Soldiers' Stories | Asian & Pacific Islander American Soldiers: Print + DVD

At the start of World War, II the U.S. Army turned to Americans of Japanese ancestry to provide vital intelligence against Japanese forces in the Pacific. Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II tells the story of these soldiers, how the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) recruited and trained them, and how they served in every battle and campaign in the war against Japan. Months before Pearl Harbor, the Western Defense Command (WDC) selected sixty Nisei soldiers for Japanese-language training. When the WDC forcibly removed more than 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, MIS continued to recruit Nisei from the relocation camps and later from Hawaii.

After the Pearl Harbor attack, Ben Kuroki would be the first Japanese-American war hero, surviving 58 missions as an aerial gunner. But he found himself at the center of controversy, as the lone spokesman against the racism faced by the thousands of Japanese-Americans.

This is the complex story of a Japanese immigrant family ripped apart by WWII. The Matsumoto family included five sons; two who fought for the Americans and three who fought for the Japanese. The eldest, Hiroshi (Roy), became a hero, fighting against the Japanese with Merrill's Marauders, an American guerrilla unit in Burma. He was born near Los Angeles, educated in Japan, and used his Japanese language skills and military training to save his surrounded, starving battalion deep in the Burmese jungle. At the same time his parents and sisters were living in their family’s ancestral home, Hiroshima. The story is told by Roy’s daughter Karen as she discovers her father’s work in military intelligence, kept secret for 50 years.

This film tells the story of a Japanese American who played a crucial strategic role in World War II. He and his fellow Nisei from Hawaii combatted prejudice and discrimination to loyally serve their country. Their extraordinary service, mostly untold, ultimately changed the course of U.S. history. Kazuo Yamane's father, Uichi, came to Hawaii in the late 19th century with nothing and built a business empire. His eldest son, Kazuo, first educated in the discriminatory school system in Hawaii, eventually graduated from Waseda University, the Harvard of Japan, and returned to Hawaii just before the Pearl Harbor attack. Drafted just before the war he became part of what would be the War Department's most successful social experiment, taking Nisei troops from Hawaii and forming the 100th Infantry Battalion, a unit made up of a group entirely related to a country we were at war with. Their success was spectacular, but Kazuo was plucked from their ranks for his exceptional knowledge of Japanese, which would lead him to the Pentagon, to a secret facility in northern Maryland, and finally to serving under Eisenhower in Europe.

Arthur Komori, a Nisei from Hawai'i, was one of two Japanese Americans recruited to the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) to pose as Japanese sympathizers and spy on Japan's activities in Manila in the months leading up to World War II. When the war started, this Nisei served his country as a translator and undercover agent both on the front lines and behind the scenes in General MacArthur's headquarters, even while at home over 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned in relocation camps. More than just a spy, Komori's varied responsibilities also included interrogating prisoners of war and helping to train new linguist recruits and prepare them for work in the Pacific. Komori was also with MacArthur when he retook the Philippines and was in Tokyo Bay to witness the surrender of the Japanese to the Allied Powers. Fortunately, Komori recorded his story in journals, reports, and even poetry. This long overdue account of a decorated Military Intelligence Hall of Fame inductee reveals an important chapter in the history of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Reprinted from the original edition published by the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, History Office in 1987. See page 29, Chapter: Undercover Nisei: "The United States owes an incalculable debt to the Japanese-Americans who contributes so significantly to the Allied victory in World War II."

An account from Sidney Mashbir that includes a look into his work with Japanese American Soldiers in Military Intelligence and the Nisei. See Chapter 13, page 242: "I want to make an unequivocal statement in regard to the Americans of Japanese ancestry, who, being American citizens fought by our side in the war. Had it not been for the loyalty, fidelity, patriotism, and the ability of these American Nisei, that part of the war in the Pacific which was dependent upon Intelligence gleaned from captured documents and prisoners of war would have been a far more hazardous long-drawn-out affair."

Part of Hill and Wang's Critical Issues Series and well established on college reading lists, PRISONERS WITHOUT TRIAL presents a concise introduction to a shameful chapter in American history: the incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. With a revised final chapter and expanded recommended readings, Roger Daniels's updated edition examines a tragic event in our nation's past and thoughtfully asks if it could happen again.