Lt. Colonel Richard M. Sakakida Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame (1988); Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) Fall of Fame;
Of all the unsung heroes of World War Two, Richard Sakakida must rank as one of the most remarkable. For courage, fortitude and loyalty to his adopted homeland there were few to rival him. Yet outside a small circle of veteran CIC agents Sakakida's name is almost unknown, and his extraordinary story has never been fully told.
Richard Motoso Sakakida was born on November 19, 1920 in Puunene, Maui. He had two brothers and two sisters and the family moved to Honolulu in 1923. His father passed away when Richard was only 7 years old, and his mother raised the family on her own. His mother had a strong influence on his life and many of his personal traits and convictions regarding the family, truth, honor and loyalty can be attributed to her strong family values. Richard went to McKinley High School and Hongwanji Japanese language school in Honolulu, and graduated both schools in June 1939. During the latter part of the 1930s and the early 1940s, the relationship between the United States and Japan were beginning to wane with Japan’s invasion of China. The US Army believed it was just a matter of time before Japan expanded its territorial conquest to the Pacific with the Philippines being its initial target. General MacArthur’s headquarters in the Philippines requested that two Niseis be recruited for the Corps of Intelligence Police to assume undercover status in Manila, with the express purpose of gathering intelligence on the Japanese community. Richard was recommended by a former high school ROTC instructor to be one of the two individuals to be recruited. On March 14 1941, Richard was inducted into the US Army at Fort Shafter with the rank of Sergeant. This was 9 months before Pearl Harbor. Unlike normal undercover personnel, who received intensive training for mission, Richard had no formal intelligence training to prepare him for his undercover assignment in the Philippines. He had to rely on his own initiative, instincts and wits. Barely three weeks after his induction, on April 7, 1941, Richard and one other Nisei agent (Arthur Komori , Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame) boarded the US Army transport "Republic" undercover as civilian crew members. He and Komori disembarked (ostensibly "jumped ship") in Manila on April 21, 1941.
Despite Sakakida’s initial inexperience as an intelligence agent, he quickly established his cover and began his mission of gathering information. He was able to ingratiate himself with key Japanese businessmen and developed relationships to obtain intelligence. Soon after bombing Pearl Harbor, the Japanese landed on parts of the Philippine islands. As a result the local Japanese nationals were rounded up and incarcerated in a central compound. To continue his intelligence mission, Sakakida volunteered to accompany the Japanese nationals. When questioned by the local Philippine constabulary, he was assumed to be a Japanese spy. Later, it was determined that he was a member of the Corps of Intelligence Police (CIP) and later "arrested" by members of the US Army G-2 to more firmly establish his bona fides as an American "civilian".
Sakakida later rejoined his outfit wearing his US uniform and participated in interrogations, translations and other assigned intelligence duties. He was transferred to General Wainwright’s headquarters in Corrigedor. After the fall of Bataan, General MacArthur ordered the evacuation to Australia of his two Nisei linguists, Komori and Sakakida. Sakakida was to have been evacuated on April 13, 1942, but gave his seat up to Clarence Yamagata, a Hawaiian-born local civilian with a family. Yamagata had been one of Sakakida’s primary contacts while undercover and had assisted US G-2 in gathering intelligence. This unselfish act typifies the courage, strength and goodwill Sakakida had with his comrades-in-arms.
Sakakida participated in the surrender by General Wainwright of Corregidor on May 7, 1942, to General Homma of the Japanese Imperial Army. Sakakida provided all of the translations and negotiations of terms of surrender on behalf of General Wainwright. He was accosted by Japanese military personnel when he stood forthright and declared that he was an American soldier and not a Filipino. After the surrender of Corregidor, he reverted to his undercover role. On November 18, 1942, Sakakida was taken to face court-martial charges that he was a traitor to Japan. Sakakida was questioned extensively by the Japanese concerning his status with the US Army, but he adhered to his original cover, insisting that he was a civilian interpreter working for the US and not a US soldier. Between November 1942 and February 10, 1943, Sakakida was tortured in attempts to break his story. The Kempei Tai (Japanese Secret Military Police) were convinced that Sakakida was a member of the US Army and tried every conceivable torture and pressure to get him to change his story, including the water treatment, when his stomach was filled with water and then jumped upon by his torturers. They hung him from a beam by his wrists and he was burned by cigarettes repeatedly. Sakakida persevered remembering the admonishments of his mother that day he left Hawaii; she said "This is your country. Do your best. Don’t bring disgrace to yourself and especially to your family. That is all I ask of you." Words of his mother gave him strength to undergo the most hideous of physical degradation and pain without breaking.
Unable to break his cover, Sakakida was given a position as an interpreter in the Judge Advocate General’s Office of the Japanese 14th Army Headquarters. In his capacity as an interpreter, Sakakida not only provided valuable intelligence regarding troop movements, but helped plan, engineer and carry out a daring prison break at Muntinglupa prison. The breakout resulted in the freeing of a guerrilla leader and 500 other guerrillas. Other life-endangering acts performed by Sakakida included sneaking food to U.S. prisoners and translating derogatory remarks made by U.S. prisoners and Filipino guerrillas in a manner not so offensive; this "softening " of the translation reduced the sentences of POWs during their trials.
Shortly after the prison break, the 14th Army was engaged in combat and in June 1945, Sakakida was finally able to flee. He rejoined the Filipino guerrillas and was wounded in the stomach by shell fragments during a firefight. He was left behind, but managed to dig out the shrapnel with a razor blade and live off the land for four long months. Finally on September 25, his uniform in shreds and suffering from his unhealed wounds, M/Sgt Sakakida was reunited with Allied Forces. He then learned of Japan’s surrender.
Sakakida stayed in the Philippines after the war and participated in the War Crimes investigations and trials. In 1948, he joined the U.S. Air Force serving with OSI (Office of Strategic Intelligence) in Japan. He initiated an operation that coordinated all of the Japanese investigative agencies, such as customs, national police, and the Tokyo metropolitan police, for the common purpose of stopping black market activities in the Tokyo metropolitan area. He was highly regarded by the Japanese government and was given special recognition for his accomplishments. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in September 1975 after 34 years of service, 19 of them on assignment in Tokyo, where he became commanding officer of AFOSI, Japan, responsible for the activities of four detachments with 250 agents throughout Japan proper. Richard married Cherry M. Kiyosaki of Maui on on September 25, 1948. His hobbies and interests while living in retirement in Fremont, California, include traveling and cooking with his wife, gardening, carpentry, and photography. Sakakida passed away on January 23, 1996 after a lengthy illness complicated by his war wounds. In April 1994, Sakakida was awarded the Philippines Legion of Honor. In 1996, he was finally awarded the Bronze Star and the Prisoner of War Medal. On 28 October 1998, LTC Sakakida was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. LTC Sakakida was inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in 1988, He was also inducted into the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Hall of Fame.
Source: Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame