(OK, I did it again, read a W.E,B. Griffin fiction book, Series "The Corps, Book IV, Battleground", has some regards Guadalcanal. And I went to check out some questions. Ugg! Truth seemed worse than fiction!)
http://www.mcitta.org/rollofhonor.htm http://www.mcitta.org/cenotaph_wwii.htm MERLE RALPH CORY was in his mid 40's and working as a civilian cryptanalysis at the OP-20-GZ (Translation and Dissemination Section), the organization responsible for breaking the Japanese cryptic code prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Then Mr. Cory, was the translator who intercepted the encrypted message warning of the Pearl Harbor attack. Following December 7th, he resigned to join the Marine Corps. He was too old for a regular enlistment, but was offered a direct commission as a 2nd Lieutenant to fill the Marine Corps' crisis shortage of Japanese linguists. Cory was assigned to the S-2 of the Fifth Marines of the 1st Marine Division. He soon found himself aboard ship heading for Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942. On Guadalcanal, Lt Cory interrogated several Japanese prisoners of war, discovering that a large number of Japanese "Marines" and laborers were willing to surrender. Based on this information, LtCol Frank Goettge organized a 25-man patrol, along with Lt Cory, to bring them in. On August 12, The Goettge Patrol deployed to the designated area and was immediately taken under fire from the Japanese. Col Goettge was killed with the first burst of fire, and Lt Cory fell gravely wounded with a bullet in the stomach. The ensuing battle left the entire patrol killed, save three. Cory was listed as missing in action on 13 August 1942, which was changed to Killed in Action (body not recovered) a year later. Lt Merle Ralph Cory, USMCR is honored with a headstone erected in New Tacoma Cemetery, Tacoma, Washington.
Leatherneck: Star-Crossed Translator Story by Dick Camp Second Lt Merle Ralph Cory was an expert cryptanalyst, who, ---- joined the Corps and went to war. His comprehensive knowledge of the American code-breaking successes caused many to second-guess the decision that allowed him to risk capture by the Japanese.
Ralph Cory should never have been ---- at Guadalcanal. It was government policy that anyone connected with MAGIC was expressly prohibited from combat or duty that put them in close proximity to the enemy. He slipped through the cracks ---. He saw his duty as being at the front, not "pencil pushing" in the rear. 2004 Leatherneck Magazine. All rights reserved.
(I believe these two partial paragraphs are within "fair use", check the sites and other searches for more details.)
On Oct 25, 11:10 pm, "a425couple" <a425cou...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> MERLE RALPH CORY .. was the translator who intercepted the > encrypted message warning of the Pearl Harbor attack.
Alarm bell! There was no such message.
Also, this is a very garbled statements. Messages were "intercepted" by radio monitoring stations, The intercepted ciphertexts, and the associated callsigns and other metadata, were passed to the signals intelligence HQ, which performed "traffic analysis" (i.e. seeing what could be learned from the callsigns and message volume). Signals also passed the ciphertext to the cryptanalysts. who deciphered the messags if possible, The deciphered message was then passed to translators who rendered them into English, and analysts who examined the content.
If Mr. Cory was a translator, he was not involved in interception or decryption. OTOH Japanese language skills would be useful to a cryptanalyst (perhaps necessary, since deciphering Japanese texts would require good knowledge of Japanese alphabets and text patterns). Also, of course, to an analyst.
> Ralph Cory should never have been ---- at Guadalcanal.
Absolutely.
> He slipped through the cracks ...
On his own initiative, or by bureaucratic error?
> He saw his duty as being at the front, not > "pencil pushing" in the rear.
This implies it was his idea. He should have been overruled.
The British government had a rule that anyone associated with the decryption activities at Bletchley Park couldn't even leave Britain - except I guess to go to the U.S. after the U.S. joined the Enigma-breaking effort. (This obviously applied to the cryptanalysts, not to the SLU officers and others who delivered ULTRA intelligence to field HQs.)
Many young men were thus "trapped", despite their earnest desire for combat service.
I have read of a young man who, after being assigned to Bletchley Park, received a letter from his former school headmaster denouncing him as a "shirker" - and of course could not defend himself, even to stating in general terms the secret nature and importance of his work.
I can well understand how Cory might have wanted to evade the restriction on MAGIC participants. If he was in his 40s, he had been old enough to serve in WW I; and possibly he was embarrassed at not seeing combat then.
