Wood box used by a civilian Army contract to ship items home

[aznation]

Here's an Army document that's pretty good about the MIS Nisei.

https://history.army.mil/html/books/nisei_linguists/CMH_70-99-1.pdf

 

MIS NISEI AND THE EARLY OCCUPATION OF JAPAN starts on page 416 and explains many of the tasks that they would've been helping with after the end of the war.

[aznation]

Military Intelligence Service Language School Registry 1941-46

 

http://www.javadc.org/MISLS%20Registry%2002-02-03.pdf

[p-59a]

Matt, I have been to Manzanar a few times. There is a B-24 crash site not far from there. 4X4ing around I stumbled across the dump site. Lots of neat things in it.

[p-59a]

Military Intelligence Service Language School Registry 1941-46

 

http://www.javadc.org/MISLS%20Registry%2002-02-03.pdf

That is way cool info!!!!!!! I see that the number of civilians in this training was very small compared to the number of enlisted.

[p-59a]

I flipped the box over and found this. Then I found this on Wiki......After the fall of the Philippines, the division began training for the attack on Japan itself, but surrender came first. The division did move to Japan where it occupied the island of Honshū for a few months. The 41st Infantry Division was inactivated at Kure-Hiro, Japan on 31 December 1945

[aznation]

Posted Yesterday, 11:40 PM

aznation, on 12 Nov 2019 - 11:17 PM, said:

Military Intelligence Service Language School Registry 1941-46

 

http://www.javadc.or...ry 02-02-03.pdf

That is way cool info!!!!!!! I see that the number of civilians in this training was very small compared to the number of enlisted.

 

 

One thing to think about regarding what you said. Personally I believe all the persons on the registry were in the Army to include George. Just because some of them on the registry are missing serial numbers, I wouldn't necessarily discount that they weren't in the Army. The one thing that kind of confuses me is the US on blue triangle patch that you showed. I believe that patch stands for "Civilian Non-Combatant". The fact that he has that laundry number would seem to indicate that he was in the Army. What do you think about this? What if George was originally in the Army and then after the war ended he got out but post-war continued to perform the same kind of duties he did when he was in as a Civilian Non-Combatant? It would be really interesting to know for sure. This is one of those that I would get a researcher to try and determine whether in fact George was in the Army.

[aznation]

Posted Yesterday, 11:24 PM

Matt, I have been to Manzanar a few times. There is a B-24 crash site not far from there. 4X4ing around I stumbled across the dump site. Lots of neat things in it.

 

That's cool. Did you happen to see any remnants of where the Manzanar Camp was?

[p-59a]

 

That's cool. Did you happen to see any remnants of where the Manzanar Camp was?

A few buildings associated with the original camp still stand. They are in private hands and are not apart of the camp proper today. The homes are gone, but many of the plants they planted in front of their homes still remain as does the foot prints of the homes and water fixtures remain in many areas. It is a large area. The gate guard house at the main entry still stands. They were made of stone. The cemetery at the rear of the camp is really something. The dump site is in the desert and has tons of broken military dish's and home refuse. I know a guy who found a can with Japanese coins in it in the dump. The vista is fantastic with the mountains in the background.

[p-59a]

 

One thing to think about regarding what you said. Personally I believe all the persons on the registry were in the Army to include George. Just because some of them on the registry are missing serial numbers, I wouldn't necessarily discount that they weren't in the Army. The one thing that kind of confuses me is the US on blue triangle patch that you showed. I believe that patch stands for "Civilian Non-Combatant". The fact that he has that laundry number would seem to indicate that he was in the Army. What do you think about this? What if George was originally in the Army and then after the war ended he got out but post-war continued to perform the same kind of duties he did when he was in as a Civilian Non-Combatant? It would be really interesting to know for sure. This is one of those that I would get a researcher to try and determine whether in fact George was in the Army.

