National Education Center
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Liberator | An individual or group that releases another individual, group, population, or country from political or military control, or from any severe physical constraint. |
| Lieutenant | A commissioned officer commanding a platoon. Ranked below Captain. Primary tasks include commanding units, providing tactical plans, and making decisions. |
| Lieutenant Colonel | A commissioned officer commanding a battalion. Ranked above Major and below Colonel. Primary tasks include commanding units, providing tactical plans, and making decisions. |
| Linguists | A person accomplished in languages. Nisei linguists served with the Military Intelligence Service. |
| Lost Battalion | 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th (Texas) Division that was surrounded by German troops in the French Vosges Mountains in October 1944. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was sent in to rescue the Lost Battalion, which it accomplished after a grueling battle that resulted in hundreds of casualties. |
| Loyalty Questionnaire | The “Application for Leave Clearance” issued by the War Department and the War Relocation Authority in February 1943 was generally understood to be a loyalty questionnaire, because it “tested” whether individuals of Japanese descent were “loyal” or “disloyal” to the US. Every resident held in the incarceration centers was required to complete one of two questionnaires issued: the first for draft-age Nisei men and the second for all others. The question of loyalty hinged on two particular questions: Question 27 and Question 28, both complex and subjective. Despite serious problems with the wording and meaning of the questions, government officials and others generally considered those who answered “no” to the two questions to be “disloyal” to the United States. “Yes” answers to these questions made incarcerees eligible for service in the US Army, and some became eligible for release and resettlement in areas outside of the West Coast exclusion zones. See also No-No Boy, Question 27, Question 28. |
| Artillery | Weapons for discharging missiles. |
| Assembly Centers | Temporary detention centers that housed Americans of Japanese Ancestry who had been forcibly removed from their homes along the West Coast in the early months of World War II. These centers served as temporary quarters before they were sent to more permanent quarters in incarceration centers. In most cases, these assembly centers were primarily fairgrounds or racetracks with crude barracks and mess hall facilities later added. Primarily scattered around California, but also in Arizona, Oregon and Washington. |
| ATIS | Allied Translator and Interpreter Section. Located in Indooroopilly, Australia, outside of Brisbane, ATIS was established by Brigadier General Charles A. Willoughby, chief intelligence officer for General Douglas MacArthur, in September 1944. ATIS acted as one of the intelligence centers where military intelligence officers worked to assist the operations in the Pacific. |
| Axis | The military and political alliance of Germany, Italy, and later Japan that fought the Allies in World War II. Also referred to as the Axis Powers. |