The US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School Archival Project
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The US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School Archival Project The Interpreter Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries Number 228 Remember September 11, 2001 [email protected] February 1, 2017 Our Mission Hands” trained themselves in mystery why he was not BOQ improvised by and for Japanese military matters and immediately commissioned as an language officer schoolmates. In the Spring of 2000, the vocabulary. Less than half year officer as had been Don and his He welcomed me to reside Archives continued the origi- a year later, on December 7, brother, John, I suspect it was there while I was on duty at nal efforts of Captain Roger came the Japanese Navy attack because his language command Pearl Harbor. Others sharing the Pineau and William Hudson, on Pearl Harbor, which John was of only vernacular Japanese, BOQ included Marine Corps and the Archives first at- survived. (colloquial and slangy), and he officer, Sherwood Moran; and tempts in 1992, to gather the During WWII, John Shively did not read and write kanji; our Navy JLS schoolmates, papers, letters, photographs, performed intelligence duties also because there are such great Frank Turner, Donald Keene, and records of graduates of jointly for the Marine Corps and differences between colloquial and Robert Boyd. After I the US Navy Japanese/ the OSS that included processing and literary Japanese. completed drafting the two- Oriental Language School, of enemy documents, planning Otis and I were roommates, volume Tarawa defense University of Colorado at for amphibious operations at first at the JLS in Berkeley then installations report, I went back Boulder, 1942-1946. We islands of the Pacific, and again at Boulder. The next time to my Division at Waimea to assemble these papers in interrogation of Japanese POWs. we met after graduating from the prepare for the next Marine recognition of the contribu- Postwar, he attained the Navy JLS at Boulder was in Corps campaign, which was to tions made by JLS/OLS Marine Corps Reserve rank of November 1943 when Otis was be the Marianas Islands of instructors and graduates to Colonel, Retiring from the working in the Joint Intelligence Saipan and Tinian. the War effort in the Pacific active Marine Corps Reserve, he Center Pacific Ocean Area A few months later, I was and the Cold War, to the joined and followed the (JICPOA) at the headquarters of back in Honolulu again, this time creation of East Asian transition of OSS into the CIA, Adm. Nimitz (CINCPAC) at to assist in preparations for the language programs across from which he retired in 1971. Pearl Harbor. Marianas Islands campaign, the country, and to the John passed away in California I visited Pearl Harbor in which work included composing development of Japanese- at the age of 95 on April 4, 2005. transit to escort the 17 POWs the propaganda leaflets in Japanese American cultural rec- Otis Cary, like Don and John Second Marine Division had and Korean to be air-dropped on onciliation programs after Shively, was born in Japan, not captured on Tarawa. It was a Saipan and Tinian. Otis and World War II. in Kyoto but in Otaru, Hokkaido, brief visit, just long enough to Frank Huggins assisted me by where earlier generations of his assign the prisoners over to Otis enlisting services of Japanese CLOSE FRIENDS Amherst-educated family were and his senior language officer military POWs in the stockade at Don Shively & Otis Cary based as Christian missionaries. colleague, Frank Huggins, at the Pearl Harbor to help proofread Otis was, thus, the son and POW enclosure. and improve the texts. (Cont’d from Issue #226) I first grandson of Amherst graduates After that, I was transported The next time I saw Otis was met Don’s brother, John R. who helped to found Doshisha onward to Waimea on the Big two months later, on D-day, June Shively, in New Caledonia in University, which has Island, Hawaii, where my 15, 1944, during the amphibious 1944, when John was already a maintained close relations with Division was now to be based at landings on Saipan by two Marine Corps Major, doing Amherst over many decades. “Camp Tarawa” for troop Marine divisions and one Army secret intelligence work, at an After elementary school in replacement, health recovery, division. isolated OSS installation located Japan, Otis studied at Deerfield and preparation for the next The Second Marine Division, on the peninsula across the bay Academy in Western campaign. The sprawling tent for which I was a Japanese from Marine camp Goettge at Massachusetts; then at Amherst encampment was situated on the language officer, established the Anse Vata. Eleven years older College, during which time I met property of the immense