[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16815-16816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 IN HONOR OF WARREN EJIMA, TOM FUJIMOTO, ASA HANAMOTO, MAS HASHIMOTO, 
   HIROSHI ITO, THOMAS SAKAMOTO, MARVIN IRATSU, AND WILLIAM H. OMOTO

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 4, 2011

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Warren Ejima, Tom 
Fujimoto, Asa Hanamoto, Mas Hashimoto, Hiroshi Ito, Thomas Sakamoto, 
Marvin Iratsu, and William H. Omoto for their courageous service to our 
Nation during World War II as part of the Military Intelligence Service 
(MIS).
  Established on November 1, 1941, MIS graduated 6,000 service members 
during World War II to provide critical Japanese language capabilities 
to the American military. These brave servicemen and women provided 
translation, interpretation and code breaking services in the essential 
Pacific Theater, which contributed significantly to our Nation's 
victory.
  Primarily comprised of Nisei, second-generation Japanese-Americans 
who faced crushing prejudice and discrimination in the United States at 
the same time many of their family

[[Page 16816]]

members were serving their country, this exceptional group has received 
honors and commendations of the highest level. In 2000, the Military 
Intelligence Service received the Presidential Unit Citation, the 
highest possible honor for a military unit, and in 2010 the 6,000 
graduates of the MIS were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the 
highest civilian award given in this country. The Gold Medal ceremony 
conferring this honor was held this week in the U.S. Capitol and was 
attended by many of these courageous men. At the end of the war, 
General Charles Willoughby, Chief of Staff for Military Intelligence 
under General MacArthur, said that ``The Nisei shortened the Pacific 
War by two years and saved possibly a million American lives and saved 
probably billions of dollars'' during the conflict.
  Initially run out of an airplane hangar on Crissy Field in San 
Francisco, the Military Intelligence Service was forced to relocate to 
Camp Savage in Minnesota in 1942 after President Roosevelt ordered the 
relocation of Japanese on the West Coast into internment camps. The 
language school continued to grow rapidly from its base at Camp Savage, 
and by 1944 had moved again, to Fort Snelling in St. Paul, to 
accommodate its increasing enrollment. After the war ended the MIS 
moved to the Presidio in Monterey, California, where it continued to 
provide essential language services to the Department of Defense.
  By the 1970s the Military Intelligence Service's name had been 
changed to the Defense Language Institute, and all of the Department of 
Defense language programs were consolidated to the Monterey location. 
From there the program grew into the Defense Language Institute Foreign 
Language Center, which celebrates its 70th anniversary on November 5, 
2011 with a ball in Monterey.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be paying tribute to this outstanding 
group of Japanese Americans who selflessly served our Nation during 
World War II. I know I speak for the entire House of Representatives in 
honoring these heroes.

                          ____________________