Jack Herzig was born on July 30, 1922 in Newark, New Jersey to German American parents. At eighteen, he became a member of the New Jersey National Guard in Fort Dix. He was nineteen when Pearl Harbor was bombed and subsequently, volunteered as a paratrooper. Later, through the Counter Intelligence Corps in Maryland, he was assigned to Kyoto, Japan as a counterintelligence officer where he met Aiko Yoshinaga. He later married her in 1978.
Upon learning about the injustice done to his wife and other Japanese Americans, he became involved with researching the National Archives. His experience working for the U.S. Army in various posts including the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and as a counterintelligence officer in Europe, Japan and Washington, D.C. gave him the background to help Aiko understand the significance of the documents they uncovered. He testified before both the House and Senate subcommittee hearings on the “Magic cables,” presenting detailed information that disputed the allegation that the diplomatic cables intercepted to and from Tokyo contained treasonous information about disloyal Japanese Americans. (March 1, 2007)
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