Over the weekend, I got the opportunity to visit the Military Intelligence Language School exhibit at Fort Snelling.
A lot of our success against the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II, is due to the work of this group. Their history is fascinating and is just coming to light after being classified during the war and couldn’t be spoken of.
When Pearl Harbor was bombed, Executive Order 9066 was signed by Roosevelt, encamping thousands of Japanese-American families, many of whom were born in the US and never been to Japan. Imagine, tomorrow you wake up to find you are being encamped at an unknown location because you are Norwegian. Or German. Or Irish. Forced to sell your belongings at a next-to-nothing price. But you’ve never been to Norway or Germany or Ireland. You were born here. You’re American, aren’t you?
This is what Executive Order 9066 did on the West Coast. This posed a problem for the Military Intelligence Learning School (MILS), composed primarily of Japanese-American men and women, who were stationed in San Francisco at the Presidio. This group was trained in military heigo and was responsible for interpreting enemy documents and war plans, interrogating enemy soldiers and even assisting soldiers in the field, (including paratroopers), in communication efforts with the enemy.
The problem/irony in being located at the Presidio in San Fran? Anytime the linguist specialists were ordered to report to General DeWitt (who was heavily responsible for the Executive Order in the first place), they were arrested while crossing the grounds to the General’s office! Seriously?!
Yes.
So, the language school was relocated to Savage, Minnesota and later on, Fort Snelling.
It’s a fascinating story. These men and women even helped with the aftermath of World War II, including assisting in Japanese War Crime trials. Their efforts were critical in winning the war.
And their story is just coming to surface.
