LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- World War II didn't just divide the world. It also divided four brothers.



Ken (left) and Harry Akune served in the U.S. military during World War II.



Not long after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Harry and Ken Akune were sent to live in an internment camp in Amache, Colorado. When the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence Service came to their camp to recruit Japanese-speaking volunteers as interpreters, they joined so they could prove their loyalty to their country.



Across the world in Japan, their father Ichiro was raising the rest of his large family -- which had returned to his home country after the death of his wife -- in a fishing village, Kagoshima, on the island of Kyushu. The youngest brothers, Saburo and Shiro, were just teenagers when they were drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy.



The brothers, four of the Akunes' nine children, had all been born or raised in the United States; Ichiro Akune owned a grocery business before moving back to Japan. Harry and Ken had been sent back to America to work and earn money for the family.  Watch how brother fought brother during the war »



Harry and Ken graduated from language school in 1942 and were dispatched to the Pacific Theater. Ken served in Burma at the Office of War Information. His job was trying to create propaganda to persuade the Japanese to surrender rather than sacrifice their lives on the battlefield. Harry served in New Guinea and the Philippines.



His ethnicity didn't endear him to some of his colleagues.



"I had an intelligence officer who disliked me," Harry recalled. Before a parachute jump onto the island of Corregidor with the 503rd Paratroopers late in the war, the officer stripped Harry of all of his gear, including his weapon. "I got onto the airplane with only my parachute. A soldier took pity on me and helped find a rifle and one clip," he said.



He survived, but many of his fellow soldiers did not. Twenty percent of them lost their lives just on the jump because of the jagged terrain and enemy fire. iReport.com: What did you do in the war?



His work was heroic. Harry's interrogation of prisoners and translation of captured documents revealed a Japanese occupation force of over 5,000, which vastly outnumbered the American forces. "My information helped reduce casualties," he said.



Most of the Japanese soldiers chose death over what they perceived as dishonor. Harry says only 22 were captured, with the rest dying in combat or suicide attacks -- and they often weren't satisfied with dying alone. At one point, with Harry's back turned, a prisoner jumped him and tried to kill him. Harry recalls the incident vividly.



"My guard beat him with his gun. It seemed like this prisoner was clinging to me for dear life," he said. "That feeling I have never lost. Even though he was the enemy, to see him die the way he did, affected me."



The Japan-based Akune brothers saw death from the other perspective, as part of the war effort. Saburo became a spotter for kamikazes, known for their suicide dive-bomb missions on Allied ships. Shiro, just 15, served at Sasebo, a naval base, helping to orient new recruits. He remembers American Grumman torpedo planes flying into the harbor.



"Bap, bap, bap ... ships going down ... we just watching! We cannot do anything!" he remembered.



After the war, the Akune brothers discovered they served against each other, leading to ill feelings on both sides. Harry and Ken, now in Japan as members of the Allied Prisoner of War Recovery Team, joined Saburo and Shiro at a family reunion in Kagoshima.



"When we first met, the topic of the war came up. Both sides were saying their side was right," Ken said. "Saburo and Shiro got really hot and stood up, they wanted to fight us."



"The propaganda situation in Japan was very extreme," Shiro said
Where did the brother end up living? How many Akune brother fought for the US in World War II What job did they do in the camp? What did the U.S. brother do in the camp? where do brothers live in us? What war did they fight in?
Amache, Colorado. four interpreters, to recruit Japanese-speaking volunteers as interpreters, they joined so they could prove their loyalty to their country. internment camp in Amache, Colorado. II
question: Where did the brother end up living?, answer: Amache, Colorado. | question: How many Akune brother fought for the US in World War II, answer: four | question: What job did they do in the camp?, answer: interpreters, | question: What did the U.S. brother do in the camp?, answer: to recruit Japanese-speaking volunteers as interpreters, they joined so they could prove their loyalty to their country. | question: where do brothers live in us?, answer: internment camp in Amache, Colorado. | question: What war did they fight in?, answer: II