Important, Very Important History

Let me start with an excerpt from Wikipedia about the flight of B-29 Bockscar, loaded with the second A-Bomb called "Fat Man" on August 9, 1945. On my way back from Washington D.C. in August 2006, I stopped at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Pattterson Air Force base and saw the Bockscar on display. I saw Enola Gay at the Smithonian Institute.

***

"Kokura was the primary target, but when Bockscar arrived at its rendezvous point off the coast of Japan the third aircraft of its flight was not present. After fruitlessly waiting 40 minutes, Sweeney and Bock proceeded to Kokura but found it obscured by clouds. Sweeney had orders to drop the atomic bomb visually if possible, and after three unsuccessful passes over Kokura, conferred with weaponeer Commander Frederick Ashworth (USN). They agreed to strike the secondary target, Nagasaki.

A combination of factors including confusion about a malfunctioning transfer pump made fuel consumption a critical factor. Ashworth did not want to be forced to dump the bomb into the sea and decided to make a radar bombing run if necessary. However, enough of an opening appeared in the cloud cover to allow Bombardier Kermit Beahan to confirm Nagasaki and the bomb was dropped, with ground zero being about 3/4 mile from the planned aiming point. This combined with Nagasaki's position on the foothills (as opposed to Hiroshima's mostly flat terrain) resulted in lower overall casualties than in Hiroshima, with much of the blast confined in the Urakami Valley.

Because of the delays in the mission, the B-29 did not have sufficient fuel to reach the emergency landing field at Iwo Jima, so Major Sweeney flew the aircraft to Okinawa, where, despite being unable to make contact with the control tower, he made a safe landing with virtually empty fuel tanks."

***

Yes, the primary target of the Bockscar mission was Kokura and not Nagasaki! VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOW THIS! Bockscar had given up bombing on Kokura because of cloud cover. How fortunate Kokura was and how unfortunate for the Nagasakians.

Recently I read a book written by one of the Kokuranites who was 12 years old then. This person remembered the clear morning sky on August 9, seeing a lone B-29 high above gradually shadowed by the dusky clouds. It then turned and flew away from Kokura. She thought the B-29 she saw must have been Bockscar that dropped the Fat Man in Nagasaki and had been puzzled since that day about the sudden change of weather at the time. She thinks she had her long time riddle solved from reliable sources that the dusky cloud cover was a man-made smoke screen. Per Wikipedia, Enola Gay deployed and flew over Kokura as the weather observation plane. The writer might have seen Enola Gay and not Bockscar. Another explanation is as follows. Yahata Iron & Steel in Kokura was air-raided the night before. The Tinian Bockscar and the air-raid bombers of August 8 had not talked to each other. Kokura was covered with smoke from the raid the night before. The Bockscar was given orders directly from President Harry S. Truman and even General Douglas MacArthur was not notified of his decision until the last minute.

My city, Imabari, was air-raided on the night of August 5. I thought it had no relation to the bombing of Hiroshima which took place on August 6; but there was! To isolate the A-Bomb target city from surrounding cities for food supplies and rescue efforts, Himeji, Tokuyama, Ube, Shimonoseki and Moji were raided in July. Imabari, along with Uwajima, Fukuyama were raided just before Hiroshima.

The Tinian based A-Bomb B-29s, meanwhile, were on their decoy flights for meteorological observation for 15 days prior to the day of attack. Every morning one B-29 flew at exactly the same time without escort fighters as if it was there only to monitor the weather. This was done not to alert and provoke defense from the ground forces and it tricked both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Residents of Hiroshima saw the bomb parachute coming down after the air-raid warning cleared.

All the air-raided cities were said to have read the warning bills. I hadn't seen any. Cities warned were raided as warned, except Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki. Reportedly, a few wise men sensed something was wrong and felt uneasy.

Hiroshima, the target city of the first A-Bomb, "Little Boy" three days earlier, was the home base of the Japanese Imperial War Headquarters, and the 5th Army Squadron. Kokura had the Imperial Army Arsenal and Ordinances. The main Kyushu Army Squadron once stationed in Kokura was relocated to Kurume years ago. Kokura made most of the army weaponry and also balloon bombs.