"Rich Rostrom" <rrostrom.21stcent...@rcn.com> wrote ...
>"a425couple" <a425cou...@hotmail.com> wrote: >> MERLE RALPH CORY .. was the translator who intercepted the >> encrypted message warning of the Pearl Harbor attack. > Alarm bell! There was no such message. > Also, this is a very garbled statements. --- > If Mr. Cory was a translator, he was not involved > in interception or decryption. OTOH Japanese > language skills would be useful to a cryptanalyst > (perhaps necessary, since deciphering Japanese > texts would require good knowledge of Japanese > alphabets and text patterns). Also, of course, to > an analyst.
I certainly agree with all the above. So "garbled" in fact, that I was pretty much dismissing the first two sites that gave reference to him. (I'd been surprised that the fiction of Lt. Cory was a real name! The fiction raised major "alarm bells" just on the fear that as a experienced translator he might have had knowledge/supposition of the existance of "Magic" = fact we could read their messages).
I felt it best to just leave those quotes "as is/was". Because "The Leatherneck" and others verify the core issue - which is he knew of "Magic", and was definitely in harms way!
>> Ralph Cory should never have been ---- at Guadalcanal. > Absolutely. >> He slipped through the cracks ... > On his own initiative, or by bureaucratic error?
Certainly, he had his "own agenda".
That is why I said "Opps!" Mistakes happen in a huge bureaucracy functioning in real time with individuals, and their actions----. (especially in WWII times, pre computer data bases)
> Many young men were thus "trapped", despite > their earnest desire for combat service. > I have read of a young man who, after being > assigned to Bletchley Park, received a letter ---
The feelings described in your example are very true, and long lasting. True for me, for many in my cohort, generations before and after. (ehhhh, I'll just skip my silly past situation ---)
Prados talks about this in "Combine Fleet Decoded". According to Prados, Corry [Prados's spelling] had been "working on Japanese codes in Washington" before being assigned as an interpreter for the 5th Marines. He doesn't go into any further details, which is probably significant, seeming to suggest he was not one of the code breakers. As Mr. Rostrom says, none of the code breakers would have been allowed into combat.
Alan wrote: > Prados talks about this in "Combine Fleet Decoded". According to > Prados, Corry [Prados's spelling] had been "working on Japanese codes > in Washington" before being assigned as an interpreter for the 5th > Marines. He doesn't go into any further details, which is probably > significant, seeming to suggest he was not one of the code breakers. > As Mr. Rostrom says, none of the code breakers would have been allowed > into combat.
More to the point, the translators would almost certainly not be told what the source of their material was.
-- William Black
"Any number under six"
The answer given by Englishman Richard Peeke when asked by the Duke of Medina Sidonia how many Spanish sword and buckler men he could beat single handed with a quarterstaff.
William Black wrote: > Alan wrote: >> Prados talks about this in "Combine Fleet Decoded". According to >> Prados, Corry [Prados's spelling] had been "working on Japanese codes >> in Washington" before being assigned as an interpreter for the 5th >> Marines. He doesn't go into any further details, which is probably >> significant, seeming to suggest he was not one of the code breakers. >> As Mr. Rostrom says, none of the code breakers would have been allowed >> into combat. > More to the point, the translators would almost certainly not be told > what the source of their material was.
Wouldn't the source be readily apparent from the context?
> More to the point, the translators would almost certainly not be told > what the source of their material was.
And how long do you think it would take for them to figure it out? A couple of days? Hours?
The translators had to know they were reading Japanese naval or diplomatic communications. How would they be able to do their jobs properly if they weren't told that? They wouldn't need to be told any details about codes, etc., but they couldn't possibly not recognize what they were reading day after day.
pbromag...@aol.com wrote: > illiam Black wrote: >> More to the point, the translators would almost certainly not be told >> what the source of their material was.
> And how long do you think it would take for them to figure it out? A > couple of days? Hours?
> The translators had to know they were reading Japanese naval or > diplomatic communications. How would they be able to do their jobs > properly if they weren't told that? They wouldn't need to be told any > details about codes, etc., but they couldn't possibly not recognize > what they were reading day after day.
But they wouldn't have known what the source was, especially with MAGIC where the obvious source was that the stuff could have been received from a suborned clerk.
-- William Black
"Any number under six"
The answer given by Englishman Richard Peeke when asked by the Duke of Medina Sidonia how many Spanish sword and buckler men he could beat single handed with a quarterstaff.
