Identity

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Sue Kato, who was born in Nebraska and identified herself as an American, felt a duty to serve. Initially banned because of her race, she joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1943. After intense training at Fort Snelling, she translated Japanese documents seized in combat. She later wrote that she and others did it for all Japanese Americans and that she was proud to be an American. In 1942, the Military Intelligence Service Language School moved to Fort Snelling, where it trained soldiers in Japanese language, culture, philosophy, and geography. That same year, the U.S. government sent men, women, and children of Japanese descent to concentration camps by executive order. By 1946, roughly 160 instructors and 3,000 students trained in 125 classrooms at Fort Snelling even as friends and family remained incarcerated.

Minnesota · United States