The thing that isn't helpful to your point is no S/N or rank on the box. He had a huge Japanese made aluminum footlocker that I also have. My understanding is that these foot locker's were made of the metal used to make Japanese aircraft. Those who worked making aircraft went to work making these footlockers. This is an area of WW2 that is not well covered. That is why I brought up the laundry number.

[p-59a]

The jacket, shirt and pants all have a laundry mark. No indication of any rank or unit patch can be found on the shirt or jacket.

[p-59a]

George dose't show on the WW2 Army enlistment records site.

[p-59a]

I flipped the box over and found this. Then I found this on Wiki......After the fall of the Philippines, the division began training for the attack on Japan itself, but surrender came first. The division did move to Japan where it occupied the island of Honshū for a few months. The 41st Infantry Division was inactivated at Kure-Hiro, Japan on 31 December 1945

Louis Hyest, 84 of Uniontown-Flushing Rd., Flushing, Ohio died Saturday, March 11, 2006 at Bell Nursing Home, Belmont.

 

He was born December 21, 1921 in Duncanwood, Harrison County, Ohio , son of the late Anthony Hyest and Anna Zydik Hyest.

 

Louis was a retired Truck Driver for Cloverland Dairy, a Presbyterian, and an Army veteran of WWII.

[p-59a]

October 1945 this was reversed. Some Nisei were offered three-month furloughs to reenlist; others were awarded commissions, while still others were discharged in Japan and accepted civil service positions. ATIS personnel strength peaked at 250 officers and 1,700 enlisted personnel; these numbers declined sharply in the months that followed. By the spring of 1946 the authorized strength for ATIS was reduced to 809, almost two-thirds of which was now in civilian positions (301 military, 508 civilian). This passage at least indicates the Army at least has a civilian force. I'm still reading to see if anyone who was not military at all was used for this endevor.

[p-59a]

"Researchers have only begun to pay closer attention to the civilian Nisei, both male and female, hired by the occupation force in Japan. Personal recollections, such as Sadae Tagami’s, offer extremely valuable insights into experiences in the military during a historic era." chrome-extension://mhjfbmdgcfjbbpaeojofohoefgiehjai/index.html . The above is a quote from this site. The following is further down on the same page. Sadae graduated from McKinley High School in 1938. She also attended Hongwanji language school. After high school Sadae came to Tokyo and attended a home economic school in Mita and Kyoritsu, a girls’ school in Kanda. After about three years, in 1941 she returned to Hawaii on the ship Tatsutamaru because “war clouds” were looming by that time. Back in Hawaii she again attended a sewing school, which she did not enjoy so much, and also worked part–time at the Hongwanji school as a “messenger girl.” It was probably a year after from the Pearl Harbor attack when the OWI contacted Sadae. She went to an interview and was recruited to broadcast propaganda materials, such as music and love letters, to Japanese soldiers to make them homesick and demoralized. Sadae thinks that she was chosen because of her fluency in Japanese. She recalls that among her colleagues were Japanese language teachers who had lost their jobs with the outbreak of the war. Eventually Sadae’s boss at the OWI told her to take the exam to work for the Department of the Army Civilian as a censor. Sadae became one of the second group of fifteen Nisei females from Hawaii to work as linguists in Occupied Japan. In Japan Sadae censored movies for a short time and then shifted to censoring radio scripts. Her bosses were non–Nikkei military men who “knew nothing” about Japanese culture and language. She had officer’s privilege, but worked in civilian attire. This makes it clear civilians were employed by the Army.

[p-59a]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=16&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjm_7Co6eblAhVGnp4KHcAsBt8QFjAPegQICRAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhistory.army.mil%2Fhtml%2Fbooks%2Fnisei_linguists%2FCMH_70-99-1.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3qe6EY1phMRpRDDx7GDKwJ better link to the above site.

[aznation]

That's interesting info about the camp as it is today.

 

I checked some people on the Military Intelligence Service Language School Registry 1941-46 who didn't have a serial number appearing on the list against NARA WWII Army Enlistment records and I found at least three people who did have enlistment records. I could probably find more but just wanted you to know.