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World War II
By Doug Bower

The Pacific

Finding “gaijin” who spoke Japanese in the 1940’s was a formidable task for the Marine Corps. The still isolationist attitudes of Far East did not lend itself well to cultural exchange, and the only foreign language option for most Americans in continuing education was Latin. However, the Marine Corps was able to find Japanese language skilled interpreters (better said, they found the Marine Corps). Many of these Marines were missionaries or the offspring of missionaries.  Others were children of U.S. Embassy personnel who grew up in Japan. Whatever their background, they at one point lived in Japan and knew the language (and more importantly) the culture of the enemy.

One of these former missionaries writes:

“I was part of a group of 13 Japanese language specialists commissioned in the Marine Corps Reserve in the spring and early summer of 1941…The scarcity of persons skilled in Japanese in those days was such the medical authorities waived many otherwise disqualifying physical conditions: height, weight, eye-sight, and chest expansion. Badly needed to accompany combat troops, most of these Marines were given a minimum of military orientation, let alone survival skills.  About 1500 Reservists were brought into the naval service and trained as Japanese-language officers during the war years in schools at Camp Elliot (later, MCAS El Toro), CA and Camp Lejeune, NC. For the most part, these schools were the result of the efforts of the language officers to maintain their own skills and of the curiosity and initiative of enlisted Marines. Japanese-Americans constituted the main strength of the U.S. Army’s Japanese language capabilities in the Pacific. Organizationally, Marine linguists were, with a few exceptions, considered intelligence personnel. Their chief functions were: translation of captured documents; interrogation of prisoners of war and captured civilians: identification of captured enemy equipment; authorization for the release of (parts illegible) translation and interpretation on intercepted tactical communications.” 1

Even prior to the war, the US Navy saw the need to create Japanese linguists and sent Sailor and Marine Annapolis graduates to the three-year Tokyo based school (1910-1941), the Marine Officer Language School at Pearl Harbor (1940-1941 and from which the only Marine JLO KIA, Capt Gerald Holtom, was trained).  At the very beginning of the war (and just prior to US entry) Marines also attended Harvard and Cal Berkeley based schools (1941 and early 1942) and the CU Boulder Japanese/Oriental Language School.  These Marines were later assigned to Marine regiments and divisions. There was also a small school on Samoa that trained enlisted linguists and later sent them to the Boulder school, from whence they were commissioned or had previously received commissions. The CU Boulder based US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School (1942-1946) gradually shifted its operations to Oklahoma A&M (1945-1946) in 1945.
 

In 1940, war with Japan loomed with great certainty. Tokyo language students were ordered to prepare to leave on a moment’s notice. Meanwhile, Arthur McCollum, of the Office of Naval Intelligence and a 1925 graduate of the Tokyo School, and Albert E. Hindmarsh, a Japanese history scholar from Harvard and officer in the Naval Reserve, planned to replace the Tokyo School with language schools on the US mainland. They sought to recruit from universities those civilians who either already had a facility in Japanese, demonstrated high potential to learn Japanese in an accelerated program…The scheme was to compress the three-year Naganuma course to about one-year through greatly intensified instruction. Classes began at both Harvard and Berkeley in October 1941 with 27 and 21 students respectively. Disputes between Hindmarsh, who had privately studied Japanese in Tokyo with Naganuma, and the Harvard faculty over  adherence to the Naganuma program led to the termination of the Harvard program at the end of the first year. The Berkeley Program terminated because Presidential EO 9066, relocating and interning West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans, forced Japanese American faculty to relocate, as well.  During June of 1942, unfinished classes from Berkeley arrived at the newly relocated JLS (Japanese Language School) at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where it would remain until after VJ Day. While in Boulder, the school would shift from training only Japanese Language Officers for the war effort to training language officers in a variety of oriental languages.  Hindmarsh reported that by March 1945 a total of 684 Japanese language officers had graduated from the Navy School for Oriental Languages. Of these, 573 were male Navy officers, 111 were USMCR officers, and 69 were WAVES. While the War was winding down, Admiral Nimitz demanded more graduates for the occupation of Japan, at the same time that CU at Boulder was forecasting a rise in post-war attendance. At the end of 1945, then, the school was moved to Oklahoma A & M at Stillwater. An additional 117 JLOs (Japanese Language Officer) graduated by June, 1946, raising the total amount of JLOs to graduate from the Navy OLS to 801.

