The Interpreter Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries Number 130 Remember September 11, 2001 [email protected] December 1, 2008
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The US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School Archival Project The Interpreter Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries Number 130 Remember September 11, 2001 [email protected] December 1, 2008 Our Mission He was a member of Trinity Angel: What did you volunteer for? and, when no more transmissions United Methodist Church, Cedar were picked up from that ship, we In the Spring of 2000, the Lodge No. 430 F&AM, Morley: Naval Intelligence. I was knew we had played a vital part in its Archives continued the origi- Exchange Club and the Zoning looking around to see where I might sinking. For us at the Annex it was nal efforts of Captain Roger fit when a classmate, Bob an antiseptic business…..but deadly Board, all in Orrville. He was Schwantes, who later became for all that. (to be cont’d) Pineau and William Hudson, also a member of the Al Koran important in the Asia Foundation, Robert Angel and the Archives first at- Shrine and the Delta Tau Delta told me that the Navy was recruiting Japan Considered tempts in 1992, to gather the Fraternity. people for a Japanese Language March 21, 2005 papers, letters, photographs, Surviving in addition to his School that had been set up in University of South Carolina and records of graduates of wife are a son, H. Calvin (Diane) Boulder, Colorado. [Webpage of College of Arts and Sciences the US Navy Japanese/ Leitzel Jr. of Middleburg U.S. Navy Japanese/Oriental Department of Political Science Language Archive Project (JSLP)] I _______________ Oriental Language School, Heights; a daughter, Cynthia University of Colorado at didn’t know anything about the (David) Withrow of North Japanese language—I don’t believe Chronicles Boulder, 1942-1946. We Lawrence, two grandchildren that I had ever seen it written or of My Life assemble these papers in and a great-grandchild. heard it spoken—but learning recognition of the contribu- A brother, Richard Leitzel, something new appealed to me, so I in the 20th Century tions made by JLS/OLS applied, was accepted, and headed died previously. 7. Enamored by 'The Tale of instructors and graduates to West. The Daily Record (Wooster) the War effort in the Pacific Genji' Autobiographical essays Obituaries, February 20, 2003 Angel: What was the Navy Japanese by Donald Keene and the Cold War, to the _______________ creation of East Asian Language School like? At first there was so little language programs across Interview fighting between France and with Morley: 15 months of intensive the country, and to the study, all day and sometimes, all Germany that people laughed at development of Japanese- Professor night. The texts were the Naganuma the "phoney war," but in 1940, American cultural rec- James W. Morley Readers, written originally for the the most depressing year of my onciliation programs after Columbia University instruction of missionaries. The life, the German army suddenly World War II. (ret.) teachers were mostly Japanese drawn struck, first at Denmark and from the Relocation Camps. They Norway, then at Holland and Henry C. Leitzel Angel: Welcome to Japan were a dedicated group and made up Belgium. The Maginot Line, Considered, Professor Morley. How in enthusiasm for what they lacked in teaching experience. Grammar, of which was supposed to protect 1920-2003 did you first become involved with France against German Japan? course, went by the boards. Why is BIC the language constructed this way? invasions, was easily bypassed by the Germans, and half of ORRVILLE -- Henry C. Leitzel, Introduction to Japan and the War we’d ask, and the answer was always given, ―Because that’s the way we France was soon occupied. 83, of Jerome Drive, died Years say it!‖ Later that year the aerial Tuesday morning, Feb. 18, 2003, bombing of Britain began. It at Wooster Community Hospital, Morley: December 7, 1941 when the radio blared into my college room Angel: And after graduating…. seemed almost impossible for the following a ten-day illness. that the Japanese had attacked Pearl British to resist the Germans. I Services will be Friday at 11 Morley: I was sent to Washington to Harbor. Before that I had had no could hardly bear to read the a.m. at the Trinity United work in the Communication Annex, contact with Japan and I’m not sure I newspapers, dreading the latest Methodist Church in Orrville could have located it on a map. where I was assigned to a section news of Nazi conquests. I spent with the Rev. Dennis Rinehart working round the clock to break the codes used in Japanese capital ship more and more time trying to officiating. Angel: Where were you and what transmissions. memorize Chinese characters, He