Bill Shatzer wrote: > William Black wrote: >> Alan wrote:
>>> Prados talks about this in "Combine Fleet Decoded". According to >>> Prados, Corry [Prados's spelling] had been "working on Japanese codes >>> in Washington" before being assigned as an interpreter for the 5th >>> Marines. He doesn't go into any further details, which is probably >>> significant, seeming to suggest he was not one of the code breakers. >>> As Mr. Rostrom says, none of the code breakers would have been allowed >>> into combat.
>> More to the point, the translators would almost certainly not be told >> what the source of their material was.
> Wouldn't the source be readily apparent from the context?
Depends on what he was working on.
Diplomatic telegrams had been stolen before...
-- William Black
"Any number under six"
The answer given by Englishman Richard Peeke when asked by the Duke of Medina Sidonia how many Spanish sword and buckler men he could beat single handed with a quarterstaff.
> But they wouldn't have known what the source was, especially with MAGIC > where the obvious source was that the stuff could have been received > from a suborned clerk.
This is unrealistic. A suborned clerk could never keep up a stream of documents in almost real time. And after December 7, just what clerk available to any US personnel would ever have access to communications between, say, the Japanese Foreign Ministry and the imperial ambassador to Nazi Germany?
If you were sitting in Washington on Dec 9, translating a communication from Berling to Tokyo referring to Hitlers reaction on Dec 8 to the events of Dec 7, wouldn't you have a pretty good idea how it got to you?
> > But they wouldn't have known what the source was, > >especially with MAGIC.... > This is unrealistic..
Yes, it is. The MAGIC production line was broken down into three sections, each well aware of what the others were doing.
First there were the intercept stations. Next the cryptographic group where the actual breaking of the coded messages into readable Japanese took place. Finally there were the translators.
The bottleneck was often in the translation section because of the heavy volume of traffic being intercepted and broken, and the limited number of translators.
As Kahn points out in his monumental work, "The Codebreakers:" ..."Interpreters of Japanese were even scarcer than expert cryptanalysts. Security precluded employing Nisei or any but the most trustworthy Americans. The Navy scoured the country for acceptable translators and ....in 1941 it doubled its translation staff--to six. These included three whom Kramer (head of OP-20GZ) called 'the most highly killed Occidentals in the Japanese language in the world.'"
On Oct 27, 1:39 pm, "pbromag...@aol.com" <pbromag...@aol.com> wrote:
> This is unrealistic. A suborned clerk could never keep up a stream of > documents in almost real time.
Furthermore, intercepted messages were often imperfect, with missing or garbled letters. This of course would be very different from stolen messages, which would be perfect.
On Oct 28, 1:03 am, "wjhopw...@aol.com" <wjhopw...@aol.com> wrote:
> The bottleneck was often in the translation section because > of the heavy volume of traffic being intercepted and broken, > and the limited number of translators.
Unfortunately, because of paranoia and racism, the Japanese Americans were, for the most part, not allowed to serve in this respect.
*Very early in the war the USMC did recruit some language officers from this source. "Combined Fleet Decoded" John Prados
> > The bottleneck was often in the translation section because > > of the heavy volume of traffic being intercepted and broken, > > and the limited number of translators.
> Unfortunately, because of paranoia and racism, the Japanese > Americans were, for the most part, not allowed to serve in this > respect. *Very early in the war the USMC did recruit some > language officers from this source. "Combined Fleet Decoded" > John Prados
Well, it wasn't "racism," and after the suprise at Pearl Harbor there was much for the U.S. to be paranoid about. We were at war with nation of Japan, not the heritage of the ethnic Japanese.
It was only prudent that JAs were precluded from working on the highly sensitive MAGIC program for myriad reasons among which were the following: Most Nisei over age 17 at the time were dual citizen (Japanese and American). Also, pre-Pearl Harbor code-breaking of Japanese diplomatic messages had themselves revealed the existence of Japanese agents among the West Coast Japanese population. There were numerous Japanese patriotic societies made up of Nisei and Issei who were sending money to Japan for the Japanese war effort in Asia, as well as large number of JAs in Japan at the time. On the West Coast there were, among the Nisei,thousands of who had been educated in Japan who had returned to the U.S., having had training in and holding reserve status in the Japanese armed forces.
