U.S. Navy Japanese Language School and Oriental Language School collection

The US Navy Japanese Language School expanded and renamed the Navy School of Oriental Languages, began in 1922 with a three-year Japanese language course taught in Tokyo. The total number trained in that program by 1940 was sixty-five. Of those, only twelve were regarded as fully proficient in the use of written and spoken Japanese in December 1940. By 1940 the prospect of the U.S. entering a war with Japan forced the removal of the school from Tokyo to the United States. The Navy saw a clear and immediate need for producing junior Naval Reserve officers thoroughly competent in Japanese. In February 1941, Commander A. E. Hindmarsh was instructed to proceed with a nationwide survey to determine the availability of Japanese linguists in and out of the Navy, to institute the organization of a training course, and to administer such courses henceforth.

Six hundred people in the United States were identified to possess a knowledge of Chinese or Japanese. Of those, only fifty-six were selected as having a background knowledge of Japanese sufficient to justify inviting them to become the nucleus of the Navy Japanese Language School. All were native-born U.S. citizens, white, male, college graduates, between the age of twenty to thirty, and all were anxious to serve the Navy.

On August 1, 1941, Commander Hindmarsh submitted a plan to establish two training centers, one at Harvard University, the other at the University of California, Berkeley. The plan was approved and the military tested Naganuma Japanese Language Course formed the basis for the program. Of the original fifty-six candidates, forty-eight were enrolled after extensive interviews and examinations. Twenty-one were assigned to the University of California and twenty-seven to Harvard University. The students were first classified as Naval Agents under a civilian contract. A very specific contract was drawn up between the Navy and the universities with explicit details assuring strict adherence to a twelve-month training schedule and to methods and techniques prescribed by the Navy. The Navy paid each University a set tuition charge for each student, which constituted the entire payment to the universities. The universities employed and paid the language instructors, being limited only by the terms of the contract that gave the Navy the right to approve or disapprove any instructor and required that there be one full-time instructor for every six students. Thus, none of the instructors were directly employed by the Navy. However, the teachers were uniformly trained to teach only what the Navy provided and every teacher taught exactly as he was instructed, so that the results were of a uniformly high standard. Students also had a list of strict rules by which to comply in order to complete the course with sufficient proficiency. Upon review of both programs, the Navy determined that Berkeley’s program more closely complied with Navy standards, using the Naganuma texts, whereas the Harvard program had their own method. The Harvard program ended with the expiration of their contract in September 1942.

On June 23, l942, EO-9066 compelled the transfer of the school from the University of California, Berkeley, to the University of Colorado, Boulder. This move was made necessary by an order issued by General DeWitt, Western Defense Command, which required all persons of Japanese ancestry to be evacuated, first, from the coastal strip of the West Coast states and, later, inland from the State of California. Boulder, Colorado, had been kept in reserve as a potential location to meet this eventuality. The contract was signed between University President Robert Stearns and Commander Hindmarsh. As required by the contract, Miss Florence Walne, who had directed the Japanese Language Program at Berkeley, became the director at Boulder. Eleven teaching staff transferred to Boulder under the same terms and conditions as governed their employment at Berkeley. In addition, one hundred and fifty-three new students and twenty new teachers began the program on July 1, 1942. New instructors were recruited directly from transit and internment camps, the names often provided by Senior Sensei Susumu Nakamura. The University of Colorado authorities, especially President Stearns, were completely cooperative and literally adapted a large part of the institution to the Navy's special needs. The townspeople of Boulder were called upon to help house the increasing members of the faculty and their families. Compared to the hostility shown to Japanese Americans elsewhere in the West, the spirit of the university was very accepting of the whole Navy language program participants. Boulder, however, required limits on how many Japanese Americans could come to the University. Navy intelligence officers, University officials, and JLS authorities constantly met with town councilmen, chamber members, and news media owners in order to allay fears and cut off anti-Japanese American sentiment.

Difficulties surrounding draft age men in civilian clothes with unusual identification cards led to their wholesale induction as Yoemen, Second Class, V-4, U.S.N.R., placed on active duty. Upon successful completion of the course, the students were commissioned, their rank dependant on their education and facility with Japanese, and assigned to Washington, DC or the Pacific Theater. The program expanded rapidly with hundreds of new students entering and graduating each semester. The first class of women students began on July 21, 1943, as Naval agents and were later commissioned as officers in the Waves. British Naval Officers began work in the Japanese Language School on October 12, 1943. In 1944, the school’s name was changed to the US Navy Oriental Language School, so as to include curricula in Chinese, Russian and Malay. The contract between the Navy and the University of Colorado terminated on June 15, 1946.

Several reunions of the graduates from the Japanese Language School have been held throughout the United States. The 50th reunion was held at the University of Colorado, Boulder Campus, on August 7-9, 1992, and the 50th reunion of the WAVES was held on the Boulder Campus on July 16-19, 1993. On June 6-9, 2002, the Archives, Navy ROTC, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the CU Foundation sponsored the 60th Reunion of the US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School. During this event a bronze plaque, honoring the school, its graduates, and instructors was dedicated. The plaque hangs in the Veterans Lounge in the University Memorial Center.