"11 Nisei (second generation Japanese-American) WACS, one Chinese-American WAC and one Euro-American WAC, all skilled Japanese translators who had trained at the Military Intelligence Service Languae School, accepted assignments to the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section of General Douglas MacArthur's Headquarters in the Army of Occupation in Tokyo, Japan. There they worked as clerks, secretaries and translators.

"The Nisei WACs, Americans 'with Japanese faces,' were expected to show the Japanese what Americans of Japanese ancestry were like, and to help build bridges across a cultural gap. MacArthur, however, did not approve of enlisted WACs serving overseas. He gave the women a choice of returning to the United States as WACs or being discharged from the Army and serving one-year contracts in Japan as civilians with US federal civil service status. All 13 agreed to stay in Japan as civil servants."

From: "Women in Military Service for American Memorial Foundation, Inc." 13 January 2006. Accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.womensmemorial.org/Education/APA.html.