Nisei Veterans Memorial Center Military Intelligence Service Exhibit

Nisei Veterans Memorial Center. Photo by Wendy Osher.

The Nisei Veterans Memorial Center hosts a new exhibit, MIS: America’s Secret Weapon – Japanese Americans in the Military in WWII.

The exhibit will be open to the public from Nov. 14, 2016 to Jan. 31, 2017, Monday to Saturday, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Thousands of Americans of Japanese Ancestry waged war against their parents’ homeland in World War II as members of the US Army’s Military Intelligence Service or MIS, using their knowledge of the enemy’s language and culture to give America a priceless edge that shortened the war and saved countless lives, according to the NVMC.

From Guadalcanal and the Aleutians to Okinawa, the MIS soldiers served in every major battle and campaign of the war against Japan, gleaning vital information from prisoners and documents, flushing caves, fighting as infantrymen.

After the war, they were essential in rebuilding Japan as a modern democracy and staunch US ally. The MIS soldiers’ feats were classified for years. They usually served in small groups on temporary duty, so their work too often went unrecorded, yet they put to rest any doubts about the loyalty of Japanese-Americans.

NVMC’s mission is to ignite the potential in people by inspiring them to find the hero in themselves through the legacy of the Nisei Veterans.

The Nisei Veterans Memorial Center is a non-profit organization that aspires to a world where people act selflessly for the greater good.

NVMC owns and manages an intergenerational campus on Go For Broke Place in Kahului that serves as a home for Kansha Preschool, Maui Adult Day Care Center’s Oceanview facility, the Stanley Izumigawa Pavilion and the NVMC Education Center.

To learn more, visit www.nvmc.org.