The Reluctant Warrior

Chapter 4 describes Rusch’s experience from the time of his repatriation to the United States to his service as a personnel officer for the Military Intelligence Service Language School. Rusch’s task was to recruit Japanese Americans for the U.S. Army, where they would learn Japanese to serve the war effort. Rusch was also part of a speaker’s bureau, through which he would appear at public functions to discuss Japan’s military capabilities. On some occasions, before audiences of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Rusch spoke against America’s policy of interning Japanese Americans. But more often than not, Rusch’s remarks mirrored American policy and sentiments of the day, calling for the fiery destruction of Japan’s militarist regime, which he acknowledged would require the killing of Japanese civilians. At other times, Rusch used his position to implore army officers to treat Nisei soldiers as individuals, not as members of another race. Occasionally, Rusch spoke of World War II in terms of a race war, of Japanese leaders bent on expelling Caucasians from Asia, casting Americans in the role of the fearless pioneers who fought off Native Americans to secure their westward expansion. Rusch remained committed to returning to help Japan rebuild after the war.