From time to time the Army would send Chinese Americans to the MISLS for Japanese-language training. The first class at Crissy Field included two Chinese American reserve lieutenants, Won-Loy Chan and Robert F. Pang. Officers in the Military Intelligence Service hoped that their knowledge of written Chinese would help them learn Japanese kanji. In January 1943 MISLS began planning for more Chinese American students. The special class began in July 1943 with fifty-two students, but the experiment was not judged successful. The school’s official history noted “that although a knowledge of the Chinese was some aid in assimilation of the Japanese, it also carried with it . . . great psychological obstacles which in the case of most of the [Chinese American] students whose scholastic ability was generally low made it very difficult if not impossible.” Eventually, most were placed into separate sections. Fewer than half graduated with their Nisei classmates, and some required up to twelve additional months before they could graduate.[37] The February 1944 class included nineteen more Chinese Americans.[38]
[38] The February 1944 class included Lim P. Lee, who had been born in Hong Kong. When he was eight months old, his parents brought him to San Francisco. He served as postmaster of San Francisco from 1967 to 1980. Thomas W. Chinn, Bridging the Pacific: San Francisco Chinatown and Its People (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1989), pp. 258–60.
Here are the members in Lee’s class according to The MISLS Album. Full names are in brackets.
E-12
1. Cho, J. [Jim Cho]
2. Dung, K. [Kao T Dung aka Dan Kwong]
3. Jay, O. [Oak T. Jay]
4. Lee, L. [Lim Poon Lee; Lincoln Lee in the registry]
5. Lee, Y. [Yubway Lee]
6. Tom, Y. [Ying Sing Tom aka Roy Sing Tom]
7. Wong, H. [Harlin Seegee Wong]
8. Young, C. [Cho G. Young]
The newspaper Asian Week, March 9, 1984, published Lim P. Lee’s article and a photograph of MISLS Class “C-12”. In the caption, the first name of “Yim S. Tom” should be Yin. The registries do not list “Ted Yee” but he might be Tung K. Yee. Yee and Walter S. Pang enrolled at Fort Snelling in December 1944. The caption said the photograph was at Camp Savage in Spring 1944. Maybe the photograph was at Fort Snelling in Spring 1945. Dan Kwong is not listed in the registries or the album. I suspect Kwong is Kao Dung whose name, unfortunately, sounds like cow dung, and may be reason why he used another name.
In this photograph are (front, left to right) Lim P. Lee, Yin S. Tom and Cho Young; (back, left to right) Jim Cho, Oak T. Jay and Ted Yee.
December 1944 class photograph: (front, left to right) Yubway Lee, Roy S. Tom, Dan Kwong and Harlin Wong; (back, left to right) Jim Cho, Cho G. Young, Lawrence [Oak T.] Jay and Lim P. Lee.
The owner of the Nankin restaurant in Minneapolis treated the MISLS students to a New Year’s dinner. Four students are identified.
March 1945 class photograph: (sitting, left to right) Yubway Lee, Cho Young, Harlin Wong and Dan Kwong; (standing, left to right) Yin S. Tom, Lawrence (Oak T.) Jay, Jim Cho and Lim P. Lee.
Summer 1945 photograph: (kneeling, left to right) Lim P. Lee, Cho G. Young and Jim Cho; (standing, left to right) Harlin Wong, Roy S. Tom, ? (Japanese Language instructor), Dan Kwong and Oak T. Jay.
Photograph of Japanese language instructors.
Graduation dinner invitation and commencement program.
The Company G class graduated on May 19, 1945. On page 306 of Nisei Linguists, Table 2 showed 143 graduates on May 19, 1945. One hundred-and-eight men appeared in the class photograph. On Jay’s class photograph are the names in English and Chinese of eighteen classmates. Jay and Yubway Lee did not sign it.
1. Wah Chin
2. Howard Y. Chinn
3. Jim Cho
4. Jack Chow
5. Jin H Goon
6. Su C. Ho
7. Bun Kwock
8. Dan Kwong (aka Kao T. Dung might be a paper son name because the Chinese characters read Lam See Chung)
9. Lim P. Lee
10. James Lum
11. Chung Chu Ou or Ow (not in the registries or album)
12. Walter S. Pang
13. John J. Sen
14. Yin S. Tom
15. Fay S. Wong
16. Harlin Wong
17. Henry Woo
18. Cho G. Young
Class photograph with three graduates are identified; number one hundred is Colonel Kai E. Rasmussen, the commandant (see Nisei Linguists, page 24).
Related Posts
About the Military Intelligence Service Language School
MISLS Registries and Album
Profiles of the MISLS Students of Chinese and Korean Ancestry with Surname Beginning with C
Profiles of the MISLS Students of Chinese and Korean Ancestry with Surnames Beginning with D—K
Profiles of the MISLS Students of Chinese and Korean Ancestry with Surname Beginning with L
Profiles of the MISLS Students of Chinese and Korean Ancestry with Surnames Beginning with M—T
Profiles of the MISLS Students of Chinese and Korean Ancestry with Surnames Beginning with W—Y
MISLS Ephemera and Clippings
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