As for Prados, let me point out that he doesn't actually say any Nisei served in the Marine Corps. He only notes that before the war some Nisei were recruited by the Marines on the West Coast and brought to Hawaii to attend classes at Univ. of Hawaii to brush up on the Japanese language. Indeed, Prados notes that such recruitment was stopped when FDR's EO9066 (exclusion order) was issued after Pearl Harbor.
The Army did, however, accept and train several thousand Nisei to be used as translators and interpreters and a few of these were temporarily attached to the Marines at Iwo Jima where bull horns were rigged in trying to flush the Japanese out of their caves, with little success.
Interestingly, Prados does note that a Nisei was among those accompanying the high-ranking team of Japanese officers who came to Manila after the surrender to work out the surrender
formalities. He wrote:
"....the Imperial Navy's component consistred of six individuals led by Rear Admiral Yokoyama Ichiro....(one of the six) Mizota George Chuichi, happened to be a Nisei...with Mizota as interpreter, the officers found themselves quietly arranging modalities of the surrender."
It has been reliably estimated that somewhere between 5000 and 7500 Nisei served in the Japanese armed forces during WWII, and that several thousand others served Japan in other capacities such as POW guards, radio propagandists, interpreters,etc.
On Oct 29, 12:40 am, "wjhopw...@aol.com" <wjhopw...@aol.com> wrote:
> It was only prudent that JAs were precluded from working on > the highly sensitive MAGIC program for myriad reasons among > which were the following:
Were German Americans or Italian Americans also excluded?
On Oct 29, 10:24 am, Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote:
> On Oct 29, 12:40 am, "wjhopw...@aol.com" <wjhopw...@aol.com> wrote:
> > It was only prudent that JAs were precluded from working on > > the highly sensitive MAGIC program for myriad reasons among > > which were the following:
> Were German Americans or Italian Americans also excluded?
> Alan
No reason to, inasmuch as MAGIC was a program for the interception, breaking, and translating of Japanese messages, not those of the Germans and Italians.
As for the "racism" motivation you are driving at (which seems to be an attempt to evaluate the realities of WWII by the socio/political perceptions of the 21st Cetury), logistically, the German and Italian enemy alien situation, coupled with the perceived military threat at the time, was much different than the situation vis-a-vis the ethnic Japanese. Accordingly, simple prudence dictated different methods for solution.
On Oct 29, 11:59 am, "wjhopw...@aol.com" <wjhopw...@aol.com> wrote:
> No reason to, inasmuch as MAGIC was a program for > the interception, breaking, and translating of Japanese > messages, not those of the Germans and Italians.
> As for the "racism" motivation you are driving at > (which seems to be an attempt to evaluate the > realities of WWII by the socio/political perceptions > of the 21st Cetury), logistically, the German > and Italian enemy alien situation, coupled with the > perceived military threat at the time, was much > different than the situation vis-a-vis the ethnic > Japanese. Accordingly, simple prudence dictated > different methods for solution.
> WJH
I see, so if you're a Nazi sympathizer it's OK to work on MAGIC because it doesn't affect the Nazis. I guess if the Nazis learned about MAGIC they wouldn't tell the Japanese.
Racism is a word with a meaning. That meaning hasn't changed since 1940.
I'm amazed that you seem not to acknowledge an error that was ackhowledged by the US goverment many years ago. During WWII, Japanese Americans, when given the chance, served their country as faithfully as any other Americans.
On Oct 29, 11:34 am, Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote:
> I see, so if you're a Nazi sympathizer it's OK to work on MAGIC > because it doesn't affect the Nazis. I guess if the Nazis learned > about MAGIC they wouldn't tell the Japanese.
Uh, we didn't let enemy citizens work on top secret US military projects period, German, Italian, or Japanese. People keep forgetting that the internees were (while not universally) Japanese citizens. We treated enemy aliens like everyone treated enemy aliens. We just had a lot of them.
The down side of dual citizenship is that if the two countries go to war with one another, you're screwed both ways. Japanese citizens in the US were treated infinitely better than American citizens in Japanese custody (large numbers, especially in the Phillippines). The US had nothing to apologize for.
> Racism is a word with a meaning. That meaning hasn't changed since > 1940.
And the motivation of the policy was not racism. We didn't lock up Chinese or Phillippinoes after all, and we did lock up Germans and Italian citizens.
> I'm amazed that you seem not to acknowledge an error that was > ackhowledged by the US goverment many years ago.
The US didn't make an error in WWII.