After my return from the U.S. and having settled down in Kitakyushu in the mid l990s, I spent many days at the Central Library to learn about Kitakyushu, my new adopted city after Imabari, Osaka, Tokyo, New York, San Diego. I was able to find the air raid records of Yahata Iron & Works but not of any Kokura Arsenal and Ordinance. I befriended someone my age who graduated from Kokura high school and was able to read his school alumni bulletin. This friend had worked at the Kokura Arsenal in his school days. His information was helpful. It is shocking to discover Kokura was the first target and its epicenter could have been the library where I was currently sitting. Kokura had extensive underground passages and shelters but nobody knew how effective they were.

NAGASAKI AND NAGASAKIANS WERE MARTYRED ON BEHALF OF KOKURA RESIDENTS.

As of August 9, 2007, 143,124 Nagasakians were on the death toll; Hiroshima close to 200,000. We have about 250,000 victims alive who hold certified entitlements to receive medical aid under the Government's A-Bomb Survivors Law. One feature of the A-bomb is that the statistic is open ended. The A-Bomb changed the war. An atomic bomb eliminates the city, history and blood lineage. What happens when humans know they have no future. It becomes meaningless to live, to work, to learn, or to try anything.

Enola Gay carried the gun assembly Little Boy that used highly enriched uranium. Bockscar carried the implosion assembly Fat Man that used plutonium. There was no 3rd bomb in existence but the Allied Forces hinted "more to come and soon" as further threat against Japan if necessary.


Another August 6 is approaching. Just behind the Central Library of Kokura is a miniature Nagasaki bell and a small memorial built for Nagasaki victims of the A-Bomb attack. Leis of a "thousand origami cranes" were wet when I visited on a rainy day a week ago. Agapanthus were in bloom in white and purple. Kokuranites are to gather here to pray at 11am on August 9 and I will also be there.

Sarusuberi (Crepe Myrtle) Flowers

"Sweltering Sky
Enduring Crepe Myrtle"
- Kyoshi Takahama

Crepe Myrtle is a summertime beauty. It's a bare tree in the winter and slow to blossom in the spring. The Japanese named the tree "Sarusuberi", a tree whereby even a monkey slips and falls because the bark is thin and peels easily. This tree is originally from China. The Chinese call it "Bai ri hong", which translates literally as "100-day red".

Kagano Chiyo (1703-1775), a famous Haiku poet from the Edo Period sang:

"Bloom and
fall over and over - Sarusuberi flowers
last for the entire summer"

The color varies from red to pink to white. I read that Crepe Myrtle gets it name from the crinkly look of crepe paper.

I have a special bond with Crepe Myrtle. Before returning to Japan after 20 years in San Diego (1994), I bought a Crepe Myrtle and donated it to the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego's Balboa Park. I dedicated it to the memory of Yukichi Ikeda (see the photo), a Japanese expatriate.

Here is his story.

Wives of Japanese expatriates typically join their husbands in the U.S. after 3 or 4 months of first arriving. The idea is for expatriates to get their feet wet in their new work environment and secure housing for their families. The day Ikeda's wife was to arrive was a Saturday. Yukichi and I were in the same foursome at an intracompany golf tournament at Admiral Baker Golf Course located in Mission Gorge. Yukichi was about 30 years old, honest, handsome, likable, hard working, and a good golfer. His golf that day was excellent, possibly because he was to pick up Miyoko at the airport after the tournament.

A few days after the tournament Yukichi left work earlier than the rest of us, saying he was taking his wife to a fine restaurant for dinner. We cheered him on; he blushed, then left quickly.

That same day, I went for my daily swim before going home and was paged over the intercom. My wife was in a panic and said that Ikeda had been shot and was taken to the hospital in Point Loma. I panicked myself and dressed quickly, then sped off to the hospital, praying all the way for him. Upon my arrival, I found him in a coma as his stretcher was being moved to another ambulance to transport him to University of California, San Diego Hospital. He was breathing, but unconscious. Miyoko was there, obviously in shock, pale and in tears.

The story was that while the couple headed toward the restaurant from the parking lot, two men blocked their way and demanded money. The robbers went to snatch Miyoko's handbag and Yukichi moved to block them to protect her. A shot was fired and the bullet entered his nose, circled inside his brain and lodged there.

The Japanese money Miyoko carried was intact in her purse. The robbers fled empty handed after shooting Ikeda.

An unfortunate confrontation; a very cruel crime!

Yukichi never regained consciousness. Upon arrival of his kin, he was taken off life support.

The police interrogated Miyoko for a description of the robbers, but she was unable to give any detailed information. She had faced black men for the very first time in her life.

The incident happened in 1980, almost 30-years ago. The case remains unresolved.