During the War, most JLOs served with JICPOA (Joint Intelligence Command Pacific Operating Area), combat Marine Divisions, or in various arms of the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, DC. With the end of the War, many became involved with the repatriation of Japanese military and civilians throughout Asia and the Pacific, the conduct of research assessments, and the Occupation of Japan. 2

Apprehension over the loss of a source of Japanese language officers with the termination of the Tokyo School led the US Marine Corps to open a crash course for university students who were already moderately fluent in non-military Japanese. Twelve students were admitted in July 1941. Eight completed the course “suddenly” on December 7, 1941. The four who were dropped were subsequently admitted to Navy and Army JLO Programs. Japanese language faculty from the University of Hawaii and School Director, John Shively, handled the instructional duties. Nicholas Ballard, a recent graduate of the Tokyo School, commanded the school. The graduates served mostly in combat units throughout the War. The Marine Corps was not happy with its officers’ course and decided to discontinue it by becoming a partner in the Navy Oriental Language School in Boulder, CO.

In June of 1942 the USMC opened an enlisted program, an entirely distinct program not offered by the Navy. Each month, between 25 and 50 graduates of marine boot camp were selected from platoons on the basis of their IQ scores, personal interests, evidence of foreign language facility, and Drill Instructor recommendations. Each class started at full speed. During the first several weeks of the course, most students were dismissed on the basis of poor weekly test performance. A 10-15% graduation rate was not unusual. The purpose of the school was to prepare marines to be combat interpreters with marine infantry battalions. Graduates were expected to interrogate prisoners, persuade enemy soldiers to surrender, look out for the safety of civilians, and screen captured documents. To achieve those goals, the Marines studied the Naganuma curriculum on an abbreviated scale for six months. After graduation, many worked for several months practicing the language by interrogating POWs at prison camps. These enlisted Marines worked as interpreters in campaigns across the Pacific, and during repatriation, research, and construction projects throughout the Far East after the War. An estimated 160 enlisted Marines graduated from 25 classes held at the university. 3

Members of the first three JLS groups to graduate at Boulder (December 1942, February 1943, and July 1943 respectively) received their USNR or USMCR commissions at about their time of graduation. Prior to being commissioned, students were civilian Naval Agents or Yeoman 2nd Class in the USNR. Those students enlisted or commissioned before arrival at Boulder retained their status until graduation, at which time the enlisted were commissioned, and those already commissioned retained their respective ranks.

Since most local draft boards did not recognize the civilian Naval Agent status as officially being in the Armed Forces, draft calls were sent to some. So, in August 1942, the “Summer Group” Naval Agents became enlisted Yeoman 2nd Class and therefore free from draft considerations. Though enrolled in the JLS, we were also registered as students of the University of Colorado, wore civilian clothes at all times, attended campus dances, hikes, and other activities when schedules permitted, and were a part of the CU student body. Off campus, travelling on trains and elsewhere, not wearing a uniform often brought a taunting, but probably envious, comment of “draft dodger” or “4-F” (determined by draft board to be physically unfit for military duty).  Uniforms seen then on the CU campus were those of the NROTC student cadets, enlisted Navy students attending a Naval Communications School located at CU, and the occasional previously commissioned or enlisted JLS student. After July 1943, all USNJLS students wore uniforms, since they were commissioned immediately upon reporting for duty. 4

Intelligence training was required for many of these Marines to conduct their various intelligence duties. The Marine Corps had no organic schools to provide this training and relied mostly on US Army intelligence training centers and schools. Marine linguists were trained in intelligence subjects at schools such as the Military Intelligence Training Center (MITC) at Camp Ritchie, MD located in an old National Guard Armory. Approximately 19,669 combat intelligence specialists (interpreters, interrogators, order- of battle specialists, and photo interpreters) were graduated during WWII. Training incorporated many unique methods to get men trained quickly and well for overseas duty. Captured enemy films were shown, lectures were given entirely in the German language for interrogation of prisoners of war classes, German weapons and equipment were demonstrated and actual German uniforms of both military and semi-military organizations were used so the student would become completely knowledgeable. 

