America's Weapon in WWII

              AMERICA'S SECRET WEAPON IN WORLD WAR II
The history of Japanese Americans who resolutely served the United States
in World War II to bring about the Allied victory over Japan is a magnificent
story.
6,000 Nisei (Japanese Americans) served in the U.S. Military Intelligence
Service (MIS) during World War II and fought covertly against the land of their
ancestry, contributing tremendously to the Allied victory. They were literally, America's superb secret human weapon then, and what they did has been one
of the best-kept secrets of the war.
Their role was truly indispensable and unique, for they employed a
devastatingly effective weapon, their knowledge of the enemy's complex and difficult language, which very few persons beside them on the Allied side could
understand or use. They were superbly resourceful, courageous and loyal soldiers who served without fanfare in all campaigns and all fronts of the
far-flung war throughout the Pacific, in China, India and Burma, and even in
Europe where they secretly intercepted the enemy's diplomatic communications.
Yet, despite the contributions and sacrifices made by them, their role
in that war had to remain an untold military secret all these years until only
very recently.  It is a remarkable story without parallel.
The Role and Accomplishments of the Nisei Military Intelligence Soldiers
The "Go For Broke" exploits of the Nisei 442nd Infantry Regiment
have been well publicized and recognized, and rightfully so, as the
unsurpassed combat record of Japanese-Americans who fought as an integral
military unit in Italy and France.  The MIS story, on the other hand, is
one of numerous small units of Nisei soldiers who operated in detachments
of ten to twenty men assigned to every combat division, army corp and
every campaign in the war against Japan.
It is also the story of much larger groups who served at intelligence
centers at army and area headquarters level.  Three main intelligence
centers were operated, in the Southwest Pacific Area under General Douglas
MacArthur, the Central Pacific Ocean Area under Admiral Chester Nimitz,
and the China-Burma-India Area (CBI) under General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell.
The largest of these centers was at MacArthur's headquarters and known as
ATIS (Allied Translator Interpreter Section), which had as many as 3,000
Nisei at its peak.  The other centers were JICPOA (Joint Intelligence
Center, Pacific Ocean Area) and SATIC (Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center).
In the Solomon Islands they translated an intercepted enemy radio
message which revealed that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief
of Japan's naval forces, was to arrive at a certain time at Rabaul in a
flight of two Betty bombers from Truk.  Rabaul was at an extreme flying
range of U.S. P-38 fighters, allowing only 15 minutes flight over the target area, but the Admiral's arrival was successfully ambushed and the planes
were destroyed.  General MacArthur referred to this as the one most singularly significant action of the war.
Prior to U.S. landings in the Philippines in October, 1944, thanks to
translation done by MIS men, the Japanese Navy's master plan for defending
the Philippines was known to Allied forces.  As enemy fleets responded to
U.S. landings on Leyte, the U.S. navy was able to thwart the counter attacks
and annihilate the enemy forces.
Another major coup was capture and translation in 1944 of the enemy's
Z-Plan, the Imperial Navy's strategy for defending the Marianas Islands
against the U.S. Navy's carrier forces.  As the U.S. invasion of the Marianas
(Guam and Saipan) unfolded, Admiral Raymond Spruance's carrier fleet and
submarines dealt a death blow to the counter-attacking Japanese carrier
forces.  The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot resulted, a complete debacle for
the enemy.  Hundreds of enemy planes were swept from the skies, and Japanese
aircraft carriers were never again able to fight the war. The MIS Nisei
made all this possible.
On Okinawa in 1945, the last and bloodiest battle of the war, lasting
over two months, the enemy's fate was sealed by two vital pieces of intelligence translated by the Nisei.  One was the enemy's final main defense plan,
issued a month before the U.S. landings, that was captured early in the
fighting.  It was a brilliant plan which accurately predicted the date and
site of the U.S. landings and the strategy of the U.S. forces.  The enemy's
intentions and strategy were made clear through the translation.
The other was a minutely detailed full contour map of Okinawa, recovered
from the body of an enemy artillery observation officer.  The U.S. map of
the island had been created from B-29 aerial reconnaissance photos, and it was
highly inadequate, with most the inland terrain only roughly shown and with
many blank areas.  The enemy map was translated overnight on an overlay,
flown to Pearl Harbor for reproduction, and 72 hours later 12,000 copies were
delivered back to Okinawa and distributed to all units. From then on it
guided all the U.S. ground action and artillery fire.
Maj. General Charles Willoughby, G-2, intelligence chief of MacArthur's
command, unequivocally stated, "The Nisei saved countless Allied lives and
shortened the war by two years."
Through it all, as indispensable translators of captured enemy documents, interrogators of enemy POWs and persuaders of enemy surrender, they
were superbly effective.  They also worked laboriously over tons of enemy
documents — maps, battle plans, diaries, letters, records, manuals — at
area headquarters, producing voluminous intelligence of all sorts that
affected Allied strategy and operations.  The men of ATIS, for example,
produced 20-million pages of translations.
General MacArthur was able to state with pride, "Never in military
history did an army know so much about the enemy prior to actual engagement.
Major General Frank D. Merrill in Burma said, "As for the value of the
Nisei, I couldn't have gotten along without them." And he ordered his men,
Merrill's Marauders, to protect with their lives the 14-man team of MIS
Nisei under his command.