A collection was taken for Miyoko but she refused the money. We reserved the money to do something in his memory. Since I once served on the Board for the Balboa Park Japanese Garden, I knew they might accept a horticultural donation when the garden was built. I chose a Crepe Myrtle because it bears long lasting flowers in the summer to attract visitors.

Crepe Myrtle usually is not planted in the traditional Japanese Garden as it gives tropical and southern landscaping. But it just matches with temples and pagodas as I found it in the Rurikoji Temple in Yamaguchi City (see the photo above). The temple for the Ouchi Clan, through Ashikaga and Sengoku period 1180 to 1557, is known for its beautiful 5-storied pagoda (built in 1442) ranking among Japan's three most
beautiful.

Ikeda's father left a message that Yukichi had intended life long employment in San Diego. Saburo Shiroyama* (1927-2007), a famous writer who created a new genre of business fiction, was around us a few months afterwards and he quoted Yukichi's father's message in one of his books.

Today the Japanese Friendship Garden and Tea House is serving tea ceremony demonstrations regularly. It is an ideal wedding ceremony location.

Yukichi Ikeda in memoriam
*****

* Saburo Shiroyama's works include
1 "War Criminal: The Life and Death of Hirota Koki" (落日燃ゆ）
2 "Man's True Dream" (男子の本懐)
3 "Love Diary" for his deceased wife (そうか、君はもう いないのか）

Last One To Go

I treasure John Dower's book Embracing Defeat and I keep it at my elbow for frequent reference. For one thing, it helps remind me of the hardship days of Japan's defeat, and for another, it helps me to accept the loss of my grandmother. I still pray for my grandmother, who has been missing since August 5, 1945, the night an air raid dropped incendiary bombs on Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, my hometown in Shikoku. The A-bomb exploded on Hiroshima the following morning, but my family had no way of knowing, because we lost our home and turned adrift.

Now, thumbing through the book, it has quite a few postwar episodes; but the most unforgettable and intriguing one is about a Japanese scientist who handwrote a message in English on a piece of paper on the day the U.S. Occupation Forces showed up, and thus saved his marine biological lab.

He wrote:
"This is a marine biological station with its history of sixty plus years. If you are from the East Coast, some of you might know Woods Hole or Mt. Desert or Tortugas. If you are from the West Coast, you may know Pacific Grove or the Puget Sound Biological Station. This place is a place like one of these. Take care of this place and protect the possibility for the continuation of our peaceful research. You can destroy the weapons and the war instruments, but save the civil equipment for Japanese students. When you are through with your job here, notify the University and let us come back to our scientific home." He signed it, "The last one to go."

Perfect English. The appendix of Dower's book noted that the scientist was Katsuma Dan (1905-1996), an eminent Japanese biologist. I searched the Internet and found Katsuma Dan was an American trained biologist and had worked at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Station. No wonder he was good at English. That English note was picked up by the U.S. Squadron, and the commander sent it to the Woods Hole Marine Station in MA. The Woods Hole Station kept the paper. You can read the paper in his own handwriting at this Web site.

I found out the facility where Dr. Dan left his message is the Misaki Marine Biological Institute which belonged to the University of Tokyo. The Japanese Navy set up its submarine base there and the entire area became a hidden fort. His Institute had to live with the Navy during the war. Thanks to the quick wit of Dr. Dan, the facilities were kept intact. The institution celebrated its
100th anniversary a few years ago.
A little more history on Dr. Dan. He was the second son of Baron Takuma Dan. Takuma Dan (1858-1932) was an MIT graduate and mining major, involved in Mitsui Mining in Miike, Kyushu. In 1931, the baron was assassinated by the "Ketsumeidan" terrorist group. Ikuma Dan (1924-2001), the famous opera composer of "Yuzuru", the "Evening Crane", is Katsuma's nephew. Ikuma died on his performance trip in Beijing, China.

Katsuma Dan married his colleague Jean Clark while working at Woods Hole, and upon their return to Japan, both Jean and Katsuma worked at the Misaki Lab, leaving many papers drawn from their accomplishment in embryological fields. Misaki maintains a microscope used for discovery by Jean Dan for public display. Katsuma served Tokyo Metropolitan University as President (1965-1973), and Jean taught at Ochanomizu University. The couple founded the Jean and Katsuma Dan Fellowship Programs, which have assisted about 80 biology students to date. The Dans most likely loved the ocean wherever they were. It is recommended that this story be included in grade school textbooks.