During WWII, Japanese
> Americans, when given the chance, served their country as faithfully > as any other Americans.
You mean the ones who weren't serving in the Japanese military...?
On Oct 29, 2:34 pm, Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote:
> I see, so if you're a Nazi sympathizer it's OK to work on MAGIC > because it doesn't affect the Nazis. I guess if the Nazis learned > about MAGIC they wouldn't tell the Japanese.
I'm afraid you miss the point. I doubt that there were many Germans and Italians fluent in Japanese. And, of course, if there had been, the rather thorough vetting process would probably have weeded them out, a process considered to have been free of predictable associations, familial and otherwise, than would have been occasioned by the vetting of JAs for reasons previously mentioned.
> Racism is a word with a meaning. That meaning hasn't > changed since 1940.
No, but the current conventional wisdom of some, particularly among the younger generations, that "racism" was a primary factor governing important WWII national security decisions, sadly reflects too many years of social conditioning rather than a reasoned judgement of events in the context of the time and circumstances in which they occurred.
> I'm amazed that you seem not to acknowledge an error that was > ackhowledged by the US goverment many years ago.
You shouldn't be. It was an acknowledgement made by a different government in a different time and under different circumstances, and certainly not without heavy political overtones.
> During WWII, Japanese Americans, when given the chance, > served their country as faithfully as any other Americans.
Indeed so. With distinction. But unfortunately the number of individual medals and awards they received has been greatly exaggerated over the years to the embarrassment of those JAs who served and who needed no embellishment of their records.
On Oct 29, 4:04 pm, "wjhopw...@aol.com" <wjhopw...@aol.com> wrote:
> I'm afraid you miss the point. I doubt that there were > many Germans and Italians fluent in Japanese. And, > of course, if there had been, the rather thorough vetting > process would probably have weeded them out, a process > considered to have been free of predictable associations, > familial and otherwise, than would have been occasioned > by the vetting of JAs for reasons previously mentioned.
Now you are making my point. With careful vetting, JAs could have provided the same service as a Japanese speaking German American or Italian American. However because of the policies of the government & military, they weren't given the chance.
Are you now saying the JAs were vetted? If so that was not what you said in your orginal post.
Alan
PS Right and wrong don't change over time. Though with hindsight they can become clearer.
On Oct 29, 3:41 pm, Shawn Wilson <ikonoql...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Oct 29, 11:34 am, Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > I see, so if you're a Nazi sympathizer it's OK to work on MAGIC > > because it doesn't affect the Nazis. I guess if the Nazis learned > > about MAGIC they wouldn't tell the Japanese.
> Uh, we didn't let enemy citizens work on top secret US military > projects period, German, Italian, or Japanese. People keep forgetting > that the internees were (while not universally) Japanese citizens. We > treated enemy aliens like everyone treated enemy aliens. We just had > a lot of them.
I guess sarcasm is lost on you.
> > Racism is a word with a meaning. That meaning hasn't changed since > > 1940.
> And the motivation of the policy was not racism. We didn't lock up > Chinese or Phillippinoes after all, and we did lock up Germans and > Italian citizens.
Why would we lock up the citizens of countries that were our allies? Neither German Americans or Italian Americans were locked up indiscrimanately.
> > Americans, when given the chance, served their country as faithfully > > as any other Americans.
> You mean the ones who weren't serving in the Japanese military...?
How many JAs served in the Japanese Army? How many GAs served in the German Army? How many IAs served in the Italian Army? Or is this sarcasm?
wjhopw...@aol.com <wjhopw...@aol.com> wrote: > On Oct 29, 10:24 am, Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote: > > On Oct 29, 12:40 am, "wjhopw...@aol.com" <wjhopw...@aol.com> wrote: > As for the "racism" motivation you are driving at > (which seems to be an attempt to evaluate the > realities of WWII by the socio/political perceptions > of the 21st Cetury), logistically, the German > and Italian enemy alien situation, coupled with the > perceived military threat at the time, was much > different than the situation vis-a-vis the ethnic > Japanese. Accordingly, simple prudence dictated > different methods for solution.
Right; round up Americans if they're of the Japanese race, and lock 'em in concentration camps.
Treat the white guys on a case-by-case basis, whether they're Americans or not.
