John Aiso
John Aiso was a significant figure in American history, known for his roles as a judge, educator, and military officer. Born on December 14, 1909, in Burbank, California, he faced considerable anti-Japanese discrimination throughout his early life, which shaped his determination to succeed. Aiso excelled academically, becoming the first child of Japanese immigrants to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1934. His career took a pivotal turn during World War II when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the highest-ranking Japanese American in the military as a lieutenant colonel.
Aiso played a crucial role in establishing the Military Intelligence Service Language School, which trained personnel in Japanese language and culture, significantly contributing to U.S. military intelligence efforts during the war. After the war, he continued to break barriers in the legal field, becoming the first nisei judge in the United States and later serving as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal. Aiso's legacy includes numerous honors, like the Legion of Merit and the Third Class Order of the Rising Sun from Japan, reflecting his dedication to fostering better U.S.-Japan relations and his impact on the integration of minorities in the military and judiciary.
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Subject Terms
John Aiso
Educator, military leader, and judge
- Born: December 14, 1909
- Place of Birth: Burbank, California
- Died: December 29, 1987
- Place of Death: Burbank, California
A judge and educator, John Aiso overcame anti-Japanese discrimination to help found a language school that became crucial to United States military intelligence during World War II. Rising from private to become the highest-ranking Japanese American in the United States Army, Aiso became a prominent jurist in California later in life.
Areas of achievement: Language education, military, law
Early Life
John Aiso was born in Burbank, California, on December 14, 1909. The son of a gardener, he spent his early life battling anti-Japanese sentiment in his home state while struggling to complete his education and become a lawyer. In school, he was popular with his classmates. At Hollywood’s LeConte Junior High School, he was elected the 1923 student body president by a large margin, but when parents and local newspapers complained about him, the school administration dissolved the student government. While attending Hollywood High School, he was refused entrance into the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) and warned not to try out as a cheerleader. In 1926, he won the district oratory contest on the topic of the US Constitution, which was sponsored by the American Legion. His success in the contest made him eligible to represent the school in the state championship. Aiso’s principal, however, forced a choice upon him: he could either participate in the state competition or be class valedictorian, for which he had been nominated. He chose the latter, graduating at sixteen years of age.
Following high school, Aiso studied the Japanese language for ten months at Seijo Gakuen in Tokyo. In 1931, he graduated as class valedictorian from Brown University, earning a degree in economics. He next enrolled at Harvard Law School, the first child of Japanese immigrants to do so. Aiso earned a law degree in 1934 and worked briefly in New York before going to Japan to study Japanese law at Chuo University. For three years thereafter, he worked for a Japanese company in China.
Life’s Work
Aiso returned to California in 1940. He passed the California bar examination and was beginning a career as a lawyer when he was drafted into the US Army. After reporting for duty in April 1941, he was stationed at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, California, and put to work repairing trucks, a job for which he had no training. On furlough in November, he became engaged to Sumi Akiyama. Expecting to be discharged, he instead found himself sent to the Presidio army post in San Francisco, where he was inducted into a brand-new Japanese-language school run by the army’s intelligence organization. He began as a student but was soon promoted to master sergeant and made chief instructor.
His meteoric rise in rank continued when, to avoid anti-Japanese agitation common on the West Coast, the school was moved near Minneapolis, Minnesota, and renamed the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). Aiso, who was commissioned as a major, and the school’s commander, Lt. Col. John Weckerling, expanded the school’s curriculum to include Japanese history, geography, and military affairs, as well as language, all to prepare graduates for duty as translators both in headquarters and on the battlefield. In October 1945, Aiso was transferred to Japan to serve in Tokyo as a legal assistant in the Civil Information Service, a branch of the intelligence section for Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Allied Headquarters. By the time Aiso left the military in 1947, he was a lieutenant colonel, the highest rank of any Japanese American in the United States Army.
In September 1952, Aiso was made a commissioner of the Los Angeles Superior Court. The following year, he became a judge in the city’s municipal court, the first nisei (second-generation Japanese American) judge in the country. Aiso was soon promoted to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. In 1967, he was named chief judge of the Appellate Department, and a year later, Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, appointed him an associate justice of the Fifth Division of the Second Appellate District. The Second Appellate District encompasses Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties. Aiso also served as a temporary justice on the California Supreme Court.
In 1972, Aiso retired from the bench but continued working as a lawyer for the firm of O’Melveny & Myers until he suffered a mild stroke in 1984. On December 13, 1987, while fueling his car at a gas station, Aiso was attacked by a mugger and sustained a head injury. Two and a half weeks later, he died in a Burbank hospital.
Significance
Aiso’s distinguished career established him as a leading member of the Japanese American Bar Association and a symbol of the integration of minorities into the United States Armed Forces. Aiso received many honors for his career achievements, including the Legion of Merit and induction into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in 1991. In addition, a street, a library, and a scholarship have been named after him. For his work in helping to improve relations between the United States and Japan, the Japanese government awarded him its Third Class Order of the Rising Sun in 1984. In 2022, Aiso was one of several finalists considered by a panel of military experts tasked with choosing a new name for Augusta, Georgia's Fort Gordon, an honor ultimately given to former general and US president Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Bibliography
Horton, Alex. "The Finalists for Fort Gordon's New Name and Their Amazing Stories." Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/07/fort-gordon-renaming-finalists. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
Ichinokuchi, Tad, and Daniel Aiso, eds. John Aiso and the M.I.S.: Japanese American Soldiers in the Military Intelligence Service, World War II. Los Angeles: Military Intelligence Service Club of Southern California, 1988. Print.
Ishimaru, Stone S. Military Intelligence Service Language School, U.S. Army, Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Los Angeles: TecCom Productions, 1991. Print.
Kihara, Shigeya, et al. Unsung Heroes: The Military Intelligence Service, Past, Present, and Future—The Eyes and Ears of the Allied Forces During and After World War II. Seattle: Military Intelligence Service Northwest Association, 1996. Print.
McNaughton, James C. Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service During World War II. Washington: GPO, 2006. Print.