By May 1942, thirty graduates of that first class were dispersed to a vast battleground, ranging from Alaska in the north to Guadalcanal and Papua New Guinea in the Southwest Pacific. At first, Army and marine units didn’t know how to utilize the few linguists and regarded them as suspect. They were kept far from the front, translating captured material—enemy numbers, disposition, plans—that arrived weeks after it might have had any tactical value. But by autumn, a paltry dozen or so nisei had proved their worth on short assignments to forward units in the Southwest Pacific, providing timely
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