Shawn Wilson <ikonoql...@yahoo.com> wrote: > On Oct 29, 11:34 am, Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote: > > I see, so if you're a Nazi sympathizer it's OK to work on MAGIC > > because it doesn't affect the Nazis. I guess if the Nazis learned > > about MAGIC they wouldn't tell the Japanese. > Uh, we didn't let enemy citizens work on top secret US military > projects period, German, Italian, or Japanese. People keep forgetting > that the internees were (while not universally) Japanese citizens. We
And in fact, most were not Japanese; most were Americans.
> treated enemy aliens like everyone treated enemy aliens. We just had > a lot of them.
No, we had far fewer Japanese-descended citizens and immigrants than German or Italian.
> The down side of dual citizenship is that if the two countries go to > war with one another, you're screwed both ways. Japanese citizens in
It's alos the downside if you're not a dual citizen, and in fact fought for the US in WWI.
> the US were treated infinitely better than American citizens in > Japanese custody (large numbers, especially in the Phillippines). The > US had nothing to apologize for.
Right; it's not like we try to be better than others.
> And the motivation of the policy was not racism. We didn't lock up
Yes it was. `
> Chinese or Phillippinoes after all, and we did lock up Germans and > Italian citizens.
No, we locked up some, on a markedly smaller scale.
Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote: > On Oct 29, 3:41 pm, Shawn Wilson <ikonoql...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > On Oct 29, 11:34 am, Alan <alan_nor...@comcast.net> wrote: > > > Americans, when given the chance, served their country as faithfully > > > as any other Americans.
> > You mean the ones who weren't serving in the Japanese military...? > How many JAs served in the Japanese Army? How many GAs served in the > German Army? How many IAs served in the Italian Army? Or is this > sarcasm?
Actually, German nationals (at least) served in the US Army, on the front lines, and did so at the time the US was locking up the "dangerous" American veterans of Japanese descent.
> Well, it wasn't "racism," and after the suprise at Pearl Harbor > there was much for the U.S. to be paranoid about. We were > at war with nation of Japan, not the heritage of the ethnic > Japanese.
Which you couldn't tell from treatment of Japanese-Americans, or from the wartime propaganda.
> It was only prudent that JAs were precluded from working on > the highly sensitive MAGIC program for myriad reasons among > which were the following:
It was certainly prudent to exclude many of them. I am questioning whether it was sane to exclude all of them.
> Most Nisei over age 17 at the time were dual > citizen (Japanese and American).
And many had shown loyalty to the US and not Japan.
Also, pre-Pearl Harbor
> code-breaking of Japanese diplomatic messages had > themselves revealed the existence of Japanese agents > among the West Coast Japanese population.
There were certainly German and Italian attempts to recruit agents in the US, and a good many people who were primarily loyal to Germany and Italy. Oddly enough, this didn't stop a guy with the distinctly German name of Eisenhower from serving somewhere in the MTO and ETO, in an important position.
There were
> numerous Japanese patriotic societies made up of Nisei > and Issei who were sending money to Japan for the > Japanese war effort in Asia, as well as large number of JAs > in Japan at the time.
Right - track them down and exclude them from sensitive work. No problems there.
On the West Coast there were, among
> the Nisei,thousands of who had been educated in Japan who > had returned to the U.S., having had training in and holding > reserve status in the Japanese armed forces.
Again, a suspicious group. Probably not a good choice for sensitive work.
So far, you've named some untrustworthy groups. Your error is in extending them to all US citizens of Japanese descent.
There was a vital need for people who could translate Japanese into English. Excluding most of the available candidates on the basis of ethnicity alone was positively stupid. (Excluding on the basis of observed attachment to the enemy was correct, of course.)
Obviously, any translator would have to be heavily vetted, but it beggars the imagination to think that there weren't any loyal Americans in that population.
> Interestingly, Prados does note that a Nisei was among those > accompanying the high-ranking team of Japanese officers who > came to Manila after the surrender to work out the surrender > formalities. He wrote:
So? A fair number of US citizens fought in the German and Italian armies, mostly those unfortunate enough to be visiting the homeland at the wrong time. As far as I know, the process was to process them into the US armed forces when captured and send them to the Pacific.
> It has been reliably estimated that somewhere between 5000 > and 7500 Nisei served in the Japanese armed forces during WWII, > and that several thousand others served Japan in other capacities such > as POW guards, radio propagandists, interpreters,etc.
Not all of whom served willingly, I'd bet. The Japanese authorities at the time were not noted for kind treatment of people who weren't Japanese patriots. If drafted, it was a whole lot safer to serve.
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