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. Over the next four years, the school graduated nearly 6,000 military linguists, including dozens of Nisei women and hundreds of Caucasians. Nisei Linguists tells the remarkable story of those who served with Army and Marine units from Guadalcanal to the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Their duties included translation, interrogation, radio monitoring, and psychological warfare. They staffed theater-level intelligence centers such as the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section in the Southwest Pacific Area. In China, Burma, and India they served with the Office of Strategic Services, Merrill?s Marauders, and Commonwealth forces. Others served with the Army Air Forces or within the continental United States. At war?s end, the Nisei facilitated local surrenders of Japanese forces as well as the occupation. Working in military government, war crimes trials, censorship, and counterintelligence, the MIS Nisei contributed to the occupation?s ultimate success. On the Military Intelligence Branch History Reading List 2012.

Shipping list no.: 2007-0168-P. Includes maps of: Western Defense Command, 1941; South and Southwest Pacific Areas - Operations, May 1942-February 1943; War Relocation Centers, 1942-1946; Japanese-Language Training Programs, 1942-1945; Aleutians - Operations, 1942-1943; South and Southwest Pacific Areas - Operations, 1943; Military Intelligence Service - Nisei Linguist Locations, 1942-1945; South and Southwest Pacific Areas - Operations, November 1943-December 1944; Central Pacific Area - Operations, 1944; China-Burma-India - Area of Operations, 1944-1945; Burma - Operations, 1944-1945; Philippines - Operations, 1945; Central and Southwest Pacific Areas - Operations, January-August 1945; Ryukyu Islands - Operations, March-June 1945; Japanese Forces - Pacific Theater, August-September 1945; Occupied Japan - U.S. Unit Locations, January 1946; Occupied Japan - Principal Reception Centers, 30 September 1945-31 December 1948. MI Hall of Fame

The U.S. Army and the Nisei before Pearl Harbor -- Fourth Army intelligence school, November 1941-May 1942 -- MIS Nisei pioneers, May 1942-February 1943 -- Camp Savage, 1942-1943 -- Camp Savage, 1943-1944 -- MIS Nisei in the campaigns of 1943 -- MIS Nisei serving in the continental United States, 1943-1945 -- MIS Nisei in the campaigns of 1944 -- Fort Snelling, 1944-1945 -- MIS Nisei in the campaigns of 1945 -- MIS Nisei and the surrender of Japan, August-September 1945 -- MIS Nisei and the early occupation of Japan, September 1945-February 1946 -- Epilogue: MIS Nisei and history.