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18 plus, T's and C's apply, exchange fees and fair usage limits apply. Hello and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast episode 480 Japanese Americans at War.

Last time, post Pearl Harbor America assumed, the worst of its Japanese-American citizens, with no proof.

Yet with time in court cases, not in equal measure, those behind barbed wire would either be set free or allowed to join the armed forces.

This benefited the nation more than it did those young Japanese Americans, but progress,

by fair or foul means is still progress.

It would be nice to say that from FDR on down, American officials had realized their egregious mistake and wanted to make amends.

But that would be inaccurate, to say the least.

Speaking of the least, the U.S. Armed Forces realized they needed intelligence on the Japanese as their culture and more specifically

their language.

To be sure, the U.S. military realized the need for something like a language school even before Pearl Harbor was attacked,

as strained relations between Washington and Tokyo called for a better understanding of Japanese thinking and its language. Hence the first school was opened in

November 1941 in San Francisco just days before the attack. Of course with the internment camp springing up the school was moved in

June 1942 to Camp Savage Minnesota. From there it would be moved again but not too

far this time for it its smelling in the same state.

But anyone listening to this might be thinking,

okay, the U.S. is working on clearing the stain of racism. Not so much. Though Japanese Americans

served in almost every theater in the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and in foreign

assignments with other countries, what they were achieving

...