Joseph James Milanoski died March 26, 2011. He was born Feb. 18, 1916, in Seattle on a record cold snowy day, the eighth child of John and Rose. He attended Saint Benedict’s Catholic School. He graduated from Seattle Preparatory High School in 1933 and married LaMay Melton in 1939. They had a son David and daughter Paula Marie.
He worked as a roofing contractor in his early years. He studied the Japanese language at the University of Washington after seeing a small article saying the military needed linguists for World War II. In 1943 he enlisted in the Army and was sent to Military Intelligence Service Japanese Language School in Minnesota. He was stationed at Camp Ritchie (now Camp David), Maryland, with the War Department in Washington, D.C. before being sent to Maizuru, Japan, in 1946, where he interrogated Japanese prisoners of war being repatriated from Siberia. Joseph served six years in Japan including two years on General MacArthur’s staff in Tokyo. Family joined him in Tokyo in 1948, during the Occupation of Japan. In 1950 they moved from Tokyo to Osaka where he was with the Counter Intelligence Corps. Returned to the U.S. in 1952, he was stationed at Fort Hollibird Military Intelligence School Counter Intelligence Corps in Baltimore. He returned to Seattle and civilian life in early 1953 and soon moved to Oak Harbor as a Criminal Investigator for the U.S. Navy at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.
He retired from government service in 1968 and in 1984 moved to Seattle near his childhood home. Notably, he actively pursued his use of the Japanese language for nearly all of his adult life. He moved to retirement homes in Mount Vernon and Burlington in 2010. He passed away in his sleep at Josephine Nursing Home in Stanwood, 5:10 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, 2011. He is survived by wife LaMay, two children, seven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandson, several nieces and nephews, and many wonderful friends.
Services for Joseph were held April 1 at St. Benedict’s Church in Seattle; and he was laid to rest at Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline. Arrangements by Beck’s Funeral Home, Edmonds, WA 425-771-1234; please share memories with the family at www.becksfuneralhome.com.