Parker northernmost beachhead. Battle than Don, John was born in him in Cambridge, Mass. in Ranch, and headquartered at the action had begun that morning. I 1910, in Kyoto, Japan; grew up 1940 when he visited my little town of Kamuela (the was sent ashore early in the there; and like Don was fluent in Harvard College roommate, Don Hawaiian word for “Samuel”). I afternoon by LCVP landing craft Japanese. Shively. Like Don, Otis not only stayed there during several together with assault troops. For a while in his early was also born in Japan but had months before being sent back to Splashing ashore, we paused to twenties John served in Japan as been a schoolmate of Don's at the headquarters of Adm. Nimitz dig protective trenches an English teacher in a Japanese the Canadian Academy in Kobe. to prepare photo and drawing preparatory to moving inland to high school. In 1939, he earned Soon after the Pearl Harbor illustrated descriptive reports on locate and join our respective a Master’s degree from the attack, both Otis and I went into the defense installations the units. Our beach area came University of Hawaii. Navy Japanese Language Japanese had built at Tarawa. under rifle and mortar fire. Subsequently while studying training, with temporary rank of Already a war veteran in About two hours later, an for a PhD degree at Columbia, in Yeoman Second Class. Upon 1943, Otis had his introduction Amtrak pulled up to the beach 1940 John was recruited by the completion of training at to warfare when he participated and unloaded, to my Navy to serve in the Marine Berkeley and Boulder, Otis was in the Aleutians campaign to astonishment, Otis Cary, John Corps as Japanese language and commissioned as a Navy Ensign dislodge Japanese occupation Decker, and an elderly Korean intelligence officer. World War and I as a Marine Second forces from the island of Attu. man, who turned out to be a II was under way in Europe, and Lieutenant. When I saw him again, Otis was Christian pastor, Father Cho of war clouds were gathering over Otis was already fluent in residing near the University of Hawaii. He was to work with the Pacific, John was posted to Japanese before the wartime Hawaii in a civilian house Korean POWs, but none could Pearl Harbor where he and a training. It is something of a cooperatively rented to serve as a be accessible for some days. handful of other such " Japan As our location came under Reportedly, on occasions Otis survival in encounters with graduating from McDonogh fire, and there was chaos along even met and conversed with one armed Japanese troops on Saipan School in 1943, he went on to the beach, I humorously of the Emperor’s brothers, Prince and Tinian. Duke University, graduating in welcomed Otis to Saipan. Takamatsu. Although Don Shively and 1945. Within minutes we were shocked By then, undoubtedly, Otis Otis Cary had shared rather He was an officer in the U. S. to witness several yards inland had mastered perfectly correct similar missionary family Navy for a brief period during from us a foxhole pit struck formal Japanese, which is like a backgrounds and schooling in WWII before going to Harvard directly by a mortar shell. A different language. On other Japan, their personalities and Business School where he moment earlier, there had been occasions, when distinguished characteristics as adults were received his MBA in 1949. Mr. two live Marines crouching American scholars and quite different. Don was self- Scott began his career in there. In the mortar explosion, celebrities were speakers at assured, dour, austere, erudite, advertising in New York but the both men simply Doshisha University, Otis served focused, disciplined, and settled back in Baltimore as disappeared, as if evaporated. as their interpreter. reclusive. Don loved traditional President of Mrs. Filbert's I urged Otis, John Decker and Following my brief wartime Japan, history, literature, drama, Margarine for many years while the terrified civilian Father Cho assignments at Pearl Harbor, our art, and music. He aimed to be a raising his family. He held other to return immediately to their paths had not converged again university Professor of Japanese top managerial positions in transport ship on one of the during the WWII, but 55 years history and culture. Chicago, Indiana, and California shuttling LCVPs; then join a unit after the war Otis and I met at a Otis Cary by nature was before retiring to the Palo Alto to land on Saipan several days reunion conference of retired virtually the opposite of Don. area, where he was a co-founder later, which they did. Japanese language officers, titled He was boyish, out-going, of a prominent outplacement During the Marianas “Bridge To The Rising Sun”, humorous, animated, and firm, Mulford, Moreland, Scott campaign, Otis served on Saipan held in April 2000 at Claremont, gregarious.