Before the Pacific War, Yukie Kiriyama attended the University of Washington in Seattle as a foreign student. At a gathering of Japanese nationals, she saw a film that asserted, "Japan is a divine country, and will eventually incorporate Southeast Asia into the Empire." Thereafter, Kiriyama was uncomfortable with Japanese militarism; when the war ended, she felt revived at 31 years of age.
In autumn 1945, Kiriyama began working as a reader and translator for the Magazine Section of the Press, Pictorial, and Broadcast Division (PPB) of the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD) of the Occupation forces (officially known as the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers [SCAP]). Kiriyama's colleagues included Senzô Furuya, a 51-year-old former professor of English literature at Nippon University, who began working at the CCD after the university was completely demolished by US air raids, and Noboru Sakai, 28 years old, a graduate of the English Department of