JOURNEY TO BOULDER: THE JAPANESE AMERICAN INSTRUCTORS OF THE NAVY JAPANESE LANGUAGE SCHOOL (1942-1946)

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/9k41zf41s

Abstract

This study examines the experiences of the Japanese American language instructors of the Navy Japanese Language School (JLS) that was housed at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1942 to 1946. This is the first time the instructors of the JLS have been the focus of a study and the first time the instructors have been sought for their own impressions of the history and the legacy of the Language School.

The JLS instructors present a compelling perspective on both the interment and Japanese American participation in the war effort. Many experienced exemption, evacuation, internment, and release in order to become instructors in the "enemy's
language" to officers of the Navy. Seen through a broader lens of Japanese American war participation, the experiences of the instructors of the JLS reveal that in addition to the internment of West Coast Japanese Americans, another challenge faced them and other Japanese Americans who volunteered for the war effort. Japanese American resentment towards the U.S. government also confronted the instructors and caused them to be ambivalent towards their participation in the Navy program.

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