Japanese American soldiers at Fort Snelling, VJ Day, 1945. Minnesota Historical Society
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As World War Two began in 1941, Lt. Col. John Weckerling and Capt. Kai Rasmussen realized that they would need Japanese translators for the war in the Pacific region. Weckerling and Rasmussen began recruiting those of Japanese-American descent, but due to rising anti-Japanese sentiments, many Americans did not trust the recruits. Despite this pressure, Weckerling and Rasmussen opened the 4th Army Intelligence School on November 1st, 1941, in San Francisco. They had 60 students, most of which were of Japanese descent, and 4 teachers. The school ran successfully in California until February 1942, when President Roosevelt ordered the forced relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans. Because the school had such a high number of Japanese students, they were forced to move, or to lose most of their students. After being denied entrance to several midwestern states, Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen allowed them entrance. They formed a school in Savage, Minnesota, renaming themselves the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). Within a few years the school outgrew its Savage location, moving for a final time to Fort Snelling. During the war the school graduated over 6,000 students, who later would go on to break code, serve on the front lines of the war in the Pacific, and even to become instructors themselves. General Douglas MacArthur's Chief of Staff for Military Intelligence later said that the MISLS saved possibly a million lives, 2 billion dollars, and shortened the war in the pacific by 2 years.
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