Roy Tetsuo Takai was born 10/3/1918 in Sacramento, California, the only child born to Seigo Takai, a farmer from Hiroshima-ken, Japan and Kiyo (Masuda)Takai, from Ibaraki-ken, Japan. Roy's mother died when he was 1.5 years old. Roy lived with 5 families including his uncle who lived in the Pudget Sound area of Washington state, until his father remarried a widow with 4 children. When Roy was 11 years old, he took Kendo lessons. In 1929, Roy accompanied his father with a troop of Sacramento Boy Scouts on a tour of Japan. The Takai family stayed in Japan for 6 months.
In Sacramento, Roy attended Sacramento City College and was living in Oakland when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He had been commuting to Berkeley campus by street car and encountered racist remarks made against him. His father was picked up by the FBI and imprisoned at the Department of Justice Detention Center at Bismark, North Dakota, Lordsburg, New Mexico and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Roy's stepmother had taught Japanese to the Nisei in the eastern Sacramento.
Roy and his family were evacuated to the Pinedale Assembly Center and later to the Poston internment camp II in Arizona. In July, 1942, Roy took a Japanese language test for the Military Intelligence Service Language School. On November 19, 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army when the recruiting team of Major Karl Gould, M/Sgt Joe Masuda and T/Sgt Jerry Shibata arrived at Poston. Other internees who were recruited from Poston were: Minoru Hara, Yumiji Higashi and James Sasano (all from camp I); Juichi 'Nick' Nishi and Tom Tsuyuki (from camp II); and Patrick Nagano and Sam Rokutani (Poston camp III). During the time that the Camp Savage Recruiting Team was at Poston, there was a riot in progress caused by the beating of the National J.A.C.L. leader Saburo Kido, an internee in Poston camp II by radicals.
Roy was placed in Section 9, December 1942 Military Intelligence Language School class at Camp Savage, and after completing the course in June 1943, he was sent to Camp Shelby, Missouri for basic infantry training in Company 'S' .
In September 1943, Roy returned to Camp Savage and assigned to the Military Intelligence Service Team led by Captain John D. McLaughlin. On his furlough before departing overseas, Roy visited with his father through the barbed wire fence at the Department of Justice Detention Center, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In October 1943, Takai's MIS team went to Brazi, Ascension Island, and India. His team was assigned to the Joint Intelligence Collection Agency G-2, China-Burma-India theater. In January 1944, he was sent to Imphal in Assam Province to assist a small British Intelligence unit. The Japanese began their attack March 10, which lasted to 4 months. His weight dropped 25 pounds in 7 months from living on K-rations. Takai interrogated the first Japanese prisoners of war captured in that operation.
Takai was assigned to the Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center, an Allied organization with British, Indian, Australian, and U.S. Americans, commanded by Colonel G.F. Blunda, U.S. Army. All interrogators/translators, except the Japanese-Americans were officers. The top ranking Nisei was a M/Sgt. Takai went with the Office of Strategic Services Team headed by Major Raiss to Rangoon, Madras and New Delhi, India, where Takai was hospitalized with amoebic dysentery and malaria. He was given a direct commission as 2nd Lieutenant. Roy was sent to Kulang, the headquarters of the Malayan communists, where he took inventory of the weapons in the Gold Coast of Africa, Egyptian Sudan; Karachi, and New Delhi, in possession by the communists, many who were teenagers.
Takai was named by Colonel G.F. Blunda to be assigned to the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section at Camp Ritchie, Maryland. Later, he was transferred to the Washington Document Research Center in Washington, DC and took an assignment at the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section in Tokyo, Japan. He headed a team in early December 1946, to Maizuru, Japan, to process the first arrival of Japanese repatriates from Siberia. He accompanied Colonel General E. Svensson and Major G. Disharoon to Sugamo Prison to interview Japan's Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, Navy Minister Shimada, Chief of the Economic Planning Bureau Teiichiro Suzuki, and former Commander in Charge of the Pacific Fleet Admiral Takahashi.
During the Korean War, Takai assisted with the secret intelligence operation involving lighting the lighthouse in the Inchon Bay just prior to the landing of Allied troops led by General Douglas MacArthur.
In 1953, he completed the Basic Counter-Intelligence Corp Agent's Course at Fort Holabird, Maryland and assigned as an interpreter in the Department of International Affairs CEC school. In 1955, he completed a 46 week course in Mandarin (Chinese) at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, California. From 1/1956-5/1958, Takai was assigned with the 441st Counter-Intelligence Corps Detachment in Nagoya, and covered the following prefectures in Japan: Fukui, Ishikawa, Toyama, Mie, Gifu and Aichi prefectures.
From 12/1959-5/1965, Roy was assigned to the 500th Military Intelligence Group in Yokohama and Tokyo, and from 7/1958-12/1959, he became the Executive/Operations Officer of Region 2, 113th Counter-Intelligence Corps Detachment, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Takai completed the Advanced Course for Intelligence Officer at Fort Holabird, Maryland and after 12/1959, he was assigned to the 500th Military Intelligence Group with station at Yokohama. His final military assignment was a Chief, Requirements Branch, Office of AC of S, G-2, U.S. Continental Army Command in Fort Monroe, Virginia.
In 10/1965, Takai gave a 30 minute VIP briefing in Japanese (the language his step-mother taught him) language to the highest ranking Japanese army officer, General Yoshifusa Amano, Chief of Staff, Japanese Ground Self Defense Force, on the subject of Mission, Functions, and Organization of U.S. Continental Army Command. Takai retired as a Lieutenant Colonel on March 31, 1966. Takai continued to work as a civilian Federal employee from 9/1966 to 9/1981 as an investigator, equal employment opportunity specialist, and assistant appeals officer.
Roy married Mary Hosokawa, and they had 5 children. He died on 2/6/2006 in Martinez, California. Oakmont Memorial Park, Lafayette, California
Source: http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/resources/military/524/
