Dr Kayoko Takeda will first present an overview of the British effort to recruit and train Japanese linguists (translators and interpreters) for military intelligence during the Pacific War. Besides the well-known program at SOAS, there was another Japanese school in Bedford run by the Government Code & Cypher School. The British military also negotiated with the Canadian government to recruit Japanese Canadians.
She will then focus on how Cambridge students and graduates were involved in the training of Japanese linguists, and then briefly discuss the legacy of these wartime Japanese programs in post-war diplomacy, business and academia.
