Raymond Nosaka

Baker Company, 100th Infantry Battalion

Raymond “Ray” Nosaka was born in 1916 to Magoichi and Tsune Nosaka, immigrants from Yamaguchi and Hiroshima. He grew up in Honolulu’s Palama district. His father worked as a building contractor, while his mother taught dance and music.

After graduating from McKinley High School, Nosaka attended the University of Hawai‘i and business school before moving to San Francisco for engineering studies. Returning home to Oʻahu, he was drafted into the first prewar draft in December 1940 and assigned to the 298th Infantry Regiment of the Hawaii National Guard at Schofield Barracks. He would later become one of the original members of the legendary 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate).

At Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, where the newly formed battalion trained, Nosaka was among the group of soldiers from Company B to be selected for a secret mission. The Army sought to test a theory that dogs could be trained to attack Japanese soldiers based on a supposedly distinct “Japanese scent.” Nosaka and the other men from the 100th were shipped quietly to Cat Island, Mississippi — a remote military training site for a mission shrouded in secrecy.

There, they learned the grim truth: they were not “dog trainers,” as they had been told. They were the dog bait.

Nosaka recalled being suited up in heavy padded gear — “like hockey clothes” — with meat tied around their necks before being sent into the woods or even up trees. When the dogs were released, the men fired blanks from pistols to provoke attacks. “Three dogs come at one time,” he remembered: a boxer, a German shepherd, and another large breed. Even through the padding, the bites left bruises, cuts, and scars. “Sometimes the dog doesn’t go here,” he said, pointing to the padding, “he goes over here.” Many men were injured; Nosaka’s legs still bore marks decades later.

Despite the danger, the mission retained an almost surreal routine. The men worked only half-days. After four hours of being chased, tackled, and bitten, they returned to nearby Ship Island to fish, hunt ducks, play guitar, and drink beer. “The hours were very good,” Nosaka laughed in later years — an absurd silver lining to an assignment rooted in wartime prejudice.

After four months, the Army finally admitted what the men already knew: the experiment was a total failure. The dogs couldn’t distinguish Japanese American soldiers from anyone else. The Cat Island group rejoined the 100th at Camp Shelby, forever changed by an experience so bizarre that, as Nosaka said, “nobody would believe it.” Of the twenty-five men selected, only six were still alive decades later to tell the story.

Nosaka went on to serve honorably during the war and, afterward, built a career helping others — as an IRS agent, a Veterans Administration counselor, and later a social worker for the State of Hawai‘i. Deeply committed to his comrades, he remained active in their veterans’ organization, Club 100, and served in 1989, 1992, and 1993 as its president.

Looking back, Nosaka spoke of Cat Island with a mixture of humor, disbelief, and pride. “I’m fortunate I came back,” he said, “so I can tell the story.” Today, through the efforts of Nosaka and his comrades to document and preserve the Cat Island stories, this chapter of the 100th Infantry Battalion endures as an integral part of their story. Their resilience and the hardships they carried will never be forgotten.

Click here for his complete life story by “The Hawaiʻi Nisei Story” project:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191030213855/http://nisei.hawaii.edu/page/rayhttp://nisei.hawaii.edu/page/ray