As a youth fresh from school and a new Tokyoite, I explored the ocean around Tokyo. One summer I extended my trip to Kamakura further south to Miura Peninsula. I'm sure I passed through Misaki on the way to offshore Jogashima Island. I think the Misaki Marine Biological Station is a little south of today's famous Aburatsubo Yacht Marina. Today, a bridge connects Misaki City and Jogashima Island.

In my day, we had to take a boat to see the stone monument of Hakushu Kitahara's poem. The poem, written by Hakushu (1885-1942), is now sung by children as a sailors' song. I still remember the tasty top shell dish I enjoyed on the island, with sea food cooked in its own shell.

Here's a rough translation of the Hakushu's poem.

"It keeps drizzling.
O'er the rocky shore of Jogashima.
The rain of the Rikyu Gray (Rat).
Is the rain pearls,
or fog of dawn,
or my subdued sobbing.
A ship sails
around the tip of a Tohria.
Your ship hoisted wet sail.
I row a ship.
I pull an oar to a song,
the song - the captain's spirit.
It keeps drizzling."

As a returnee myself back from the U.S., I am fascinated with Dan's story. In the U.S. I spent 10 years on the East Coast and 20 years on the West Coast. During my stay, I had a chance to travel to Woods Hole, Cape Cod, Chesapeake Bay and Puget, Oregon shores, Pismo Beach, Morro Rock, La Jolla, etc. My memories run like revolving lanterns, just as I drove on the coastal routes, either east or west, and each memory brings back very special colorful scenes of family and/or friends.

One of my favorite passages from literature on the subject of ocean scenes is this quotation from Anne Morrow Lindberg's book, Gift from the Sea. "No man is an island, said John Donne. I (Anne Morrow Lindberg) feel we are all islands in a common sea." This is the very thought I have these days, as one who was raised living by the sea, and as a devoted ocean lover. I would wish to be engaged in the ocean related job like Drs. Dan if I were ever to be reborn.

P.S.
While net surfing, I discovered the Web site of Dr. David Colman, Professor at McGill University which has pretty much the same information as reported above. (There is also a piece written in Time Magazine dated December 10, 1945, entitled, "Appeal to the Goths".) Dr. Colman adds:

"Professor Katsuma Dan went on to become the resident of Tokyo Metropolitan University from 1965-1973 and continued to publish superb science well into the 1980's, and the Misaki Marine Biological Station is a thriving research facility today. Dr. Dan inspired generations of students and scholars with his work and, as evidenced by this story, tapped into a fundamental respect for the importance of scientific research that crossed political and cultural boundaries."

Please send any comments about the Director's Corner to david.colman@mcgill.ca. I contacted Dr. Colman and exchanged email a few times. He was very pleased to hear from me.

Strategy of Enthusiasm Produced a Winner!

While searching the Internet looking for a friend of mine in the State of Washington, I came upon a site that led me to a businessman I had once worked with on a project about 20 years ago. I could not quite recall his name. He was once the Mayor of Vancouver, a high profile public servant. I figured there must be a clue as to what happened to him, so I googled "Vancouver, Washington".

A familiar Columbian newspaper article dated 2005 appeared titled, "Vancouver has found its heart and maybe its soul. They reside in the spirit that reinvigorated Esther Short Park." It was written by Tom Koenninger, editor emeritus. He wrote:

"Roots of Vancouver's coming of age may have started with former Vancouver Mayor Bryce Seidl and the Nihonga exhibit on Officers Row, and the survival of Officers Row itself in the mid-1980s. The goal was to re-energize the heart of the city, Esther Short Park and environs. Thanks to guts, energy, brains and no small amount of sweat, the objective has largely been met. What a change."

Yes, that's it! Bryce Seidl! I recognized his name. I remember that I liked him.

It was fairly easy to proceed once I knew his name. I found out that he is currently President and Chief Executive Director of the Pacific Science Center, a nonprofit organization in Seattle. This is the man I met and worked together with, on introducing the Nihonga (Japanese painting) exhibits in the City of Vancouver, Washington.

Why a Nihonga art exhibit in a small city like Vancouver, Washington? Kyocera International, my ex-employer, built a company called Kyocera Northwest there. Mayor Seidl was invited to the opening ceremony. He met then Kyocera President Kazuo Inamori and learned that Kyocera and Wacoal, another Kyoto based company, were jointly planning to bring a tour of traveling Nihonga exhibits to Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles and other major cities.

