Hide Article Text (OCR)
Many American lives saved by use of Nisei in Pacific warfareBY LES FINNEGAN.OKINAWA. (NANA). The war in the Pacific would have been far more cosily and thousands more Americans would have been lost had it not been for the Nisei— Japanese Americans—serving in the U. S army.That fact is now frankly admitted by commanders and generals in every section of the Pacific theater, ^here the Nisei showed their amazing courage, loyalty and ingenuity. For the most part they have been used for interrogation of Japanese prisoners, interpretation of captured enemy documents and surrender appeals to surrounded pockets of Japanese soldiers.Lt. Col. William K. Van Antwerp, of the 27th division, general staff, said: “We would have been twice as blind as we were on these islands without the Niesi. They were able to break down fear and superstition and obtain vitally important information from both Japanese soldiers and natives.• • •WITHOUT A DOUBT, ourNisei have saved many, many American lives.” The Japanese-Americans have been relatively unpublicized, he said, because of the army’s fear of reprisals against relatives of the Nisei still inJapan.The 27th's ten Nisei first saw action on Makin; from there four of them went to Eniwetok. Here they instructed U. S. troops in Japanese phrases such as “Throw down your weapons.” “Sit down,” Where is your regiment?”On Saipan, where the resistance was fierce, officers began to appreciate the value of the Nisei andtheir trianing. There was an increasing demand for their services to teach classes. “We never had enough Nisei,” declared Van Antwerp, “The men attended the classes on their own time.”ON OKINAWA the Nisei went out with search and patrol parlies and after questioning captured and natives were able to radio back just what enemy bodies the Americans were facing. The absurd fears inculcated in the Okinawans by the Japanese proved a tremendous task for the Nisei to overcome. Natives in the southern part of the island were told that the Americans would chop them up in small pieces and feed them to the K-9 corps dogs.Van Antwerp was present when a Nisei interviewed an aged Okinawan woman who was certain that she would be tied to the treads of a tank and ground to death. She had been treated well for three days but knew the answer to that; they were treated well for a while just so other Okinawans could be enticed down from the hills; then they would all be killed.Even the 5,000,000 U. S. leaflets dropped on the island by plane after the American landing failed to dispel the fear of death and torture that the Japanese had implanted in civilian minds.Men in the 27th division will stare at you unbelievingly when you tell them that there were some people and some newspapers in the U. S. that violently opposed the use of Nisei in the Pacific.“Are those people crazy?” the soldiers will ask. “Only God knows how many of us are alive today only because we had those marvelous guys with, us.”(
Newspaper Details
Lincoln Nebraska State Journal
Lincoln, Nebraska, US
Mon, Sep 17, 1945
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 03 Apr 2019
Other Publications Near Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln Evening Journal
Lincoln Daily Star
Lincoln Daily News
Lincoln Star
Lincoln Nebraska State Journal
