Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 9h

Good find!

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 11h

Haven’t read that one before - thanks for the material!

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 11h

Legend

www.army.mil/article-amp/...

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 12h

Unfortunately it seems like we have to work through one of those every century or so.

1921
The U.S. convinces Japan to cease issuing passports to prospective brides, stopping Picture Bride immigration.
Fifty-eight Japanese immigrant laborers in Turlock, California, are forcibly removed and warned never to return.

1922
The Cable Act passes, further restricting citizenship by marriage.
The U.S. Supreme Court (Ozawa v. U.S.) rejects, without dissent, naturalization for Japanese immigrants based on the argument that Japanese, like other Asians, can never assimilate with white Americans. The court had previously (in 1889 and 1893) denied naturalization for Chinese immigrants.

1924
The U.S. Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1924 (Asian Exclusion Act), which prohibits further immigration from Japan.

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 12h

I’ll add that more than 300 Americans of the Women’s Army Corps also served as translators and helped transform post-war Japanese society.

Women's Army Corps
A contingent of 51 Japanese American women of the Women's Army Corp (WACs) reported to Fort Shelling in November 1944 to begin their schooling in the Japanese language. There were 47 Nisi, three Caucasians, and one Chinese American Although they were taught the same curriculum as the men, they were not trained as interpreters or interrogators but in written language to qualify as translators During World War Il and in the immediate past war period, over 300 Nisei WACs served in the Allied Occupation of Japan and eventually as civilian translators and support staff under General Douglas MacArthur's General Headquarters

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 12h

Hard to say - unfortunately the jersey didn’t have a label yet. This was the best picture I took of it.

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Reposted by Zach Ota

Regulars on my Street Without Joy @leyeetsansjoie.bsky.social · 13h

Roy Matsumoto, an inductee in the Ranger Hall of Fame, was a member of the MIS where he taught white officers Japanese before he joined Merrill’s Marauders.

The Pacific War was won with the indispensable contributions of Japanese Americans

Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 13h

If you haven’t heard of the Military Intelligence Service, they were Americans who used their language skills to support Allied operations at Guadalcanal, Bougainville, the Philippines, Burma, Okinawa, and elsewhere.

They eventually facilitated the transformation of Japanese government itself.

THE SECRET SCHOOL
An Experiment in the Presidio

As war between the United States and Japan seemed inevitable, a few members of the War Department foresaw the need for qualified Japanese interpreters.
Yet the United States had no formal foreign language or combat intelligence training programs.

The War Department grudgingly budgeted $2,000 to start the Fourth Army Intelligence School at the Presidio in San Francisco. School recruiters were dismayed to find that most of the 3,700 Nisei serving in the military were "more American than Japanese" and only about 10% qualified as candidates.
With limited means, the school opened on November 1,1941 in an abandoned airplane hangar, using scavenged furnishings and curriculum materials mimeographed from scarce textbooks.

"They told me to go down to... Crissy Field, and there is a building there with a galvanized roof. So I went there and see all these Japanese fellas like me...I said, .Why are they pulling all these Japanese together?""
—ISUENO GARY KADANI

The first class of sixty students (58 Nisei and
2 Caucasians) lived and attended school in one building, receiving ten hours of intense training a day. At first, coursework included translation, dictation, conversation, civil and military interpretation, geography, interrogation techniques, and specialized military vocabulary. After America entered the war, the school's curriculum accelerated and intensified. Military emphasis replaced general Japanese vocabulary and knowledge.

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 13h

If you haven’t heard of the Military Intelligence Service, they were Americans who used their language skills to support Allied operations at Guadalcanal, Bougainville, the Philippines, Burma, Okinawa, and elsewhere.

They eventually facilitated the transformation of Japanese government itself.

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 13h

One of the coolest parts of the museum was a visiting exhibit that allowed you to contribute to the history of those who were wrongfully incarcerated.

What can you share with us?
(who, what, when where)
- Were you in an American concentration camp during World War II?
- Did you have family that was incarcerated?
- Do you recognize any of the unidentified people, places, or things in these photos?
Please share this information using these forms.
CONTESTED HISTORIES

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 13h

If you look closely, you can see the names of our family members who served in the Military Intelligence Service during WWII.

Honoring the legacy of those who served in the Military Intelligence Service.

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 13h

On the positive side of there being no fleet at Fleet Week, I got to learn more about my family’s military service at the Presidio’s new Military Intelligence Service History Learning Center.

The Military Intelligence Service History Learning Center of the National Japanese American Historical Society and National Park Service.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7yYTxTPLkiBTGLsSA?g_st=ipc

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 14h

From Canada, with love 🍁 ♥️

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 17h

The future of AI:

a man with glasses and a mustache is sitting in a chair and talking to a woman that he has been seeing .

Alt: a man with glasses and a mustache is sitting in a chair and talking to a woman that he has been seeing .

media.tenor.com

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Zach Ota @zachota.bsky.social · 17h

Way to go!

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