#nisei

[trusttnno1]

Nisei (3.9)

[nefertitisfjordd]

he is beauty, he is grace

[sp00kyactionatadistance]

The X-Files • Nisei

“Scully, after all you’ve seen! After all you’ve told me you’ve seen, the tunnel filled with medical files, the beings moving past you, the implant in your neck, why do you refuse to believe?

Believing’s the easy part, Mulder. I just need more than you. I need proof.

You think that believing is easy?”

[renegadesstuff]

Why can't she believe? 🥺

[ragnarockz]

Got some new art cards in those VHS! 👽💚

[sculderand-mully]

calvin and hobbes x files mashup

[agent-troi]

watching nisei and thinking about that one post that described mulder as “a little hamster in a long coat out to cause as much trouble as possible”

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

So this series of posts reminded me of something that really fucking bothers me. While the 442nd are rightfully lauded for their spectacular accomplishments, I’d argue that a different unit of nisei contributed even more to the American war effort.

I’m talking, of course, about the Japanese-American veterans of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS).

Let’s take a moment here and do a little exercise in military logistics. It’s the 1940s and you’re in charge of running the American war effort against the Axis Powers. You want to know as much as possible about your enemy, right? The more you know about their troop movements, strategies, supply lines, morale, etc., the better you’ll be able to counter their efforts and stage attacks. Now, you and your allies have some pretty sharp fellas working on cracking your enemies’ codes, so you’ve actually got a big ol’ pile of communications to go through. There’s just one problem: your enemies don’t use English.

But hey! You’re America! Land of immigrants and all that! Don’t speak German? There’s plenty of German-Americans who do! Don’t speak Italian? There’s plenty of Italian-Americans who do! Don’t speak Japanese? HMMM. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO FIND A BUNCH OF JAPANESE SPEAKERS???

These excerpts come from American Patriots, an anthology of stories from the MIS interpreters put out by the Japanese-American Veterans Association of Washington DC. I know it’ll take a minute, but I want you to read every goddamn word. I *NEED* you to feel the weight of those events:

The United States military was crippled by its lack of Japanese interpreters. They knew they were crippled even before Pearl Harbor. To fix that handicap, they recruited men from literal concentration camps. Not only did those men rise to the occasion, but other men from other camps volunteered to serve. This country did not deserve their loyalty, but they still served. And no one fucking talks about them.

Wow! That’s amazing! Surely there’s a bunch of movies and books and documentaries about these guys, right? America loves a good patriotic WWII story!

There's almost no media about the Japanese translators. American Patriots is the only book I’ve come across in real life, and that only happened because I stopped by the Japanese American Veterans Association's booth at the Cherry Blossom Festival. There's a few history books, mostly by Japanese-American groups, and a couple of articles, but that’s about it. They're all pretty old (American Patriots came out in 1995). Nobody fucking talks about the nisei translators.

The next time you bring up the heroic service of the 442nd Regiment, bring up the heroic service of the Japanese translators of the MIS. The next time you discuss the contributions of POCs to the US military, I want you to discuss the Japanese translators. The next time you get angry about how Asian-Americans are ignored by American culture, I want you to get angry about the Japanese translators. This is an important piece of American history, and it’s always overlooked, and I’m sure we all know why. Let’s change that.

Further reading:

Nisei Linguists from Washington in World War II

Military Intelligence Service

JAVA's compilation of nisei members of the MIS Hall of Fame

JAVA's research archive

[icedteainthatbag]

mulder is many things but elegant in “nisei” is not one of them

[trusttnno1]

Fox Mulder | Nisei

[nefertitisfjordd]

skin man with the sauciest saunter recorded in modern history

plus bonus skinner bullying mulder:

[azure-firecracker]

I have my issues with season 3 (as always I’ll touch on them in my review after I finish) but it’s got the longest unbroken stretch of consistently good episodes so far by a mile.

[earhartsease]

our intuition that Mulder is also some kind of alien hybrid is reinforced by that bit in Nisei where he dives into the dock and comes out hours later in the dark, wet and minus his coat, and is in no obvious way hypothermic

[x-files-polls]

Kazuo Sakurai: love how he went through all the work to become a diplomat just to be able to commit ALL the crimes with diplomatic immunity

Sheriff Andy Taylor & Barbara Taylor: In my opinion the most tragic and heart-wrenching part of the episode. At least the other woman under the bed wanted her situation.

TW: Violence and character death

Don't like this propaganda? Reblog it with your own or send some in my askbox

Nisei: A mail order videotape of an alien autopsy blossoms into a much more complicated investigation when Mulder and Scully find the distributor of the tape killed in his own home apparently by a high-ranking Japanese diplomat. While Mulder's search for the video leads him to a train car, Scully investigates a Mutual UFO Network group and discovers several women who claim to know her.

Home: In a small, otherwise peaceful town, the agents investigate the death of an infant with disturbing birth defects, and the trail leads to a clan of inbred, genetic mutants

[renegadesstuff]

POOKIE MULDER 🥹🥹

[twincitiesgeek]

A new play highlights the experience of Japanese Americans in WWII who went through military intelligence training right here in Minnesota.