SCHOOL AND TRAINING CAMPS
In summer 1941, war against Japan seemed imminent. General John
Weckerling and Colonel Kai E. Rasmussen recognized the importance
of having Army men skilled in the Japanese language. They proposed
to the War Department the necessity of a Japanese language school.
Despite the doubt of such a program succeeding, Rasmussen was
given permission and a $2,000 budget to start a school.
On November 1, 1941, five weeks prior to the attack on Pearl
Harbor, the Military
Intelligence Service (MIS) and the Military
Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), then-called
the Fourth Army Intelligence School, was created at Crissy Field,
Presidio, San Francisco. School commenced at an abandoned airplane
hangar where classrooms consisted of boxes and crates to serve
as chairs and tables. All the materials needed were scrounged
from the main post while mimeographs were used to reproduce textbooks.
John Aiso, chosen the chief instructor of the school, worked with
seven other instructors in its first class.
The MISLS curriculum mainly emphasized military aspects of the
Japanese language (heigo).
Translation of textbooks and documents, POW interrogation and
studying the cursive style of Japanese writing (sosho)
was also included. Though students had to learn everything within
six months, all passed with flying colors.
The first class of the MISLS consisted of 60 students and 45
of them graduated in May 1942. These graduates were sent to Guadalcanal
and the Aleutian
Islands. The MIS proved its worth by translating documents
and interrogating captives, obtaining vital information that led
to victory. Upon hearing its value, several units and field commanders
of both American and Allied forces who were once skeptical of
the MIS requested its assistance. While the school proved its
success, the outbreak of war and Executive
Order 9066 forced the school to the interior.
Camp Savage, located in Savage, Minnesota near Minneapolis was
chosen as the new MISLS site. The governor of Minnesota, Harold
E. Stassen kindly welcomed the school to his state. With new students
and a larger staff, classes began in May 1942. By 1944, over 1,000
students, including Nisei
and Caucasian soldiers enrolled at Savage. It became apparent
that a larger facility was needed, so the school moved again to
nearby Fort Snelling, Minnesota. More than 3,000 students went
through training at the new school. In May 1946, Fort Snelling
graduated its last class of students and moved back to the historic
Presidio, Monterey site in June. The school was renamed the U.S.
Army Language School.
After the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945, the MISLS shifted
its emphasis from military to general Japanese. Instead of learning
heigo and military tactics, the focus became civil terminology,
Japanese government and administration.
