men, one wearing a military uniform, sit at a desk piled with papers and books. Caption written in Japanese and English next to photograph: Varobby off.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-404-376/