The Round Tablette 14 March 2013 — 2 Thursday, 14 March 2013 was reassigned to the school, and was 26:08 Volume 21 Number 8 joined by Shigeya Kihara, Akira Oshida, Published by WW II History Round Table and Tetsuo Imagawa who formed the core Edited by Dr. Joe Fitzharris of the faculty. www.mn-ww2roundtable.org The initial presumption that the Nisei Welcome to the first March meeting (the children of immigrants) would al- of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World ready know Japanese was found to be War II History Round Table. Tonight, false. Very few actually understood their our talk is by a team of historians and parents’ language. Enrollment in the veterans. Colonel (Professor) Edwin school broadened from Nisei to include Nakasone and historians Stephen Osman Caucasian students. Initially, the goal and Will Williams will discuss MISLS was to teach the students to read, and training at Camp Savage and Fort Snelling, translate Japanese, write using the cursive and Nisei service in World War II. Nisei (sosho), how to do interpretation and to Veterans will discuss their experiences. assist in interrogation of prisoners. The sixty students who started the 6 month In the summer of 1941, with war clouds course learned Japanese history, culture, looming on the Pacific horizon, the Army economic and political development, ge- had no corps of Japanese language ography, military organization, and map translators or linguists. Being able to reading. They used captured documents, understand the enemy and to “read his mimeographed textbooks and scrounged mail” is critical to success in war. materials. Despite the rigors and hard- ships, 45 students graduated in the first Lt. Col. JohnWeckerling and Capt. Kai class in May of 1942. E. Rasmussen, both having served as Assistant Military Attaches with the US The graduates deployed to Guadal- Embassy in Tokyo, proposed the creation canal and the Aleutian Islands, translating of a language school to teach military documents seized from enemy soldiers Japanese. With some reluctance and little and outposts, and interrogating the few confidence in their success, the War prisoners taken. The graduates were prov- Department authorized their project and ing the worth of the school, but the viru- allocated $2,000 to fund it. lently nasty anti-Japanese racism on the West Coast, and the implementation of The Fourth Army Intelligence School Executive Order 9066, the Japanese Relo- opened in an abandoned hanger at Crissy cation Order, forced the school to aban- Field, on the Presidio Post in San don its quarters at the Presidio and move Francisco on 1 November. Their into the interior. classrooms were wide open spaces with boxes and crates serving as the furniture. A When approached by the army, Min- month later, the attack on Pearl Harbor nesota’s boy governor, Harold Stassen, made the need for linguists critical but also welcomed the school. Several other Mid- made recruiting a faculty difficult. western governors had already refused to Rasmussen found his director of training accept the school and its “Japanese” stu- serving as an army mechanic repairing dents. Relocated to Camp Savage in Sav- trucks at a motor pool in Los Angeles. age, Minnesota, site of the State’s home John F. Aiso, a Harvard-trained lawyer for indigent men, in May of 1942, the

The Round Tablette 14 March 2013 — 2 school began to grow. Rasmussen selected recognizing the critical need for combat the somewhat remote site because it was translators. After the Japanese surrender close to a major military post – Fort the school emphasis again shifted to civil Snelling, and to St. Paul and Minneapolis, affairs Japanese. Graduates of the school where citizens accepted the Nisei with rel- had served with every front-line unit in atively little racist discrimination. By 1944, the Orient, and many of the last of the over 1,000 students were enrolled, greatly school's 6,000 graduates working in civil overwhelming the facilities at Camp Sav- affairs now played an integral part in age. moving Japan to democracy.

