Defense Language Institute - History

History

Further information: World War II and Japanese American service in World War II

The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) traces its roots to the eve of America’s entry into World War II, when the U.S. Army established a secret school at the Presidio of San Francisco to teach the Japanese language. Classes began November 1, 1941, with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field. The students were primarily second generation Japanese Americans (Nisei) from the West Coast, who had learned Japanese from their first-generation parents but were educated in the US and whose Japanese was somewhat limited, the "Kibei," Japanese-Americans who had been educated in Japan and spoke Japanese like the Japanese themselves, along with two Caucasian students, the only US military personnel who had any useful command of the Japanese language at the beginning of WWII. Nisei Hall, along with several other buildings, is named in honor of these earliest students, who are honored in the Institute’s Yankee Samurai exhibit.

During the war, the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), as it came to be called, grew dramatically. When Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were moved into internment camps in 1942, the school moved to temporary quarters at Camp Savage, Minnesota. By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling. More than 6,000 graduates served throughout the Pacific Theater during the war and the subsequent occupation of Japan.

In 1946 the school moved to the Presidio of Monterey. By that time little remained of the original Spanish presidio, which had been established in 1770 to protect the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo. The city of Monterey had grown up near the mission and presidio to become the capital of the Spanish (later Mexican) province of Alta California. During the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), the town was captured by Marines under the command of United States Navy Commodore John D. Sloat. The U.S. Army rebuilt the post beginning in 1902, and after World War I it became the home of the 11th Cavalry.

At the Presidio of Monterey, the renamed Army Language School expanded rapidly in 1947–48 during the Cold War. Instructors, including native speakers of more than thirty languages and dialects, were recruited from all over the world. Russian became the largest language program, followed by Chinese, Korean, and German.

The Defense Language Institute English Language Center (DLIELC) traces its formal beginning to May 1954, when the 3746th Pre-Flight Training Squadron (language) was activated and assumed responsibility for all English language training. In 1960, the Language School, USAF, activated and assumed the mission. In 1966, the DoD established the Defense Language Institute English Language School (DLIELS) and placed it under US Army control although the school remained at Lackland AFB. In 1976, the DoD appointed the US Air Force as the executive agent for the school and redesignated it the Defense Language Institute English Language Center.