Talking with them made me realize for the first time why the navy had founded the Japanese Language School. They had been told that the navy interpreters were incompetent, but Cary's fluent Japanese changed their minds. This is how it happened that Cary and I, shivering in summer clothes, landed on Attu, where there was snow on the ground.Īboard the transport we met some nisei army interpreters. Although we asked for warmer clothes, we were informed that they had none for naval personnel.

Whereas we still were dressed in summer uniforms, the soldiers aboard the transport were wearing woolens. It was pretty clear by this time that we were not bound for the tropics, but only now, aboard the transport, did we learn that we were to participate in a landing on Attu, an island in the Aleutians that the Japanese had occupied. On April 30, at a place aptly called Cold Bay, in Alaska, we transferred from the Pennsylvania to a transport. This was the only service we performed aboard ship, but when the war ended the entire crew of the Pennsylvania, including us, was decorated because of the ship's outstanding record.

The communications officer said, 'We've got Jap talk coming over.' We listened, but the language was unmistakably Russian. Late one night, Cary and I were aroused and told to hurry to the radio room. But even then we were not told where we were going. In view of the hint about white uniforms, we assumed that we would be traveling south, but the weather grew steadily colder. Contrary to their expectations, the ship did not head south, but northward to Alaska.īelow is an excerpt from his autobiography 'Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan.' With the two aboard, the old battleship USS Pennsylvania left a port at San Pedro, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. Cary was born and raised in Otaru in Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, and 'spoke Japanese fluently without a trace of a foreign accent,' as recounted by Keene. He was accompanied by Otis Cary, a fellow officer who eventually became a lifelong friend. Navy language officer, was informed of a secret mission and headed to California. Donald Keene, who was absorbed in deciphering the Japanese on documents at his post in Hawaii as a U.S.

Navy linguist