The US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School Archival Project The Interpreter Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries Number 156 Remember September 11, 2001 [email protected] February 1, 2011 Our Mission Giovonantonia Tagliente (1952), The JLS Experience flew from Peking to Shanghai in The Scholar-Printers (1964), and a DC-4, the first four-engined In the Spring of 2000, the The Circle of Knowledge (1968). of T. Howell Breece plane in which I had ever flown. Archives continued the origi- He has also contributed articles Lt. (j.g.) Willard Wright was nal efforts of Captain Roger to the Encyclopedia Britannica (Cont’d) The rest of my naval already in Shanghai. When I was Pineau and William Hudson, and to professional journals. career in China had nothing to do sent to Peking, he was sent to the and the Archives first at- with Japanese. JICA seconded Royal Navy in Hong Kong. tempts in 1992, to gather the me to OSS in Peking. I asked to When I reached the Cathay papers, letters, photographs, have Eddie Fei sent with me to House Hotel, Bill offered me a and records of graduates of Peking, an idea that delighted Scotch. I thought he was joking. the US Navy Japanese/ him because his parents had For a year and a half in China Oriental Language School, continued to live there all our only alcohol had been a University of Colorado at through the Japanese occupation. small ration of cheap bourbon (a Boulder, 1942-1946. We We spent our time going to liquor I detest) or Chunking gin, military headquarters all over the assemble these papers in a liquor distilled in Chungking recognition of the contribu- Stanley Morison (left) with James city, some of the Kuo Min Tang by a White Russian who tions made by JLS/OLS Wells, ca. 1960 (Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist according to rumor had one Newberry Library photograph Chinese Party), but some of them instructors and graduates to bottle of Gordon’s Gin which he the War effort in the Pacific A member of several were those of warlords hoping to used in tiny sips as a check on and the Cold War, to the professional societies, he was profit from the defeat of Japan. the flavor of the stuff he creation of East Asian awarded a Guggenheim Situation Maps were rolled down produced. Since he probably had language programs across Fellowship (1978-79). He joined for us and we were shown the no access to juniper, I don’t the country, and to the the Caxton Club in 1951, served locations of Communist and know how he could have even development of Japanese- on the Council (1959-67, 1970- Nationalist troop dispositions. come close to a correct flavor, American cultural rec- 71, 1974-75, 1984-86) and on All conversations were, of but all of us drank the stuff in a onciliation programs after the Publications Committee course, in Chinese and I was mixer made with water and the World War II. (1953-69), which he chaired glad to have Eddie with me. Army’s dried lemon powder. Bill Chinese is one of my two native from 1960 to 1962. He was did have a bottle of Black & languages, but because my adult elected vice-president (1966-67) White which a Royal Navy James M. Wells and president (1968-69). In 1958 education was in English, there wardroom had sold him for the 30 Years at the Newberry he read a paper before the Club, are English terms for which I do equivalent of 75¢ American. (to “William Caxton,” in which he not know the Chinese equivalent. be cont’d) 56 years a Caxtonian Although I had by then acquired And Enjoying Every gave a masterful summary of the T. Howell Breece life of the Club’s namesake. His considerable military vocabulary JLS 1944 Minute in Chinese, there were still words _______________ text was reprinted as a keepsake The entry for James M. Wells for Caxtonians in 1960. He also I did not know. Conversation [JLS 1944] in the Club’s 1995 spoke at three dinner meetings In the summer of 1946, Eddie Fei with his wife and infant son, Between Marines centennial volume is fairly on “Stanley Morison, A Portrait” extraordinary: WELLS, JAMES (1971); on “Do You Remember came to the US and stayed with To Resume: M. (b. 1917). The librarian was John Calhoun? A Brief History me for a few days in Berkeley. The 6th Marine Division, minus born in West Virginia and of Chicago Printing” (1975); and He told me then that he had the temporarily absent Yokosuka received a B.S. from on “Daniel Berkeley Updike and learned that the situation maps detachment, sailed to Tsingtao, Northwestern University (1938) the Merrymount Press” (1982). which we had been shown at the North China though calm seas. and a M.A. in