The map course made use of actual captured German military maps. The documents course was based on actual German documents; students handled original documents. Full-scale wooden models of German and Japanese armored vehicles and tanks were used in training for recognition of enemy vehicles. These mock-ups were mounted on jeeps and added realism.  All personnel, including support personnel had a secondary (if not their primary) duty as instructors, to include the Composite School Unit (CSU) personnel. CSU personnel were the demonstration troops for MITC. The main objective of the CSU was to give the students an opportunity to observe all types of enemy organizations and tactics, as well as American intelligence units and to operate in the field against German and Japanese tactics. The CSU acted as the enemy in all field problems.

The Visual Demonstration Section wrote short play-lets and staged them for the students of MITC. The section was composed of professional writers, actors and directors. The success of this novel method of training was so great that numerous requests were made for showings of these plays at other camps. Here is a brief description of one of these play-lets:

The Military Intelligence Interpreters 40-minute demonstration illustrated the proper methods for questioning friendly civilians in occupied countries. The scene was set in a little French town interrogating a Frenchman willing to talk and readily giving military information about Germans said to occupy a nearby town and then the mayor of the town is found and gives information contradicting the statements of the first Frenchman. By clever questioning the intelligence interpreter is able to determine the false informant. The school was closed as part of the demobilization after the war.

The Military Intelligence Training Center, MITC, was activated on June 19, 1942. The name of the camp was shortened to Camp Ritchie. At noon that day, a brief and simple ceremony overlooking the parade ground of the camp formally activated the MITC. The order was read establishing the camp under the command of Col. (later Brigadier General) Charles Y. Banfill. Col Banfill was not only the commandant of the MITC, but was also the Chief, Training Group, Military Training Service -- allowing for speedier solutions to all questions of operation and  instruction for the MITC. The moment that MITC took charge, Camp Ritchie bade "good-bye" to the headlines. An air of secrecy cloaked not only all activities at the camp, but all personnel sent there as well. Troops arrived in small groups or individually, under classified orders. Once there, they were told to identify themselves to no one, not even to their wives, as being connected with military intelligence.  By 1944, all Counter Intelligence Corps personnel were being trained at Camp Ritchie.  With approximately $5 million invested by the Army to build 165 structures, Camp Ritchie was home to more than 3,000 men and women.  By 1944, all Counter Intelligence Corps personnel were being trained at Camp Ritchie. With approximately $5 million invested by the Army to build 165 structures, Camp Ritchie was home to more than 3,000 men and women.  The end of the war saw the camp returned to Maryland. The school relocated to Fort Huachuca in 1971. 5

Other linguists were trained in the Military Intelligence Service Language (MISLS) School.  On the eve of America’s entry into World War II, the U.S. Army established a secret school at Crissy Field, Presidio of San Francisco, to teach the Japanese language. Classes began November 1, 1941, with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field. The students were mostly second-generation Japanese-Americans (Nisei) from the West Coast. During the war the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), as it came to be called, grew dramatically. When Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were moved into internment camps in 1942, the school moved to temporary quarters at Camp Savage, Minnesota.  By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling. More than 6,000 graduates served throughout the Pacific Theater during the war and the subsequent occupation of Japan. In 1946 the school moved to the historic Presidio of Monterey, where military linguists (to include Marine interrogators) are trained today. 6

Combat in the Pacific

Intelligence Marines served as interpreters, interrogators, and/or language officers and accompanied Marine forces throughout the island-hopping campaign, in combat operations against the Japanese in China, and they played a significant role in the occupation of Japan and China.

These intelligence Marines (interpreters and language officers) performed interpreter duties, interrogation support, document exploitation, provided language support in psychological operations, cryptological and communications intercept translation, and provided civil affairs support to the occupational Marine forces (duties which are no performed by at least four different skill sets in today’s Marine Corps).

