The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Forrest Biard. Biard graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934. From 1939 through September 1941, he completed full immersion in Japanese language and culture training in Tokyo. Biard was a cryptologic linguist, serving in all three Navy codebreaking units during World War II. In September, Biard was stationed at Pearl Harbor as a senior linguist for Station HYPO, the codebreaking unit at Pearl Harbor where he served as a language officer until August 1943. From February to May 1942, he was assigned to USS Yorktown (CV-5) as the radio intelligence officer under Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. Biard’s translation and decryption work on JN-25 contributed to Allied efforts in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. From August to October 1943, he was sent to the codebreaking unit OP-20-G in Washington, also known as Station Negat. From November 1943 to April 1945, he was sent to the Station Cast codebreaking unit at Melbourne, Australia. While in Melbourne he deployed on several ships operating in the South Pacific. He worked in Melbourne to decrypt and translate captured Japanese Army code books for Douglas MacArthur, then used to accelerate the island-hopping …