Although the 100th and the 442nd were certainly the most famous US units made up of Japanese-Americans, the part that Japanese Americans played in the Military Intelligence service perhaps proved the loyalty of the nisei more than any other unit. For the Military Intelligence Service, established on November 1, 1941, was used to gain information on the Japanese Empire, by that time an obvious threat to the US military. Over six thousand Nisei were members of the MIS, all of whom graduated from the MIS College in Presido, California. The MIS nisei translated captured and covertly obtained enemy orders, battle plans, maps, diaries, letters, interrogated prisoners, deciphered enemy communications, broadcasted surrender commands, helped the US engage in psychological warfare, and even convinced soldiers and refugees in hiding to come out since the fighting was over (even if it wasn’t). Because of these actions and others still unknown to the public, the MIS should prove above any other organization that the Japanese Americans were loyal solely to the US during the war. Very little was known about the MIS until many documents cleared the fifty-year classification level in 1996. Much of the actions and directives of the MIS is still unknown as buildings of documents must be sifted through and even more is still classified, under lock and key. General Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence in the Pacific, however, credits the MIS with saving millions of lives and shortening the war in the Pacific by two years.
MIS Nisei participated in every campaign that involved Imperial Japanese opponents, including those in India and Burma, which did not involve US, troops. MIS Nisei worked with every major Allied nation including British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Chinese, and Indian combat troops in every campaign in the Pacific. Many members of the MIS were found and began training even before the US was at war, but many were transferred from other areas of duty. Before the war, most Japanese Americans in the military were engineers due to technical experience, and many of these were transferred into the MIS, as well as many of those who initially had volunteered for the 442nd. Those in the MIS cannot be adequately honored as the members of the 442nd as many of their accomplishments remain secrets. The members of the MIS alive today still cannot discuss much of their experiences in the unit. But with General Willoughby’s comments in mind, it is obvious that the MIS lived up to the standards of the 442nd as well.