Two Marine language officers were killed in action during the Pacific Campaign. First Lieutenant Ralph Cory was killed in Guadalcanal on the infamous Goettge patrol on 12 August 1942. The second Marine killed in action was Second Lieutenant George P. Holtom while serving with the 2d Marine Raider Battalion. A sniper killed Second Lieutenant Holtom on 16 August 1942 during the raid on Makin Island. Lt Holtom was last reported conducting document exploitation on a Japanese bulletin board kiosk. Lt Holtom’s remains were recovered only recently in December 1999.

Several interpreters and language officers also received wounds during their service. Five language officers received purple hearts. The battles in which language officers received purple hearts included; Peleliu, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Language Officer Ray Luthy lost a leg from the knee down on Iwo Jima. Another, William Brown, suffered an unusual injury; a bite to the abdomen from a child he carried out of a cave on Saipan. Intelligence Officer Hart H. Spiegel (3rd Raider Battalion) lost most of his vision in his right eye from shrapnel wounds in the battle of Sugarloaf Hill in Okinawa on 20 May 1945.  Most of the Marines trained in language skills were first sent to “cut their teeth” conducting interrogations in established POW camps in Australia and/or conducting document exploitation in the Allied Translation and Intelligence Service (ATIS) in Hawaii, then later sent to provide direct support to Marine combat units. Most had no combat experience and many had no military training prior to becoming interpreters or language officers. Below is an excerpt of one of those exceptions:

“The 2nd Marine Division (then at San Diego) was sent to defend American Samoa.  Shortly after my arrival, Captain Ferdinand Bishop, USMC, a 1937 graduate of the Embassy School in Tokyo, was directed to conduct a 6-month course in beginning and military Japanese.  We had no BIJs (Born in Japan) in the Brigade, so they selected people with some foreign language background. I‘d been a French major at UCLA, so I became a Japanese Language Officer instead of an 81mm mortar platoon leader.  This was probably a distinct advantage as mortar units tended to attract lots of enemy fire.  In October ’42 we joined the 1st Marine Division in the Solomon Islands on Guadalcanal.  After the Guadalcanal operation, we went to New Zealand to refit, and we were sent to POW camps in New Zealand and New Caledonia to interrogate and translate. The next operation was Tarawa (only five days), and we escorted the Korean labor POWs (there were no live Japanese) back to Pearl Harbor.  Having completed better than two years in the South Pacific, two of us from the Samoa School, myself and Lt. Elmer Stone, were ordered back to the US for leave and more education.  We were assigned to enter the July 1944 class, along with Ens. Winebrenner, who’d been a prisoner in a Japanese Internment Camp in Shanghai.  Because all three of us had had previous training in Japanese, a shortened course was set up for just the three of us. We completed our course in July 1945 and Winebrenner and I were sent back to the Pacific.  As far as I know, we three, plus a Navy Commander who escaped from the Philippines and got to Australia via Indonesia, were the first students to have had actual contact with Japanese forces in the field prior to arrival in Boulder. The Commander was a student in the Malay course.  I should mention three other graduates of the Samoa School attended Boulder: Capt. William Croyle, Lt.’s Seldon Brown, and Ralph Baker. They all graduated from Stillwater.” 7

Another Language Officer received the Bronze Star with “V”, cited below:

“For heroic achievement as an Interpreter of the Intelligence Section of the Second Marine Division, during operations against enemy Japanese forces on Saipan and Tinian, Marianas Islands, from 15 June to 1 August 1944. Pioneering in devising methods of directing combat propaganda at the Japanese prior to the Marianas Campaign, First Lieutenant Sheeks prepared several means of propaganda used during the campaign. When large numbers of civilians were driven into hiding by our advance during the latter stages of the operations, he moved with front line units despite considerable danger and utilized public address systems to call civilians and soldiers out of hiding, thereby affecting the surrender of the enemy. By his ability, perseverance and devotion to duty, he materially reduced hostile resistance and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. First Lieutenant Sheeks is authorized to wear the combat “V”.” 8

