JAPANESE AMERICAN VETERANS ASSOCIATION
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 9, 2005
CONTACT: Terry Shima (301-987-6746); ttshima@worldnet.att.net)
FOR PHOTO: Go to JAVA website, www.javadc.org. Scroll down left side to Press
Release. Click on Press Release, this subject.
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PHIL ISHIO VOTED BY PEERS TO JAVA HONORARY CHAIR. JOINS AKAKA, INOUYE AND MINETA.
MIZUSAWA CITES JAVA’S GROWTH AND IMPACT
Washington, D.C. Colonel (Ret.) Sunao “Phil” Ishio, founding President of the
Japanese American Veterans Association and member of its Executive Council, was
elected to the position of Honorary Chair on December 2, 2005 by the unanimous
vote of the JAVA Executive Council. He joins Senators Daniel K. Akaka and Daniel
K. Inouye and Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta to this prestigious
position.
left to right:
JAVA President and Newly Elected Honorary Chair Phil Ishio (COL, ret)
Bert Mizusawa, President of JAVA, praised Ishio’s foresight 13 years ago to
activate JAVA and build a viable foundation to launch JAVA as a nationwide
veteran's service organization to serve the interests of Japanese American,
Asian American and other veterans. Mizusawa noted that JAVA started with a
handful of former Military Intelligence Service veterans to an organization
serving all veterans from all wars since World War II. The growth in the size
and scope of JAVA's charter has significantly increased Japanese American
visibility regarding military service to America. We have come a long way,
Mizusawa said, and called for the continued support of all of JAVA's members.
Mizusawa encouraged younger Asian American veterans to join and get involved.
Expressing how deeply he was moved with this recognition, Colonel Ishio
expressed his satisfaction that JAVA, in concert with other veterans
organizations, is playing a substantive role to represent the interests of
Japanese American, Asian American and other veterans.
Ishio was born in Berkeley, California and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Following his graduation from high school, he attended the University of Utah
for one year. He then accompanied his grandparents to Tokyo, where he enrolled
in Waseda University. He was popular among his fellow Japanese students who
sought to elect him president of his class. As tension between Japan and the
United States escalated, Ishio returned to the United States on the advice of
the US Embassy.
On October 31, 1941 Ishio was inducted into the US Army and assigned to Camp
Roberts, California, for training. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Ishio
recalls all Japanese American GIs were assigned to kitchen police duties. In
June 1942, Ishio volunteered to serve in the Military Intelligence Service and
was assigned to Camp Savage, Minnesota. Being in the first class, Ishio recalls
their task was to scrub the campsite so they could move in. Following
graduation, Ishio and ten other Nisei were sent to San Francisco prior to
shipment to Australia. He was elated to be promoted to Tech Sergeant on board
the vessel but was disappointed upon arrival in Australia because General
Douglas MacArthur ordered the Nisei downgraded to Corporal because “Tech
Sergeant is the grade they should work up to.”
After a brief stay in Australia, Ishio was shipped to Papua New Guinea where his
job was to translate captured enemy documents. While Ishio was assigned to the
regimental headquarters, traditionally located in the rear, the headquarters
frequently became the front lines during intense combat. Looking like the enemy
posed obvious dangers for the Nisei, who could be shot by either the Japanese or
Americans. Because of this, each Nisei was assigned Caucasian body guards.
Subsequently, in the invasion of Leyte, Philippines in October 1944, Ishio
received his battlefield commission. He recalled Japanese aircraft dive-bombed
his landing craft that seriously wounded his colleagues. One, Spady Koyama, was
considered killed and was placed on the beach with a tarpaulin over his head. A
soldier passing by saw Koyama’s arm move. The medics were called and Koyama was
evacuated to the States and lives in Seattle today.
When Ishio returned to the States on R&R in March 1945, his first stop was San
Francisco, probably the only Japanese American to walk its streets at that time.
While on home leave Ishio and Connie Nayematsu of Montana were married. He then
proceeded to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he worked in a unit of the military
intelligence division. The highlight of this assignment was to be called to the
White House as a language specialist to brief officials on a captured enemy
engineering study, which was the Japanese plan to build a dam at the Sanmen
Gorge on the Yellow River in China. He was subsequently assigned to the
Washington Document Center, which became a part of the Central Intelligence
Agency.
Ishio converted his commission to reserve status and joined the US Army Reserve
Unit of CIA, his employer. He eventually became its commander, attended the
Command and General Staff School, and was promoted to Colonel. Following his
retirement from CIA, Ishio worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration to
manage the narcotics and dangerous drug information. He served in this position
for 17 years.
Asked what was the most important translation done by Japanese Americans, Ishio
said unequivocally it was the “Z Plan”, the Japanese Imperial Navy’s master plan
to destroy the US 5th Fleet and thereby maintain control of the Philippine Sea,
the Marianas Islands, including Saipan and Guam, and the naval gateway to the
Japanese homeland.
The Z-Plan, dated March 8, 1944, fell into US hands by a twist of fate. While
transporting the Z-Plan from the Palau to the advance Japanese naval
headquarters near British North Borneo, the plane carrying the courier, Admiral
Shigeru Fukudome, Chief of Staff of the Imperial Navy Combined Fleet, had to
crash land in a rain storm near Cebu, Philippines. Filipino fishermen rescued
Fukudome, and also seized the waterproofed satchel that protected the Z-Plan.
Through a tested communication channel between the Filipino guerillas and
General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters, the Z-Plan was transported via
submarine and airplane to Australia. Translators, including two Nisei,
translated the material and had it couriered to Admiral Chester Nimitz at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii. This information was made available to all naval fleet
commanders in the Pacific.
When the Japanese Imperial Navy launched its Z-Plan on June 15, 1944 the US
naval commanders, armed in advance with its translation, were prepared, thanks
in part to the Nisei. In the most ferocious five days of naval battle, the
Japanese were defeated, losing over 500 planes, five carriers and other vessels.
When MacArthur announced at the end of the war that “never in history has a
military commander gone into battle knowing in advance so much about the enemy,”
he was likely reflecting the contributions of the Nisei linguists.
Ishio and his wife, Connie, live in Silver Spring, Maryland. His son resides in
Burtonsville, Maryland and his daughters live in San Francisco, California, and
Atlanta, Georgia.
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