The Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, existed from 1942-45 and employed an amazing array of some 13,000 super secret soldiers who went places that didn’t exist and did things that never happened. Although mainly credited with far-out operations ‘Somewhere behind Nazi lines” in Europe, there were also OSS dets that operated– very successfully– against the Japanese. One of these, Det 101, was formed in part of Japanese-American (Nisei) troops drawn from the 442nd RCT (Go For Broke!) while it was training at Camp Shelby to go to Europe and fight.
“You are being recruited for a special dangerous mission in the Far East…. A mission more hazardous than combat, so hazardous that it may be “a one way street.” Do you still want to volunteer?” This dialogue took place sometime in July 1943 at the headquarters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The speaker was Dr. Daniel Buchanan of the Office of Strategic Services (the OSS) addressing over 100 soldiers of the 442nd who had responded to his recruitment call. In response to Dr. Buchanan’s ominous warning, not one of his listeners left the room…
Nisei MIS attached to OSS Detachment 101 go through Guerrilla, Ranger, survival training on Catalina Island, Calif. Sep 1944. Front Row, L-R: Calvin Tottori, Sho Kurahashi, Fumio Kido, Wilbert Kishinami, Tad Nagaki (mainland), Takao Tanabe (Mainland), Dick Hamada and Tom Baba. Back row, L-R: Susumu Kazuhaya (mainland), LT Ralph Yempuku, LT Richard Betsui, MAJ Crowe, LT Junichi Buto, LT Chiyoki Ikeda, and George Kobayashi (mainland)
“Thereafter each volunteer underwent individual interview and screening with Dr. Buchanan covering their personal background, Japanese language ability and ending with the final inquiry of their continued willingness to volunteer for this hazardous mission.
Ultimately, 23 Nisei were selected for this special OSS mission and they were quietly spirited out of Camp Shelby on December 29, 1943 to undergo nine months of rigorous special training. First they spent three months at Camp McDowell, Illinois for communications training in Morse Code, radio theory and repair. Then they were subjected to a five months’ crash course in military Japanese and the customs and geography of Japan at the Military Intelligence School at Camp Savage, Minnesota. Finally, they were sent to Catalina Island, California for intensive physical conditioning, hand-to-hand combat, beach landing and infiltration and techniques of demolition and explosives…”
Detachment 101 of the Office of Strategic Service Irrawaddy ambush
Then they got operational in 1945, the force was attached as intelligence specialists to the Kachin Rangers, a group of some 10,000 guerrillas lead by a handful of American army officers and men behind Japanese lines. All told they are credited with inflicting over 5400 casualties on the Japanese military and helping to tie down large forces that could have been used elsewhere.
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