English from He wrote chapter 1 of RHM various headquarters were all An advance party had already Columbia University (1939). Robert Hunter Middleton (1985), fabricated for us. The Chinese come in by air to identify After serving as an English an essay entitled “The Man and Nationalists had no intention of buildings that could be used for instructor, he entered the United His Career.” He also wrote the letting the Americans find out billeting troops and house the States Navy during World War II introduction for An Alphabet what was really happening in the staff elements. A number of the (1942-46) and served as a Stone Cut, published by the Club war with the communists. They many schools in the city were Japanese-language officer in the in 1963. He was elected kept two sets of maps, one for tagged for billets and the Pacific campaigns, rising to the honorary member in 1984. (to be themselves that showed the true Japanese instructed to rank of lieutenant. cont’d) situation, and another to fool us put everything in order. The In 1951 he joined the staff of Robert McCamant into thinking they were column of troops with which I the Newberry Library as the The Caxtonian prevailing against the marched into the city went custodian of the John M. Wing Vol. XV, No. 9 communists. I have wondered through a street which had many September 2007 ever since if any intelligence Foundation. He subsequently _______________ shops with displays of foreign reports can be trusted. (not Chinese) liquor. I recall held a number of posts in his Recent Losses: long and distinguished career Finally, in November 1945, I White Horse Scotch as the brand there, including that of vice- was ordered to Shanghai to wait most offered. The bottles were for transportation to the US for perfectly duplicated and labeled. president (1975-84). He is the author of Opera di discharge from the Navy. On my We had been warned not to drink birthday, December 6, 1945, I the stuff, but, predictably, some of the vehicles in town. I the Shiites and the Sunnis Kunming, I met General thirsty adventurers did, and got remember thinking that this together; you couldn’t do it. Chenault, and he thanked me for sick, though no deaths were seemed like a good outfit to be in. I was transferred from the “valuable intelligence” I was announced. The troops soon Prophetically, several years later Chongqing after a relatively sending from the coast! found a "safe" substitute, I was in the SSU, which short time, and was assigned to While I was there, the the locally made vodka, which succeeded the OSS and was in monitor Japanese operations Japanese captured the city of was made without toxic turn succeeded by the CIA. along the Fujian coast. My own Wenzhou, down the coast from ingredients. There was also a "90 The OSS mission in China had experiences there regarding the Shanghai, with no opposition Year Old" (sic) Chefoo Brandy, been to gather intelligence about Guomindang’s reluctance to from the Guomindang. Rollo which was quite good. the ChiComs. fight Japan were similar. Rouse, the English customs Semper Fi At that time, the Japanese officer, was asked by the Glenn Nelson controlled all the treaty ports Inspector General to make a JLS 1944 _______________ except Fuzhou. The Min River report. Rouse’s report was runs through Fuzhou to the sea. something to this effect, “I have An EAA Interview Just off the coast is Sharp Island, forgotten whether Wenzhou was with where the Japanese had 120 captured by six Japanese on marines monitoring shipping, so bicycles at seven a.m. or seven Houghton Freeman they really didn’t need to go into Japanese on bicycles at six a.m.” (Cont’d) Lynn Parisi: Much has Fuzhou. Fuzhou was wide open This is just an illustration of how been written about divided and the center of activity in “free ineffective the Guomindang was Turning in arms, Tsingtao opinion among American policy China.” I was sent down with a as a fighting force. Our position http://www.haroldstephens.net/image wireless operator to transmit in Fuzhou became unstable after /tid/51?page=13 makers on the leadership and factions in China during the reports back to Chongqing. a US submarine made the The senior Japanese Sino-Japanese War, including There was a good little Allied mistake of sinking a Japanese government official in the city Stilwell’s frustration with the community operating there. We medical ship. The crew and the was Consul General Hara. He Guomindang war effort. Based joined the British Acting Consul patients made it to shore and set had served as Consul General in as you were in Chongqing, do General, Murray MacLehose, up there.