Nisei and Pacific: Difference between revisions

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== Mobile Intelligence Training Units (MITU), 1945 ==

In mid-1945 the War Department also used Camp Ritchie to form '''Mobile Intelligence Training Units''' for Army Ground Forces '''redeployment''' training (troops being prepared for the Pacific). July 1945 G-2 memoranda (MID 908) state that '''29''' MITUs were being organized, trained, and equipped at the Military Intelligence Training Center. Each unit was described as two Caucasian officers, two Caucasian enlisted men, and about '''thirteen''' enlisted Americans of Japanese ancestry (an earlier draft of the same memo said fifteen).

In mid-1945 the War Department also used Camp Ritchie to form '''Mobile Intelligence Training Units''' for Army Ground Forces '''redeployment''' training (troops being prepared for the Pacific). (Distinct from earlier European-theater Mobile Intelligence Training Units that demonstrated captured '''German''' equipment under Colonel Elyachar—see [[Training materials#Featured: Early ETOUSA G-2 organization (Settle, 1944)|Settle’s 1944 G-2 account]].) July 1945 G-2 memoranda (MID 908) state that '''29''' MITUs were being organized, trained, and equipped at the Military Intelligence Training Center. Each unit was described as two Caucasian officers, two Caucasian enlisted men, and about '''thirteen''' enlisted Americans of Japanese ancestry (an earlier draft of the same memo said fifteen).

MITU demonstrations presented Japanese squad tactics (Nisei in Japanese uniforms with Japanese weapons) and an orientation play (''A Scrap of Paper'') in which Nisei played Japanese roles and an American Nisei interrogator—explicitly framed as showing that Nisei in the U.S. Army were Americans like soldiers of any other ancestry. As of late July 1945, '''six''' units were already in the field and '''ten''' more were expected to finish training by '''15 August 1945'''. Some former members of the '''442nd Combat Team''' were among those training with the teams. Camp Ritchie Section IX policy (Maj. Robert B. Noack, 23 July 1945) stressed that Nisei were not kept on a team against their wishes; of the then-current ten teams, two Nisei enlisted men had been released for refusing to wear a Japanese uniform.

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 == Mobile Intelligence Training Units (MITU), 1945 ==
-In mid-1945 the War Department also used Camp Ritchie to form '''Mobile Intelligence Training Units''' for Army Ground Forces '''redeployment''' training (troops being prepared for the Pacific). July 1945 G-2 memoranda (MID 908) state that '''29''' MITUs were being organized, trained, and equipped at the Military Intelligence Training Center. Each unit was described as two Caucasian officers, two Caucasian enlisted men, and about '''thirteen''' enlisted Americans of Japanese ancestry (an earlier draft of the same memo said fifteen).
+In mid-1945 the War Department also used Camp Ritchie to form '''Mobile Intelligence Training Units''' for Army Ground Forces '''redeployment''' training (troops being prepared for the Pacific). (Distinct from earlier European-theater Mobile Intelligence Training Units that demonstrated captured '''German''' equipment under Colonel Elyachar—see [[Training materials#Featured: Early ETOUSA G-2 organization (Settle, 1944)|Settle’s 1944 G-2 account]].) July 1945 G-2 memoranda (MID 908) state that '''29''' MITUs were being organized, trained, and equipped at the Military Intelligence Training Center. Each unit was described as two Caucasian officers, two Caucasian enlisted men, and about '''thirteen''' enlisted Americans of Japanese ancestry (an earlier draft of the same memo said fifteen).
 MITU demonstrations presented Japanese squad tactics (Nisei in Japanese uniforms with Japanese weapons) and an orientation play (''A Scrap of Paper'') in which Nisei played Japanese roles and an American Nisei interrogator—explicitly framed as showing that Nisei in the U.S. Army were Americans like soldiers of any other ancestry. As of late July 1945, '''six''' units were already in the field and '''ten''' more were expected to finish training by '''15 August 1945'''. Some former members of the '''442nd Combat Team''' were among those training with the teams. Camp Ritchie Section IX policy (Maj. Robert B. Noack, 23 July 1945) stressed that Nisei were not kept on a team against their wishes; of the then-current ten teams, two Nisei enlisted men had been released for refusing to wear a Japanese uniform.