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TheCtororide-Telegram Sunday, September 19,1993 UWORLDWar role of Japanese-Americans comes to lightGordon SakamotoIII! ■ —WAR HERO: Ralph Yempuku, sitting in his office in Honolulu in July, was one of a small group of Japanese-American volunteerswho participated in highly secret missions against Japan during World Warll.Associated Press WnUHONOLULU — At a time when anti-Japanese sentiment was at its peak during World War n, a small group of Japanese-American volunteers participated in highly secret missions that helped turn the tide in the fight against the land of their ancestors.Second-generation Japanese-Americans, or Nisei, were taken into the Military Intelligence Service and were considered a secret weapon in the war against Japan.While historians have chronicled the exploits of another Japanese-American group, the much-honored 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the efforts of those in the MIS, who worked covertly to bring an end to the war in the Pacific Theater, have only recently come to lightThe missions of Japanese-Americans in the MIS were so sensitive that official documents remained sealed until a few years ago. Few knew that many in the MIS were Americans who looked more like the enemy they were fighting.Even the War Department was at first leery of using the Nisei because of uncertainty about their loyalties. But their loyalty and know-how proved to be important factors in the Allies’ triumph in the Pacific Theater.Beginning with the Battle of Guadalcanal, members of the MIS, working alone or in small teams, participated in every major battle launched against the Japanese — from Alaska’s frozen tundra, to Australia, to tiny Pacific atolls and the dense jungles of Burma.Their contributions led Gen. Douglas MacArthur to proclaim, “Never In military history did an army know so much about the enemy prior to actual engagement.”Other Allied leaders were convinced the work of the MIS saved hundreds of thousands of lives and shortened the war.The MIS volunteers — original members of the 442nd and 100th Infantry Battalion — received no public acclaim. During their service they were cut off from their families and friends, unable to write to explain their duties in the war effortThe MIS, which totaled nearly 6,000 by war’s end, served as interpreters, translators, spies and intelligence specialists. They inter-Nisei involved in two events that turned tide of warGordon SakamotoAssociated Press WriterHONOLULU (AP) — Second-generation Japanese-Americans who were recruited for the Military Intelligence Service during World War n proved that foe sons of Japanese immigrants were willing fighters against Japan.Their loyalty and heroics saved thousands of American lives and helped shorten the war.Historians point to two events as the turning points in the waragainst Japan — the death of Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, Japan’s top military strategist and architect of the surprise attack on PearlHarbor, and the capture and decoding of Japan’s “Z-Plan.”On April 18, 1943, Harold Fudenna, based in Port Moresby, intercepted and decoded a radio message that gave the arrival of Yamamoto at Boudin vide. Based on the intercept, U.S. aircraft wee cepted and monitored radio transmissions and communiaues. translated captured maps, journals, letters and otter documents which often disclosed critical enemy tactics, operations and troop dispositions.On the battlefront, they interrogated captured Japanese prisoners, served as translators for military officers and even crawled into caves and tunnels to coax enemy soldiers and civilians to surrender without bloodshed.Eventually their services were deemed so valuable that MIS personnel were attached to all branches of the U.S. military, including the Office of Strategic Services and the Counter-Intelligence Corps, as well as forces from Great Britain, Australia, Canada and China.Several dozen MIS members recently held the group’s 50th reunion in Hawaii and many of their ultrasecret missions were revealed.One of the more human stories of war was related by Ralph Yempuku, who was Involved in a unique drama which he didn'table to shoot down Yamamoto’splane. Japan’s loss of its top military mind was referred to by Gen. Douglas MacArthur as “one of the singularly most significant actions of the Pacific War.”The MIS’ second major contribution came in March 1944 when the coded Z-Plan” was captured from the staff of Adm. Mineichi Koga, Yamamoto’s successor, and rushed to Brisbane, Australia, where it was quickly translated by two Hawaii Niseis, Yoshikazu Yamada and George Yamashiro. The plan outlined Japan’s strategy for an all-out counterattack in the Central Pacific and became the most significant enemy document seized during the Pacific War.Knowledge gained from the document enabled the Allies to send the Japanese in frill retreat by scoring overwhelming victoriesIn what came to be known as the “Great Marianas TurkeyShootout” and the “Battle of Leytelearn about until after he had returned to his forward post in China.It occurred during the Japanese surrender of the Hong Kong garrison to British forces in 1944.While the official declaration was being signed, Yempuku foiled to notice that it was his younger brother, Donald, bedecked in his Japanese officer’s uniform, who was interpreting the ceremonial proceedings to the Japanese commanding general.“He saw me, but he didn’t dare say a word,” Yempuku said. “We were only about 20 yards apart, but I guess I was too busy watching the ceremony that I didn’t notice the individuals involved.