was born on Jan. 1, 1920 year were you in college? though I realized that this study in China to Henry Samuel Morley: I was just finishing the first Angel: Can you talk about that or is without aims was an unreal Howard Leitzel and Ruth it a quiet subject? semester of my junior year at pursuit. But in the autumn of (Rossiter) Leitzel Firestone. He Harvard College; and while I had 1940, most unexpectedly, at the married Charlotte Zema on June Morley: It was quiet then—top become alarmed by the trends in worst point of the conflict within 26, 1943 in Boulder, Colo. She world politics, I was deeply secret, but now? So much has me between hatred of war and survives. immersed in the study of American changed. The Japanese capital ships—the carriers, battleships, and hatred of the Nazis, a kind of He lived in China until the history and literature and inclined cruisers—transmitted their messages deliverance came my way. age of 19, graduated from toward pacifism. in an enciphered code. For our Navy At that time there was in Allegheny College and served in Pearl Harbor changed all that. Once to engage the Japanese Navy Times Square, the center of New the US Navy during World War successfully, the location of the our country was attacked, I felt York, a bookshop that II. He entered the US Navy Japanese ships had to be pinpointed, instinctively that we had to fight and specialized in remainders, and I Japanese Language School in and the best way to do that was to that I had to get ready. I quickly would look in every time I was December 1942. piled on courses so as to graduate read their electronic transmissions. in the area. One day I saw a He worked for the that summer, and in December 1942, The assignment of my section was to break through the numerical stack of books called "The Tale Westinghouse Electrical after putting in a few months at the ciphers. We were not consistently of Genji." I had never heard of Corporation in Pittsburgh and Fletcher School of Law and successful, but on many occasions this work before, but I examined Orrville for 41 years, retiring in Diplomacy—where I had the good fortune to meet my wife—I we were. Then, crucial messages a volume out of curiosity. I could 1985 as an electrical engineer. volunteered in the Navy. were read, the Fleet was informed, tell from the illustrations that the was Jack Kerr, had lived several Our tutor, Inomata Tadashi, and director of publications for book must be about Japan. The years in Japan and taught taught us from the elementary Stanford University Graduate School book, in two volumes, was English in Taiwan. He had some reader that began saita, saita, of Business where he was for five priced at forty-nine cents. This command of spoken Japanese, sakura ga saita. Unlike the other years. He was then a turn-around manager and was president /CEO of seemed a bargain, and I bought but had never learned to read the two students, I could not say numerous companies including it. language. One of his students even the simplest thing in Barnes-Hind Pharmaceuticals and I soon became engrossed in from Taiwan, of Japanese Japanese, but I recognized kanji I Velo Bind, Inc. Most recently, Ridge "The Tale of Genji." The ancestry, had been born in had learned in Chinese. I was was chairman of LandRay translation (by Arthur Waley) America and had recently excited at the thought of learning Technology, Inc. principal of Harlan was magical, evoking a distant returned. Kerr intended to spend another language, but the other Communications, founding investor and beautiful world. I could not the summer at his house in the two gradually lost interest in and principal of ComputerEyes stop reading, sometimes going North Carolina mountains memorizing kanji. For me, the Corporation and a private investor. Ridge belonged to the Olympic back to savor again details. I studying Japanese with his complicated way that Japanese is Club and the Family Club. contrasted the world of "The former student. He feared, written was one of its attractions. He is survived by his wife Tale of Genji" with my own. In however, that if he was the only If Japanese were written in Marjorie of 30 years; son Ridge the book antagonism never one studying he would not be romaji, I might not have felt the Harlan of Yuba City, CA and wife degenerated into violence, and very diligent. Competition would desire to conquer its difficulties. Robyn; two daughters, Brooke there were no wars. The hero, help, and he was therefore trying Kerr later taught Japanese Williams of Petaluma, CA, and Hikaru Genji, unlike the heroes to find three or four others who history at various American Holly Harlan of Granite City, CA; of European epics was not wished to learn Japanese during universities and wrote excellent four grandsons; and two great- granddaughters; sister-in-law, described as a man of muscles, the summer.