By Steve Hammons
October 28, 2005
It’s time to revisit the exploits, knowledge, experiences and intelligence of the World War Two veterans of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Service (MIS). The role of the MIS is worth exploring as we face current adversaries and plan for success in our efforts around the world in the short run and long haul.
If we are wise, we will apply these lessons learned to challenges now.
In fighting the military battles, then rebuilding Japan during the post-war occupation, a key United States resource was a secret U.S. Army unit: The MIS. The missions of the MIS were highly classified and still are not widely known. Information about MIS activities was not made public until over 30 years after the war. The MIS consisted of Americans of Japanese ancestry who performed a very wide range of important and often dangerous activities.
How did the MIS conduct their intelligence and information ops, psychological operations (PSYOP) and rapport-building ops? What can MIS vets teach us?
Now is the time to review the activities of the MIS and apply lessons learned. Our special operations forces and intelligence agencies and units would be wise to consult these MIS vets whose language, intel, PSYOP and human skills were so crucial in WWII.
The United States fought a long military struggle in the Pacific. Then, we occupied Japan with the goal of rebuilding and rehabilitating that society by implementing a peaceful democracy. Both of these efforts were successful.
Then, as now, we needed to succeed militarily and also communicate to other peoples, cultures and nations. We must again communicate that we can be good friends and our American culture possesses good elements of human development (as we also recognize that our society sometimes reflects some problematic aspects of the human condition).
MIS personnel were active in nearly all major campaigns and battles in the Pacific as well as in Burma and China. They performed intelligence and counterintelligence tasks such as intercepting radio messages, interrogating prisoners, translated captured maps and documents, helped in PSYOP and information ops efforts, infiltrated enemy lines, flushed caves - convincing soldiers and civilians to leave fortified caves on remote islands, and convinced many Japanese troops to surrender.
In some ways, the MIS operated like today’s Army Special Forces, lethal to identified enemies, yet experienced in building alliances and friendships, understanding other peoples and cultures, communicating and building rapport.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, the people of the United States found ourselves in a war with the military of a culture quite different from our own: Japan. The Japanese military and Japanese society had, in many ways, a different social fabric, a different psychology, different spiritual traditions and was a different ethnic group in significant ways.
Men of the MIS also demonstrated intelligence and compassion both during the war and in the occupation. They helped win a military victory, then helped make peace and win friends for the United States. They were key in rebuilding the nation of Japan and helping that society recover from devastating social, psychological and physical damage.
During the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952, over 5,000 MIS personnel were assigned to duties in the occupation military government including intelligence, civil affairs, disarmament, finance, education, land reform and helping in the development of the Japanese Constitution.
In examining the MIS, we must also ask why did these Japanese-American young men, mostly from the west coast and Hawaii, join the MIS? Why did they side with America against the military of the land of their parents, grandparents and ancestors?
Although most were raised as American kids, they experienced significant racial prejudice and discriminatory laws. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese American families had been stripped of property and businesses and forced into the infamous relocation camps. MIS men emerged out of this environment.
Despite this treatment, the MIS men fought with courage and were crucial to success during the war in the Pacific. By some estimates, MIS missions may have shortened the Pacific war by up to two years.
FILM ‘UNCOMMON COURAGE’ DOCUMENTS MIS STORY
The documentary film “Uncommon Courage: Patriotism and Civil Liberties†contains many of the lessons learned from the MIS that are applicable for us now. It is a valuable resource today for those interested in military intelligence, cryptography, linguistics, PSYOP, military civil affairs, WWII history, civil liberties and U.S. social and cultural history.
The film tracks the beginnings, development and deployment into combat of the MIS using archived film, photos, documents and interviews with MIS veterans.
The roles of other Japanese-American units such as the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team are also explored.
The film examines the pre-WWII awareness of military intelligence personnel in Washington, D.C., that more linguists in the Japanese language were going to be needed. The efforts and activities recruiting and training these linguists from second-generation Japanese-Americans, called “Nisei,†are explored in the film.
As American and allied forces move into the Pacific theatre to engage the Japanese navy and army, the film follows the MIS men who are attached to U.S. Navy, Army and Marine units.
Interpreting captured documents and enemy radio traffic and interrogating prisoners are vividly documented through archived military film. Details of the outcomes of this intelligence gathering are also presented, noting the contribution to many U.S. victories.
MIS veterans tell stories of harrowing episodes of clearing Japanese soldiers from island caves and using their shared ethnic heritage to accomplish other missions for U.S. forces.
“Uncommon Courage†follows the MIS during and after the Japanese surrender and in the occupation of Japan. MIS veterans explain their role in building rapport with the Japanese people. The film covers the critical involvement of MIS men in the rehabilitation of Japan.
The internment of Japanese-Americans at home is also addressed in the film. MIS vets tell about the mixed feelings as they fought for their country, the U.S., while that same government had placed their families in harsh relocation camps, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. The value and fragility of our civil liberties today is brought home by this aspect of the film.
“Uncommon Courage†was written, produced and directed by gayle k. yamada of Bridge Media and narrated by veteran broadcast journalist Ken Kashiwahara. It has been broadcast on public television stations throughout the country.
“Uncommon Courage†brings together a wide range of historical resources and the accounts of men who experienced war from a unique perspective.
To learn more about the MIS, go to the Web site of The Military Intelligence Service Research Center. This Web site is a rich resource of historical information, video clips, photos and insights about MIS activities and efforts. The Web sites of the Go For Broke Educational Foundation and Bridge Media also contain valuable information.
Military Intelligence Service Research Center