Many of the language officers/interrogators serving with the Marines were not Marines.  Navy and Army personnel were sometimes assigned to the Marines during the island hopping campaign. Some of these joint personnel were simply known as Military Intelligence Service (MIS) personnel and were assigned to support Marine units in combat. Three of the MIS personnel received the Legion of Merit for their interrogation and document translation support to Marines in Guadalcanal (although they received the award somewhat belatedly in 1997). All three were US Army personnel (although being MIS technically made them another "service"). 9

There were 40 MISLS (Military Intelligence Service Language School) graduates assigned to the JICPOA (Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area) annex, which was outside Pearl Harbor because Nisei were not trusted by the Navy. Those at the annex translated captured documents and preparation of psy-war material. In addition, they were assigned to the Marines on landings on Saipan, Tinian, Peleliu, Guam, Palau, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Some of the feats of the MIS Nisei personnel are listed below:

Army MSgt Donald Okubo earned both the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for his work on Iwo Jima, Kwajalein and the Marshal Islands in rescuing civilians as a cave flusher and convincing Japanese soldiers to surrender. MSgt Okubo also participated with the 1st Marine Division in the invasions of Bougainville, Palau, Carolina Islands, and Peleliu.  MSgt Okubo returned to Hawaii and worked in a Navy document exploitation center towards the end of the war.

Hideto Kono was with the Marines in Saipan and Iwo Iima after the landings during translation of documents and identifying Japanese weapons. At Iwo Jima, he took part in persuading the enemy soldiers to come out of the caves in which they were hiding to prevent them being burned alive.

Yutaka Masuda was assigned to the Marines when he went to Iwo Jima in March 1945.  He translated captured documents and also patrolled the island with other GIs and three officers looking for enemy soldiers hiding in caves and persuading them to surrender. 

Dr. Henry Yokoyama was with the Marines during the last phase of the Iwo Jima campaign and was involved in the clearing out of holed-in enemy soldiers.

James H. Saito was attached to the 4th Marine Division for the Iwo Jima campaign.  He landed on 25 Feb. '45 (D plus 6). He was assigned to a team to investigate downed enemy aircraft and ascertain their place of manufacture, type and engine specs.  He was also involved in the interception of enemy radio transmissions and translations of captured documents.

Capt. Wallace S. Amioka headed a team of Nisei soldiers whose parents were from Okinawa and knew the Okinawa language and customs. Tom Ige, in this autobiography, The Boy from Kahaluu, describes how he suggested the formation of a special team of MIS Nisei whose parents were form Okinawa and who knew the language and customs of Okinawa.

Army PFC Nobuo Furuiye received the Purple Heart while serving with the 5th Marines on Iwo Jima. PFC Furuiye served for most of the war with Marine and Navy commands in Saipan, Guam, and mainland Japan.  He eventually became a Japanese instructor at DLI. 10

Japanese soldiers rarely surrendered, and rarely cooperated with interrogators. Stories of Japanese linguists pleading with the Japanese forces to surrender were common throughout the war.

The author of The Interpreter, David Hays, quoted below, best sums up Japanese language intelligence Marines in the Pacific:

