Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1375/

Learning Japanese with the MIS

And I worked in the office there—we were recruiting Niseis from all over in the California area. Well...and also BIJs (born in Japan), we had their addresses and we corresponded and got them interested in coming to the school and one day I told the colonel I was tired of the office work, could I go out in the field and learn Japanese. Because I associated with the Nisei kids that were drafted and I learned a little of the language from them. And then I was sent to Camp Savage, it's very close—in Minnesota—close to Minneapolis and there I learned more Japanese language and heigo, the military language, the Japanese military. And after I completed the courses at Camp Savage I was sent to the University of Michigan at Anne Arbor where they had a crash course for people that were learning Japanese to be used as interpreters and because they just didn't have enough and I was given a warrant officer—then from sergeant major to a warrant officer—which is not really a commission but it's above the ordinary soldier''s rank. And so all through that was about—the course was a year-long and we could speak nothing but Japanese, 24 hours a day.


armed forces languages military retired military personnel United States Army veterans World War II

Date: January 26, 2012

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki, Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Harry Schneider, (b. 1916), was a member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service stationed in Tokyo. Although Harry was not Japanese, he initially was recruited for the M.I.S. training program in San Francisco because of his administrative skills, but then was motivated to learn the Japanese language with the other Nisei soldiers. He married his wife, Hamako, in 1948 soon after the end of WWII. At the end of the War, special legislation was required for an Asian “war bride” to be admitted to the U.S. In 1950 Harry and Hamako married again at the Japanese Consulate in Tokyo so that they could be one of the first couples allowed to enter. Harry passed away at age 97 in June 2013. (June 2014)

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