Sexo

Male

Birth date

1920-9-19

Local de nascimento

Pahoa, Hawaii HI, U.S.A.

Inducted

1944-1-3, Hilo HI

Tipo de alistamento

Volunteer

Ramo das Forças Armadas

Army

Tipo de serviço

War

Tipo de Unidade

Support

Unidades onde serviu

11th Airborne Division; 441st Army Counter-Intelligence Corps

Military specialty

Intelligence NCO 0631; Investigator 1301 (concurrent with 0631)

Stationed

USA - Camp Savage, MN; Fort Snelling, MN; Philippines; Okinawa; Japan

Separated

Army Sep Center, Oahu HI

Unit responsibility

Investigated violations of the SCAP (Supreme Commander - Allied Powers: General Douglas MacArthur) directives, subversive activities where Japanese military troops were involved, all disqualified political candidates, individuals who had cached military goods, and the rich absentee land owners who exploited tenant farmers. We also helped implement the SCAP-ordered Land Reform Act (which made it possible for tenant farmers to buy land at reasonable prices from former landlords) and interviewed suspected war criminals to obtain evidence against them as well as to obtain information about others.

Personal responsibility

Conduct investigations enumerated in the previous paragraph.

Awards, medals, citations (individual or unit)

Philippine Liberation Medal; World War II Victory Medal; Army of Occupation Medal w/Japan Clasp; Good Conduct Medal

Living conditions

In Army barracks in the States and in Japan; tent city in Manila, Philippines and individual pup tents on Okinawa.

Makeshift cold shower in the Philippines; Since we were bivouacked in a staging area on Okinawa, there were no bathroom showers whatsoever - we bathed in the North Pacific Ocean.

Ate only C rations (in cans).

There were no sources of entertainment in war ravaged Manila nor on Okinawa.

Most vivid memory of military experience

The saddest moment was when I attended funeral service for the 10 linguists who perished in a fiery plane crash at Naha, Okinawa on 13 August 1945, all of whom I had known personally.

In mid-August 1945, General MacArthur gave the 11th Airborne Division, then in the Philippines, the honor of being the first American Division to enter Tokyo. The division rushed its various elements from the Philippines to the staging area on Okinawa. On 29 August, 1945, the 11th Airborne was the first to land in Japan to take up ocupational duties. As a member of the advance party of the 11th Airborne, I rode on a U.S. Army C-50 transport plane from Kadena Airfield on Okinawa and landed at the Atsugi Air Station South of Yokohama City, Kanagawa prefecture. I was quite apprehensive, not knowing what to expect from the until-recent enemy. Also, I was overcome with emotion when I realized that I had set foot on the land of my ancestors, and my immigrant parents.

Missed most whilst in the military

Privacy and freedom.

Most important thing, personally, to come from military experience?

My U.S.Army military intelligence service experience was the stepping stone to a later career in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). I was hired by the CIA on 10 January 1952. I worked from 1952 to 1970 in the Clandestine Service of CIA. Following specialized training and on-the-job experience, I advanced through the ranks from Junior Officer GS-5 to GS-15. On August 19, 1968, I was awarded the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit. The best years of my life were those when I was employed by the CIA! It was exciting, challenging, intriguing, and rewarding. There was no discrimination against minorities within the CIA; we were promoted on the basis of ability and accomplishments. America is truly a great nation with opportunities for all.

Additional information

I was in the February 1944 term class at the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) at Camp Savage/Fort Snelling, Minnesota. The 9-month course consisted of: reading, writing, and speaking Japanese; translation, interpretation, and interrogation; captured document analysis; Japanese military and technical terms; applied tactics and military strategy; Japanese geography and map-reading; radio monitoring; Japanese social, political, economic, and cultural background; cursive writing (sosho), and order of battle of the Japanese Army.