“A considerable portion of the graduates of the 14 month Boulder program were commissioned in the USMCR sent to the Pacific Theatre of Operations, working at the Joint Intelligence Command Pacific Operating Area (JICPOA) reporting to Admiral Nimitz or the Allied Translation and Intelligence Service (ATIS) under General McArthur’s command. Together, these radio intercept, translation and interpretation centers provi ded the intelligence that allowed Nimitz and McArthur to hit the Japanese where they were weakest, bypassing the stronger positions.  Most Marine JLOs, however, served in Marine line units in intelligence shops at the Regimental or Divisional levels. Some served with the 2nd Raider Battalion on Bougainville, others went with their units to New Guinea, Pelileu, Iwo Jima, Guam and Okinawa where they swallowed dust and mud with their own fears along with their buddies in the foxholes.  We have photographs of JLOs translating Japanese documents in recently “liberated” defense works, on exposed hillsides, surrounding a cache of Japanese documents in an island rain forest, and interrogating Japanese POWs on Guam.  After the surrender, Marine JLOs participated in the capture of hundreds of thousands of bypassed Japanese troops, their interpretation vital to the negotiations. They were also crucial to the care and handling of more than a half million Japanese prisoners, many of whom were in China.  During the Occupation of Japan, JLOs participated in the Strategic Bombing Survey, along with surveys of Japanese industrial and military facilities and supplies. Some were active in the War Crimes Trials in Tokyo, Manila, and Nuremberg.  Although most of the linguists in Japan were from the Army, still some USMC JLOs were involved in Occupation administration.  Following the War, some Marine JLOs stayed in the Corps as intelligence officers, like Col Harry Pratt, LtCol William Croyle and Maj Elmer Stone. Others, Such as Mike Foley [recently passed away], John Erskine, and Paul Hauck, proud of their Marine service, went into the CIA, DIA, or the NSA and brought their expertise in Japanese with them. Former Marines, such as Halsey Wilbur and J. Owen Zurhellen, Jr., also took their Japanese language skills into diplomacy in the US Foreign Service, becoming ambassadors. Quite a few, like Edward Seidensticker, Roger Hackett and Sol Levine helped to expand the Nation’s understanding of Japan by increasing the number of Japanese and East Asian language and culture departments in colleges and universities.  Still more, like Houghton Freeman, Robert Sheeks and Jack Pierce, played roles in US/Japanese reconciliation. In these ways, both Marine and former Marine JLOs made a continuing contribution to the Nation’s security.” 11

When the war with Japan ended in 1945, Marine Corps numbered six divisions and five air wings. The 5th and the 6th Marine Divisions were sent to help disarm and repatriate the Japanese occupation forces in China. The 2nd and 5th Marine Divisions were assigned to disarm garrison forces on the islands which had been by-passed during the war. The 3rd and 4th Divisions were deactivated. The lst Marine Aircraft Wing supported the ground troops in China and the Second Wing returned to Cherry Point, N.C. The 3rd 4th and 9th Wings were deactivated. During the year following the end of the war, the Marine Corps accomplished a demobilization which cut its size from six to two, almost 5000,000 men to about 100,000 by the end of 1946. At this time the 2nd Division and the 2nd Wing were based in North Carolina and the 1st Marine Division and 1st Wing in China. It was not until late in 1949 that the last Marine units left China and returned to the United States. The 1st Marine Division and the 1st Wing were based in southern California until the outbreak of the Korean War.

Training for intelligence Marines (the Military Intelligence Center- MITC) was moved at the end of the World War II to Fort Holabird near Baltimore, MD (1947?). Ft Holabird eventually developed the Interrogation Course that became the Interrogation of Prisoners of War (IPW) Course at Ft Huachuca, AZ. In 1989 the Marines established their own IPW Course in Virginia Beach, VA.

Footnotes

1 ASIJ Shimbun Newsletter, Spring 1987.

2 Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, The Interpreter, No 18, March 15, 2001.

3 Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, The Interpreter, No 20, April 15, 2001

4 Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, The Interpreter, No 32, 15 Oct 2001

5 By Kathy Fotheringham (DC Military Archives, U.S. Army) 'Cloak of secrecy' veils camp during WWII Ritchie stages 'enemy' scenarios

6 http://nasaa-home.org/history/schools.htm

7 Col. Harry D. Pratt, USMC(Ret) JLS, 1945, Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, The Interpreter, No 26, 15 Jul 2001

8 Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, The Interpreter, No 48, 1 Jul 2002

9 www.javadc.org -- The ranking Nisei was a PFC (sic). The soldiers receiving the belated recognition were T/3 Shigeru Yamashita, T/3 Jim Masaru Ariyasu and Tech Sgt. Mac Nagata (sic).

10 www.javadc.org-- Nisei were Japanese descent Americans serving in the armed forces. Many were “recruited from the internment camps (they were given “a way out” of the camps in exchange for their service). PFC Furuiye did not look fondly upon his service with the Navy and Marines and was upset that the Navy and Marines never recognized the Nisei for their service (for a variety of incidents). Hope this recognition may make up for it in some small way.

11 Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, The Interpreter, No 61, 15 Mar 2003

Copyright by Doug Brower