Two Local Veterans Talk About Their Secret Service

What images come to mind when you imagine a veteran? Perhaps a close friend or family member has served so their beloved faces pop into mind or perhaps an older gentleman in a wheel chair who was injured in combat.

Villa Gardens retirement community residents Harry Tsushima and William Burney don’t fit the typical veteran mold. Both served in top secretive endeavors.

Burney was located on an all-military island with no women in the South Pacific after the Korean War and Tsushima attended a military Japanese language school so he could translate top secret letters for General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines after World War II. Harry was drafted, but William beat the government to it and enlisted before they could draft him.

Harry’s story begins when he and his family were taken from their home in Pasadena along with all the other Japanese Americans in California to an internment camp in Arizona. He stayed there for two years and then was able to escape to Minnesota in the east to pursue a career as a photographer.

The Japanese were not allowed to return to their homes in California until the end of the war, so they either stayed in camp or were allowed to go to school or work in the east.

Drafted to join the army, Harry thought he would join the other World War II combatants in Europe, however, he was specially selected for Military Intelligence, an arm of the military that was not recognized until recently. He went to an intensive language school in Minnesota where he learned Japanese “every day, on Saturday nights, on Sundays, I had no time free.”

By the end of the war, the school at Fort Snelling had graduated more than 4,800 Japanese language specialists, most of whom served in the Pacific theater as members of interpreter-interrogator-translator teams as Harry did. Harry remembered interviewing a communist leader and much later at home seeing the same leader on the newsreel played before the movie at the theatre. He also had to translate many letters.

“Kids would write saying they wanted to be like General MacArthur,” Tsushima said.

Through the efforts of Congressman Adam Schifff, Harry was recognized for the first time for his service in the Military Intelligence with a Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, sixty-five years after the war ended. The Gold Medal is the nation’s highest civilian award, equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The proceedings were top secret, so secret that for years those who served in the Military Intelligence were not given the same recognition as others.

Leaving behind his new bride Mae, Tsushima had wed just one month prior to his departure for the Philippines, Harry eagerly returned home when his second year of service was complete. He and his wife Mae have been happily married for the last 68 years and now live comfortably in a large apartment inside Villa Gardens.

Serving as a Broadcaster on the Armed Forces Radio, Burney compares himself to Robin William’s character in “Good Morning Vietnam,” only this was “Good Morning Korea.” He admitted to having a good laugh often as he and the other broadcasters made the airing fun at all costs, even making up song dedications by fabricated sweethearts.

“And there was a stir when we got a response from a person who had short wave or some kind of reception device in Maine and heard us and it was uproar because we were concerned over any knowledge of the testing of Hydrogen weapons,” Burney remembered.

Burney served from 1954-56 on Enewetak, an island in the Marshall Islands where the U.S. tested hydrogen bombs after the Korean War during peacetime. The island had been blasted during the war, but he remembered it being a beautiful island with a beautiful climate. He even joined the army swim team and swam on Kwajalein.

Recounting fond memories of the island, Burney said in the evenings they would often watch movies, but on extra special evenings troops would come to put on a show. Burney specifically remembered one troop from Hawaii that put on South Pacific.

“It was a unique experience to sit there in the South Pacific where the troops are on the stage doing South Pacific. I remember that evening because it was so memorable,” Burney said.

Living in tents, Burney remembered the radio station was the only air-conditioned building in addition to the operating room providing him a wonderful oasis. He secured the radio job because apparently he spoke the King’s English with no accent. He devised his own classical music program with a modern theme, choosing modern music whose origins are from classical pieces.

When Burney returned he went to law school and served as superior court judge in the Southeast District, in Norwalk for 23 years trying both criminal and civil cases.

Reflecting back on his time in service, Burney thought the universal draft was good because it was good for so many young men to go into service. He would have preferred his sons to serve as well to get the training and background as well as the benefits of help with education. One thing Burney cannot understand is the high amount of suicides by men in the military.

“Why are there so many young men who are in the service committing suicide? The lack of moral imperative perhaps, the lack of just plain morals or the lack of respect shown to them,” Burney said.

On that note, here’s the Veteran’s Day challenge. Thank a person in uniform, send a note to someone you know who is currently serving, or visit an assisted living home and find a veteran. Ask questions about their life and their service to our country. Veterans stand as the heroes of our country and their stories are invaluable.

Villa Gardens paid tribute to their veterans at a special “Honoring Our Heroes” event. Read about it here.