One of only two known Japanese American spies in WWII later retired as a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.
April 7, 1941: Richard Sakakida, a Hawai‘i-born U.S. citizen, was sent to the Philippines to spy on Japan.
Months before Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army sent Richard Sakakida and fellow Nisei operative Arthur Komori to the Philippines on an undercover intelligence mission.
As far as the U.S. government ever publicly identified, they were the only two known Japanese American spies of World War II.
The irony is hard to miss: the only Japanese American spies the government could point to were the two it had created itself.
Sakakida was chosen precisely because he could move within Japanese circles without drawing suspicion. The country that would soon question Japanese American loyalty had already learned how valuable that identity could be.
Richard Sakakida, Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). He excelled in Japanese-language studies and emerged as one of the top performers in U.S. Army intelligence training.
Both Richard Sakakida and Arthur Komori (photographed) were recruited to pose as Japanese sailors who had jumped the ship in the Philippines to avoid the draft.
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
A staged photo of the American surrender at Corregidor, where Richard Sakakida helped translate the surrender message into Japanese after the fall of the island.
Bilibid Prison near Manila, where Sgt. Sakakida helped orchestrate the escape of more than 500 Filipino guerrillas and Allied prisoners in one of the largest prison break.
Behind Enemy Lines
Everything changed when Japan invaded the Philippines.
Sakakida was captured and forced to work as an interpreter for the occupying army, a role that placed him in constant danger.
Outwardly, he served the Japanese military. Quietly, he helped American POWs survive.
In 1945, he helped engineer the escape of more than 500 prisoners from Bilibid Prison, one of the largest prison breaks of the Pacific War. What began as espionage had become survival, resistance, and rescue.
The Spy Who Stayed in Uniform
After the war, Sakakida continued serving the United States.
He testified in war crimes trials, remained in military intelligence, and eventually retired in 1975 as a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.
The government once sent him undercover because he looked like the enemy.
He spent the rest of his life proving exactly who he was.
After the war, some U.S. soldiers didn’t believe Sgt. Sakakida until fellow Nisei spy Arthur Komori confirmed he had been working undercover for America all along.
Richard M. Sakakida later retired as a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, ending a career that began with one of the most extraordinary undercover missions.