442 Live With Honor, Die With Dignity

I know two of my father's brothers served in the 442nd Regiment during WWII. I know my mother's sister's husband was a translator for the U.S. Army. I know my mother's best friend's husband and his brother were in the 100th battalion. The husband came home, his brother died in Italy. It seems every Japanese-American knows somebody who served or died in the 100th/442nd. I remember our jeweler in Chicago telling us that he was part of the 442nd who was sent to rescue The Lost (Texas) Battalion.

From the Go For Broke National Education Center website:
"During the six days the 442nd fought to rescue the Lost Battalion, 54 men were killed and many, many more were wounded and sent to hospitals. During the entire Vosges Campaign, 34 days of almost non-stop combat - liberating Bruyeres and Biffontaine, rescuing the 211 Texans, and nine more days of driving the Germans through the forest - the 442nd’s total casualties were 216 men dead and more than 856 wounded."

Senator Daniel Inouye was in the 442nd and lost his arm in Europe. To listen to him talk of his experiences is gut wrenching.

From Wikipedia:
"The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service, in the entire history of the U.S. Military. The 4,000 men who initially came in April 1943 had to be replaced nearly 3.5 times. In total, about 14,000 men served, ultimately earning 9,486 Purple Hearts and an unprecedented eight Presidential Unit Citations. Its 100th battalion is the most decorated for its size in the history of the U.S. Army, 21 of its members having been awarded Medals of Honor. Members of the 442nd received 18,143 awards..."

My mother was wanting to see this movie, 442 Live With Honor, Die With Dignity that is playing at the Ward Theater in Honolulu so we took her on Monday. We were surprised to find the theater completely full.

We knew about the prejudice suffered by Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor as well as the Internment camps and how it devastated American citizens of Japanese descent. Yes, I knew many people served in the 100th/442nd, but I didn't know the full story. This film made me realize just how much we owed to these "Go For Broke" soldiers who suffered what they did not just because they were Americans, but because they had to prove that they were with their lives. African-Americans have had to suffer the same trial throughout America's past.

I wish the history of what happened could be a lesson to future generations so that we don't repeat that injustice, but people do forget... and prejudice needs very little encouragement to grow.

Many of the Japanese-Americans of that time don't like talking about what happened. There was so much shame and hatred flung at them. The soldiers didn't like talking about their experiences because killing was abhorrent to them and they'd been through hell and didn't want to burden anyone with their pain.

I'm glad they created this film. This story needed to be told because we're seeing that same sort of prejudice happen all over again with the Muslim community. I just hope this isn't a kind of American history that is doomed to repeat itself.

Bryan Clay wins Gold in the Decathlon

Bryan Clay won the Decathlon yesterday. The people of Hawaii are ecstatic! He is half African American, half Japanese American. It's interesting that we think of him as local, not just black. On the other hand, people automatically think of Barack Obama as black. I remember thinking from high school that everybody should intermarry and we could all be brown so there wouldn't be any prejudice. Then I learned about the difficulties of Jewish people and realized that prejudice would always be there, if not the color of your skin, then your religion, if not that...maybe the way you wear your hat...

This reminds me of something silly. I remember a friend telling me in Illinois that I had olive colored skin. Well... I was insulted. I happened to love green olives so I assumed she meant my skin had a green tint. It was bad enough that people thought I had yellow skin because I was Asian but now.... green?!?! Well, now I know she meant I had tanned skin... and that is true.

Good gracious! I'm getting away from what I really wanted to write about and that is the lack of coverage of the Decathlon. They had virtual minute by minute coverage of the prelims for platform diving and only showed a short segment of Bryan Clay coming in last on the 1500 meter run and still coming in way ahead in points for the Gold Medal. Why couldn't we see how great he did in the 100 meters, the long jump, the discus, etc.? There are so many events but the coverage seems to focus mostly in gymnastics and swimming/diving. OK... OK.... I know... I know... we should get cable...

Ah well...
I'm going to stop griping now and enjoy my Saturday! Have a happy day, everybody!

Learning About Prejudice

Three decades ago when we first arrived in Illinois, I was a rather naive child from Hawaii where Asians were pretty much the majority of the population...at least they were in Waipahu, the sugar plantation where I grew up.

My mother was aghast that we would be moving to Chicago, the land of Al Capone and other terrible gangsters and scary people. I told her there was nothing to worry about and that we'd be returning to Hawaii in a couple of years. However, when the first person I saw driving through the south side of Chicago was a man in an overcoat carrying a violin case, I was a bit surprised...

We rented a three bedroom apartment from an old German landlord, Mr. Schaefer who was a widower. He actually gave me drills to make sure I didn't open the door unless I was absolutely sure I knew who was on the other side. Very loving and protective, he would share German dishes with us and the biggest bottle of German beer we'd ever seen. He told us he didn't want anyone to know he was German. He wanted them to think he was Swedish. We thought that was pretty funny.

I was pretty oblivious to the ugly side of prejudice. I knew of it but didn't feel it... yet.

And then we moved north to Skokie-Evanston. We bought in winter and didn't know much except that we loved the beauty of the neighborhood. When we moved in, we were told that our little subdivision was called "An island of Gentiles in the Sea of Jeruselem." We learned that there had been some sort of covenant that prohibited selling to minorities. Being an American of Japanese descent, I was quite uneasy.

However, from across the street came an elderly couple who welcomed us with open arms. The Mullaneys. They treated our children like their grandchildren and took us under their protective wing. Another older couple who spoke of the "covenants" also treated us like family. Other younger neighbors became wonderful new lifelong friends. And the prejudice? Oh, we saw IT every so often, but it was far outweighed by so many other incredibly beautiful people we met everywhere in the Midwest.

Prejudice is always there, in one form or another. Being human, I don't think we can avoid it. The important thing, I believe, is to question it when you feel it. When I first had an Asian child walk into my classroom, I thought he might be well behaved. Well, I learned quickly that it certainly wasn't always the case. Children are just children, no matter where they come from.

Now, after 32 years of living in the Midwest and traveling around the world we have discovered that truly, people are people, no matter where they come from and in one way or the other, for good or bad, we are all prejudiced.