“I was really disappointed when I found out about my brother after I got back to Kunming (several hundred miles northwest of Hong Kong). I hadn’t seen him in 11 years and, because of the repatriation process, it was another couple of years before we caught up with each other.”Donald, who had returned toJapan with his parents before the war, explained he did not attemptGulf” which has been referred to as the “greatest naval action of all time.”From there, the Japanese empire collapsed in domino fashion, starting at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and culminating with the surrender in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.Some otter highlights of the MIS:■ In the fall of 1942, a document retrieved from a beach in Tulagl, across the channel fromGuadalcanal, was deciphered by three MIS soldiers and turned over to Gen. MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz. The information gleaned from the document revealed the call signs and code names for every warship and transport in the Japanese fleetTIME IS RUNNING OUT DON’T BE LATE*4 •■ After routine scanning by the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section at Camp Ritchie, Mlt;L, a document had been placedin a crate with otter uto contact his brother because it was a surrender to the British, not the Americans. He wasn’t sure what the Britons’ reaction would have been had he saluted his brother wearing an American officer’s uniform. Donald Yempuku died last year in Japan.After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Yempuku, who held an ROTC commission, and several Japanese-American friends volunteered for the Hawaii Territorial Guard. They patrolled beaches, guarded utility installations and enforced blackouts throughout Honolulu.But it wasn’t long thereafter that all the Japanese-Americans were summarily discharged because of the uncertainty of their loyalty. To show that they could be trusted, however, the Hawaii Nisei formed the Varsity Victory Volunteers.Yempuku later became one of foe first volunteers for the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team and was sent to Camp Shelby, Miss, a was there that he was tapped for duty with the Office ofdocuments and lay dormant until Hawaii Nisei Kazuo Yamane discovered that it was a highly classified Japanese Imperial Army Ordnance Inventory. It listed every type of Japanese weapon and locations of munitions plants. The translated information enabled strategic planners to add new targets for eventual bombing raids over Japan.■ In action with the famed Merrill’s Marauders in Burma, Kenji Yasui swam out to the enemy’s camp and, by impersonating a Japanese officer, captured 13 enemy soldiers.■ On Saipan, some 30,000 Japanese had tunneled deep into mountain caves and had to beStrategic Services, which was the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.The volunteers were taken to Camp Savage, Minn., where they received training in sending and receiving Morse Code and then shipped to a secret base on Catalina Island, off the California coast, for hand-to-hand and unorthodox combat training.“As we went through the training, I figured we were in for an assignment that would be different,” Yempuku said.It wasn’t long before Yempuku, given a Chinese-sounding surname while crisscrossing the U.S. mainland, was dropped into North Burma — behind the Japanese lines — and assigned with two other Americans and a British officer to work with the Kachins, a fierce Burmese guerrilla group that hated the Japanese.After the war, Yempuku set outto find his family by extending his stay for a year with the Counter-Intelligence Corps in Japan.Alter a month of searching, herooted out Hoiehi Kubo entered one such cave, laid down his .45-caliber pistol, shared his K rations with hungry Japanese soldiers and talked for 416 hours before persuading them to surrender.■ Before the invasion of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, Frank Hachiya volunteered to be dropped by parachute behind Japanese lines to scout their defenses. Weeks later, when the American forces landed, Hachiya crawled out toward foe invading forces. He was mistakenly shot as an enemy infiltrator. Mortally wounded, he laid at the feet of an American officer maps of the complete Japanese defenses of the battle area.found them living on an island off Hiroshima, which had been devastated by the atomic bomb.When they first saw me, they thought they were seeing a ghost,”he said. “They were really shocked to see me because the Japanese propaganda machine said all Niseis had been used as cannon fodder. So, they assumed I was dead.”It was then he learned that two other brothers had been conscripted by the Japanese military. A fourth brother was too young for military duty.In looking back, Yempuku thinks it might have been a good thing that the Japanese in Hawaii were mistrusted.“Otherwise, we'd never done what we did,” he said. “We’d still be second-class citizens.”But 50 years later, the citizenship question remains.Several months ago, Ted Tsukiyama, an MIS veteran, stood at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific quietly studying the murals of the Pacicic war battles.The reverie of the moment was shattered when a tourist approached and asked, “Which side did you fight on?”Surrounded by the graves of the dead from four wars, particularly those of his fallen Japanese-American comrades, Tsukiyama said, “That question hurt deeply, right to the core.”ESTATE AUCTIONTuesday, Sept. 21,1993, S PJK.Located 8040 Quarry Rd., Amherst, Ohio (Comer Quarry Rd. Middle Ridge. See signs).An interesting sale, beautiful household furnishings and collectibles: Nice 9 piece mahogany dining room set with buffet ana china cabinet, 5 piece mahogany bedroom set, mahogany cedar chest, pair mahogany chests, color TV's, 2 pieces living room set, leather top kneehole desk and end tables, 2 door mahogany china cabinet, electric stove, refrigerator, microwave, base cabinets, high chair. Whirlpool automatic washer and electric dryer, 3 piece bedroom set, maple dresser and chest, ped. piecrust stand. Waterfall cedar chest, oak stand, old child's rocker, chord organ, 2 nice recliners, end tables, shadow box, console stereo(Nice bell and plate collections), maple desk, Singer sewing machine, 4 floor bridge and student lamps, costume jewelry and chests, perfumes, Avon items, ceramic clock, Oriental and other figurines, mirror, wall hangings, Afghans, set dishes, fancy glassware, banks, stemware, knick-knacks, vases, bedding and towels, oir conditioners, kitchenware, corning, wardrobe cab, utility cab., 2 steamer trunks, white wrought couch, chairs, and table patio set and LP records, dehu-midifier, shelving, many old ladies hats and many other useful and interesting items.Estate of Hazel Harvath Executor-Robert Louis Horvath Probote No 93ES000974 Lorain Co. Attorney for Estate-Atty. Harry Butleru, Wagner Barck Aoctions ,t Barck ReallyMJCTWNESB: JMWAMB23S47M Ftt) MKK H7-5S57 RMMX -BT MKK'EVERYTHING WE TOUCH TURNS TO SOLD'
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The Chronicle Telegram
Elyria, Ohio, US
Sun, Sep 19, 1993
Page 33
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