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 186 Remember September 11, 2001 [email protected] August 1, 2013 Our Mission because they lifted me right out system, right through Tokyo of my bunk. I really didn’t have University. These people were In the Spring of 2000, the much to do the first few days I the ones who interrogated the Archives continued the origi- was on Saipan. We had several prisoners who were especially nal efforts of Captain Roger civil engineers who were Navy knowledgeable. They were so Pineau and William Hudson, officers, and they started the good that I think it took the and the Archives first at- process of laying out the plans Japanese by surprise to find tempts in 1992, to gather the for Camp Susupe. They were Americans that could speak papers, letters, photographs, LVT(A)-4 at Saipan, June 1944. pretty flimsy buildings they put Japanese at that level, both in and records of graduates of Wikipedia Commons up. They had corrugated tin roofs forward areas and at Pearl. the US Navy Japanese/ and were open at the sides. The I remember hearing about one Oriental Language School, naval guns, weren’t even floors were maybe two feet off interrogator – not that he used University of Colorado at mounted when we landed. They the ground so they wouldn’t get brutality, but he was very Boulder, 1942-1946. We were still at Tanapag Harbor. wet inside. The most important forceful with the language, and assemble these papers in The only real fortifications they things were drainage and privies. he threatened prisoners. I don’t recognition of the contribu- had were pillboxes, and air raid The camps were divided up into think he ever physically abused tions made by JLS/OLS shelters. The plain fact of the cooking centers so that people anybody. However, I do know instructors and graduates to matter was, their defenses, even belonged to this cooking center, about situations where prisoners the War effort in the Pacific though they gave us a hell of a or that cooking center. were killed. I know about and the Cold War, to the time, were not very good. And I dealt primarily with the commanding officers who told creation of East Asian they really didn’t have first class Japanese, not the Chamorros, their men not to take prisoners. language programs across troops there. They did have a although I saw them all the time. We’ve all read about that, and the country, and to the unit from the Kwantung Army, The Marines were bringing in that happened. I know of worse development of Japanese- which sounded very impressive, prisoners even before we got things that happened, where American cultural rec- but it had been slapped together there – before the camps were set actual mutilation occurred, like onciliation programs after before being brought to Saipan. up. Everybody was kept under taking of teeth and other parts of World War II. What I’m trying to say is that the guard no matter if they were the body. These things did nucleus of the Kwantung Army Japanese, Korean, or Chamorros happen, and yet some people had been dissipated from all the and it took us a while to get the take a certain amount of comfort The Naval Civil Affairs fighting in China, so it really idea of separating them. It was in the idea, or claim that Unit on Saipan wasn’t what it had once been. during the early stages of Americans weren’t quite as bad Certainly there was no shortage separating people and organizing as the Japanese because this was (Cont’d) The landing on Saipan of brave Japanese soldiers, but the camps that some Nisei troops not a policy. However, for was on June 15, 1944. We were Saipan was not the fortress that from the Army came to where example, if a commanding on the USS Sheridan, an APA. Iwo Jima was, for example. we were holding the prisoners. I officer says, “Don’t take We did not go ashore until D- We went ashore on landing could see these Japanese prisoners,” for that unit, that is a plus five, but we watched the craft, but by D-plus five they had civilians just staring at these policy. When Japanese ships landings. Some of the assault already put floating piers out so Japanese in American uniforms, were sunk and American planes troops were from our ship. We we got off on those. We moved almost with open mouths. Most strafed the survivors in the water, could see some of our landing into a little school in Chalan of the Nisei were bigger and and there wasn’t a court martial craft being hit by Japanese Kanoa that still had a roof and huskier than the native Japanese. because of it, then that can be artillery and we watched windows. We were there for a Later, it was the Nisei from the accepted as having been a policy, Japanese tanks as they few days before we went out to Army who came to the camps to or at least something that was counterattacked from the low Susepe and pitched tents. The ferret out Japanese soldiers who overlooked. My whole point is, hills below Mount Tapochau. Marines had big howitzers right were trying to pass themselves when people claim the Japanese Towards dusk we could see beside us and they scared the hell off as civilians. So even though I people were particularly cruel I much more of the battle because out of me each time they fired, was in the intelligence section of can think of occasions when of the tracer bullets. One thing Civil Affairs I was not charged Americans were particularly that caught my attention was the with that particular cruel, too. I think it is also true, flame throwers. We couldn’t see responsibility. I didn’t deal with however, that we never, during it clearly, but we could tell what prisoners as an interrogator at the the war, organized a unit like was happening, and we had field time they were captured. 731 – the Ishii Unit (a Japanese glasses. And too, we had doctors There were some very able biological warfare unit in on our ship and many of the interrogators, most of whom Manchuria that experimented on wounded were brought to our were B.I.J.s like me, but who live human beings). ship. spoke really good Japanese. At first we fed the civilian I knew the Japanese had been Some of them were of American prisoners on Japanese rations, charged with fortifying the and Japanese parentage. There then we began to import rice and islands before the war. But I were a a couple full-blooded stuff like that. We had big stores think the only one they fortified Caucasians who had gone of rice on the island that we had was Truk. Saipan they hadn’t. 155mm howitzers preparing to through the Japanese school captured and we were able to use The biggest guns they had, the fire. National Archives a lot of that. However, a lot of Lieutenant Commander Schattle A-bomb and new orders to send international law at the the stores we should have been was the head of the intelligence us to Japan. Académie de Droit able to use we weren’t able to unit that I was part of. He was a From Harris “Jish” Martin, “Navy Internationale, The Hague, because our own troops were so cop in civilian life, and an Civil Affairs Unit” [JLS 1944] Holland, 1936; was lecturer at destructive. They stuck their interesting fellow. We called in Bruce M. Petty, Saipan: Oral the US Navy Naval War College, bayonets in cans just to see what ourselves “Schattle’s chattels. Histories of the Pacific War, Newport, RI, after 1935. He was in them. Sometimes when we sent Jefferson, NC: McFarland & went on active duty in 1940 in Company, Inc., 2002, the US Naval Reserve, rising to Pp. 157-158, 160 the rank of Captain, serving until [Ed. Note: The cooking center 1955. organization actually follows the In 1940, Arthur McCollum, historic method of organizing large of the Office of Naval parties (like trapper parties, Intelligence and a 1925 graduate volunteer troops, wagon trains, and of the Tokyo School, and Albert other such organizations) into “messes”, each with their own E. Hindmarsh planned to replace watch, fire, and leadership. I guess the US Navy Japanese Language organizing folks by their stomachs School based in Tokyo with always worked. language schools on the US Photos were taken from the web mainland. In order to rapidly and and from the Pineau Collection. The increase the number of potential only shot we had of “Jish” Martin naval language officers, the was in formation at CU, and the ID scheme compressed the three- is not precise. The other photos were year Naganuma course to either of Saipan or, in the case of the 155 battery, a general shot to between one-year and 14 months illustrate the story. None were part through greatly intensified of the published interview.] instruction. To gain the largest _______________ pool of potential language ” officers, Hindmarsh and Glenn Hindmarsh, Shaw interviewed and recruited Albert Edward widely from universities, seeking JICPOA team on Saipan, 8 July Robert Boyd, and John Decker, those civilians who: already had 1944. Identified is Otis Cary, Pineau, 10_6a_5_08, AUCBL (1902-1975) prior experience in Japanese and Harry Barrand, Reid Irvine, Albert E.