Haruko Hurt

Haruko Hurt
Personal details
Born	3 January 1915 Parlier, California
Died	19 January 2012
Nativity	United States
Awards	American Campaign Medal; Good Conduct Medal; World War II Victory Medal
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	Women's Army Corps

Awards and honors

American Campaign Medal	Good Conduct Medal	World War II Victory Medal

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Haruko Hurt (née Sugi; 3 January 1915 – 19 January 2012) was a Women's Army Corps (WAC) Japanese-language translator associated with Camp Ritchie, Maryland, and the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS).

Biography

Haruko Hurt (née Sugi) was born on 3 January 1915 in Parlier, California. Before the war she worked as a saleswoman and dressmaker in Los Angeles. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor—an act she later described as something “that country, over there, Japan, did”—she and her family were forced from the West Coast and held at the Rohwer relocation center in Arkansas.

She volunteered for the Women's Army Corps in 1944 (inducted 1 November 1944 at Fort Sheridan, Illinois) and trained at the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, beginning in early 1945. After graduation she was sent to Camp Ritchie for PACMIRS document translation (1945–1946), working on teams that translated captured Japanese materials into English alongside American, Canadian, British, and Australian linguists. She later continued similar work at the Washington Document Center in Washington, D.C.

Hurt received the American Campaign Medal (American Theater Ribbon), the World War II Victory Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. Using the G.I. Bill after discharge, she earned a master's degree in social work and married a former Navy man she met in college. She died on 19 January 2012.

Research notes

• Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS)
• Maiden name: Sugi (roster also had a duplicate page under Sugi, Haruko (WAC))
• Translator, Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS), Camp Ritchie (1945–1946); Washington Document Center thereafter
• MISLS, Fort Snelling, Minnesota
• Oral history (Go For Broke / NDAJAMS, 25 February 2006): https://ndajams.omeka.net/collections/show/593

Gallery

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Technical record

Field	Imported value
row_source	wac_eddy_gross_2021
spreadsheet_row	82

Sources

• Haruko Hurt oral history interview (Go For Broke / NDAJAMS, 25 February 2006)
• Japanese American Veterans Association — Japanese American Women in World War II
• Discover Nikkei — Japanese American Military Experience Database: Haruko Sugi Hurt
• English Wikipedia, Haruko Sugi Hurt
• English Wikipedia, Nisei women translators in World War II (Haruko Sugi Hurt section)
• Dan Gross and Beverley Driver Eddy, WACs at Camp Ritchie roster research spreadsheet (Gross base list; Eddy additions, 2021)