The War Department took the school In June of 1946, the school moved under its direct jurisdiction and renamed it from Fort Snelling – which closed shortly the Military Intelligence Service Language thereafter as an active military post – to School. The school was moved to Fort Monterey, California and was renamed Snelling with its veil of secrecy finally re- the U.S. Army Language School. In July moved. Space became available in the bar- or 1963, the school was renamed the racks at the Fort following the decline in Defense Language Institute, now the recruit processing after the full mobiliza- Defense Language Institute Foreign tion of 1943. For the next two years, Fort Language Center, an internationally Snelling assumed a distinctly Japane- respected language school teaching over se-American flavor. 40 languages ranging from Arabic to Uzbek. The Fort Snelling Bulletin records this change as Nisei names and news stories Further Reading: dominated each weekly issue. Students op- Edwin Nakasone, Nisei Soldier: Historical erated a short-wave radio tuned to Tokyo, Essays on World War II (J-Press, 1997) Edwin Nakasone, Nisei Soldier: Historical and sent regular intelligence reports to Essays on World War II and the Korean War, 2nd Washington, and published an alumni ed. (J-Press, 1999) newsletter for graduates in the field. The Edwin Nakasone, Japanese American Veterans former post sergeant major reported that of Minnesota (J-Press, 2001) the language students were well disciplined Bill Yenne, Rising Sons: The Japanese American and highly motivated soldiers, but that he GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II (Thomas Dunne, 2007) had to field a few complaints from other James C. McNaughton, Nisei Linquists: soldiers' wives about the strange smells of Japanese Americans in the Military Inelligence Japanese cooking in the married quarters. Service during World War II (Military Bookshop, 2007) In 1945 Chinese and Korean language C. Douglas Sterner, Go For Broke: The Nisei courses were added to the six month and Warriors of World War II Who Conquered Ger- nine month curriculums. Of more interest many, Japan, and American Bigotry (American Legacy, 2007) was the activation of Women’s Army Minoru Masuda, Hana Masuda, and Dianne Corps sections at Fort Snelling and their Bridgman, Letters from the 442nd (Univ. of full assimilation into the school and post Washington, 2008) life. Robert Asahina, Just Americans: How Japanese Americans Won a War at Home and Abroad After the German surrender, emphasis (Gotham, 2006) shifted to spoken Japanese and class work Franklin S. Odo, No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawai’i During World War II was extended into evenings and weekends, (Temple Univ. Press, 2004)

The Round Tablette 14 March 2013 — 2 Round Table Schedule 2013 Announcements: 28 Mar. WW2 in the Middle East Twin Cities Civil War Round Table - 11 Apr. Mobilizing the National Guard in March 19, 2013 Red River Campaign of 1864 - WW2 www.tccwrt.com - [email protected] 9 May Kampfgruppe Peiper at Malmedy St Croix Valley Civil War Round Table - March. 25, 2013 Adm. Semmes & CSS Alabama - Steve Anderson If you are a veteran, or know a veteran, of one - 715-386-1268 – [email protected] of these campaigns – contact Don Patton at cell Rochester WWII History Round Table –507-280- 612-867-5144 or [email protected] 9970; www.ww2roundtable-rochester.org Fort Snelling Civil War Symposium 13 April 2013, http://www.tccwrt.com/symposium.html or [email protected] Minnesota Military Museum, Camp Ripley, 15000 Hwy 115, Little Falls, MN 56345, 320-616-6050, http://www.mnmilitarymuseum.org/ Air Show - Eden Prairie - July, 13-14, 2013; http://www.airexpo-mn.org/ - 952-746-6100 Honor Flight - Jerry Kyser - crazyjerry45@hotmail - 651-338-2717 CAF - Commemorative Air Force - Left, Japanese Translators, MHS 38957 www.cafmn.org or Bill at 952-201-8400 http://www.nps.gov/miss/historyculture/langschool.htm Minnesota Air Guard Museum - www.mnangmuseum.org 612-713-2523 Right, Edwin Nakasone at Ft. Snelling Friends of Ft. Snelling, www.fortsnelling.com Fagen Museum in Granite Falls, www.fagenfighter- swwiimuseum.org. 320-564-6644 World War II Weekend, Historic Fort Snelling, 8-9 June 2013, http://events.mnhs.org/calendar/index.cfm Civil War Weekend, Historic Fort Snelling, 17-18 Au- gust 2013, http://events.mnhs.org/calendar/index.cfm

Japanese-American Troops at Camp Savage, MHS 105048