The government imprisoned people for teaching Japanese, while secretly teaching it themselves.
November 1, 1941: The first Japanese American recruits joined the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), tasked with mastering the Japanese language in an unprecedentedly short time.
One month before Pearl Harbor, the U.S. quietly began training Japanese American recruits in military intelligence. Their task: master the Japanese language in record time. Ironically, the government would imprison thousands for speaking or teaching the very same language just months later.
In the tense days leading up to World War II, America’s military planners realized that Japanese linguists would be essential. But there was a problem: very few white Americans spoke fluent Japanese. So the Army turned to the Nisei — second-generation Japanese Americans — and created a secret training program at the Presidio of San Francisco. Thirty-five men joined that first class.
Meanwhile, as the MIS Language School (MISLS) was being formed, the FBI raided homes, arrested Japanese language teachers, and shut down cultural programs. Across the West Coast, Japanese language was viewed with suspicion, even criminality. Families who had encouraged bilingualism before the war suddenly found themselves targeted.
Crates for Desks, Flashlights for Study Lamps
The War Department was initially hesitant to fund the new school. After pressure from a few farsighted officers, they approved a meager $2,000 budget. The school opened in an abandoned airplane hangar on Crissy Field at the Presidio. Desks and chairs were originally made from orange crates and scrap wood.
Classes were taught by four Nisei instructors. The program was intense: classes began at 8:00 am, ran ten hours a day, and students often studied until “lights out” at 11:00 pm. Some continued under their blankets with flashlights. Others moved to the latrine — the only place with lights after dark.
The curriculum was more than language. It included Japanese law, culture, military codes, army slang, interrogation tactics, and even classical writing styles that were difficult to master even for native speakers. Despite the hardships, 45 students graduated in May 1942. One quarter of the class failed, not because they weren’t dedicated, but because the demands were so high.
Invisible Soldiers, Silent Victories
As Japanese Americans were being removed from the West Coast, the MIS program quietly moved inland to Camp Savage, Minnesota, to continue expanding. By 1944, it had outgrown Savage and moved to Fort Snelling. At its peak in 1946, the program had 160 instructors and 3,000 students studying in more than 125 classrooms.
In total, over 6,000 Nisei men and women served in the MIS. They translated captured documents, intercepted communications, interrogated prisoners, and helped convince Japanese troops and civilians to surrender, saving countless lives on both sides.
But their contributions remained classified for decades. Partly because of Cold War sensitivities, and partly because they complicated the government’s narrative of Japanese Americans as potential threats. It’s a quiet contradiction: the U.S. government imprisoned Japanese Americans for being too Japanese, then quietly relied on them to win the war.
A Legacy of Service, Which Was Also Classified
General Charles Willoughby, intelligence chief for General MacArthur, later said the MIS “saved countless lives and shortened the war by two years,” and President Harry S. Truman referred to the MIS as a “human secret weapon.”
What began as a shoestring experiment in a cold hangar became the forerunner of today’s Defense Language Institute, which trains thousands of military linguists around the world.
But more than that, it proved something deeper: loyalty is not defined by race or ancestry. The men and women of the MIS had every reason to say no. Instead, they said yes — not because they were naïve, but because they believed that America, for all its flaws, was still worth fighting for. Their story was kept silent for over 30 years.
But today, it’s no secret it speaks volumes.