Submitted Photo Roy Toyama in his uniform in 1946.

In an often-overlooked chapter of World War II, thousands of Nisei, or second-generation Japanese, were called upon to attend the Japanese Language School at Camp Savage, later Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

Roy Toyama, 98, was born and raised in Minot. He and his brother, Tom, were inducted into service in June 1944 and attended the Japanese Language School.

“My older brother and I were drafted at the same time,” said Toyama.

During the first few years of the war, the country would not take any Japanese Americans into service due to concerns over loyalty.

“They thought we would not be loyal to the U.S. so they put us in a separate category,” said Toyama.

Soon they got desperate for people after losing so many overseas. They started drafting Hawaiian Japanese Americans.

“They turned out to be excellent soldiers so they re-classified them as 1A and began drafting Japanese Americans on the mainland,” said Toyama.

“Early in the war, the U.S. realized they would need people who can speak Japanese to be on the front lines and question intelligence from captured Japanese soldiers. They knew there were a limited number of Japanese-speaking men eligible for the draft so they decided to open up the language school and train us.”

The school opened at an Army base in the Presidio of San Francisco in around December 1941. Later the school was moved to Minnesota.

“I think because they were so careful placing Japanese people on the West Coast, they moved the school to Minnesota in a little town called Camp Savage, south of Minneapolis. It was then transferred to Fort Snelling,” said Toyama.

By then, Toyama and his brother were in basic training. The pair were prepared to go overseas and into combat.

However, they were selected out of the trainees to go to the language school.

“They selected my brother and I and probably about 20-30 other men. We were trained to interpret and question Japanese captives,” Toyama said.

Along the West Coast, Japanese young people attended schools where they were taught Japanese reading and writing.

“They had a head start on those of us that did not attend those schools on the West Coast in the big cities,” said Toyama.

“At the time, the Army was segregated. We were also segregated at the school. The only Caucasian members we had were the officers. The instructors and students were all Nisei.”

The school lasted about a year in Minneapolis and closed as soon as the war ended, as they did not need any more interpreters and translators.

The Toyamas went overseas in September 1944. First, they went by train to Sacramento, and then boarded ship in San Francisco.

“I remember going under the Golden Gate Bridge and wondering if I was ever going to see it again,” said Toyama.

” But our ship broke down and we had to stop in Hawaii. We had a pleasant couple of weeks there. From there, we went to the Philippines, and on our way over to Manila, the war had ended so things were a little more pleasant on the ship,” he said.

After the war ended in September 1945, the Toyamas were transferred to Japan.

After being discharged, they came back to the U.S together and attended the University of Minnesota.

Toyama went on to practice family medicine in northern Minnesota and eventually became an ophthalmologist, opening up his own clinic. Now of Liberty Lake, Wash., he visited Minot in October.