Bryce was interested in the project and asked Inamori to include Vancouver among the exhibit host cities. How well could Vancouver, such a small city, rank against those large capital cities in drawing visitors to the exhibits? Nobody listened seriously to the mayor, but Seidl had his ideas and a vision. He believed he could do it. He sent his plan to Kazuo Inamori, even advising him on the critical paths to take in order to make the project a success. Kazuo Inamori himself likes to do this type of thorough market research and simulation-proven studies, and he was moved by spunky Seidl. Gradually, Bryce's enthusiasm and persuasion took shape and weight, and moved the Kyoto people. Seidl's planning was superb - the selection of the venue at the historic Officers Row, the well-timed visit of a Japanese sailboat at the Columbia River basin, the invitation of several Nihonga artists to speak at the opening, even preparing souvenir pamphlets and prints, etc.

To our surprise, Seidl's plan culminated in attracting more visitors than any other capital city mentioned above. And can you guess why?

Bryce mobilized students in all the schools in the neighboring counties. I was dispatched for a few weeks from the Kyocera U.S. Head Office in San Diego to help in the preparation, and I saw Bryce rolling up his sleeves, working as hard as those involved at City Hall. I was very impressed. The event took place in 1986.

I saw a recent photo of Bryce Seidl on a Web site. His hair and eyebrows are turning white, same as mine. Maybe he is a bit younger than me. I found out he majored in ecology at UC Berkeley, and received an MBA from the University of Michigan. Between two careers, first as city mayor and currently as Executive Director at the Pacific Science Center, he has held many positions in the Seattle area: VP/General Manager at Simpson Papers, President of Fisher Mills, and President of Pilchuck Glass School, a glass art school that has much in common with Nihonga art.

I'm hoping to visit Seattle on my next trip to the U.S. and renew my acquaintance with the ex-mayor I admired.

***

Notes:

Nihonga Exhibit
Kyocera jointly hosted the Exhibition of Modern Japanese Nihon-ga paintings with Wacoal Corporation in 1985 to promote international friendship and cultural appreciation by introducing Japanese paintings overseas and creating an international venue for exchanging art and culture. The exhibition was held in seven cities in five North American and European countries over two years and earned widespread acclaim.

Officers Row in Vancouver, WA
My friend Christine Kuramoto, an English teacher at Kyushu University, who was born in Vancouver, WA, sent me the following email:

"Hailing from Battle Ground Washington, a small city a few miles North of Vancouver, I grew up thinking that 'our' Vancouver was 'the' Vancouver. Of course later, when my travels took me farther from my roots in Southwest Washington, I learned that 'my' Vancouver was actually the 'other' Vancouver. The Vancouver that everyone else knew about was that one up North in Canada, or Vancouver BC. I often had to go through a long explanation of how there is also a Vancouver in Washington State just across the mighty Columbia river from the City of Portland, Oregon.


My City's name, Battle Ground, comes from a battle that never took place. In 1855, some Klickitat Indians escaped from Fort Vancouver. Captain Strong headed up the army in charge of bringing the Indians back to the fort. Upon meeting up with the Indians, the Indian chief, Chief Umtuch, promised Captain Strong that the Indians would return to the fort. There are different versions of what happened next, but somehow Chief Umtuch was killed. Captain Strong allowed the Indians to bury the chief. He returned to the fort with the Indians' promise to return. The Indians did return, and for not forcibly bringing them back, Captain Strong was presented a petticoat for bravery and courage. This area later became known as "Strong's Battle Ground". I went to elementary school at Chief Umtuch elementary and there is now another school called Captain Strong elementary school.

To me, Fort Vancouver and Officers Row was the place you went and spread your blanket early on the 4th of July if you wanted to get the best view of the fireworks display on the independence day holiday. As a child I never really noticed or realized the significance of the beautiful historical houses there along the row. But as a middle-aged woman, I now have more of an eye for the beauty that is there. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend that you take a stroll down Officer's Row in Vancouver. And if you have the time, take a little detour North and see my hometown, the city where a battle didn't take place near the 'other' Vancouver, Vancouver USA."

*Marshall House Photos Courtesy of Mrs. Nagano*

A Survey of Pearl Harbor Memorials Throughout the U.S.

The 9.11 Memorials seem to have eclipsed Pearl Harbor Memorials, but not quite.

I recently met with my old friends in Kyoto whom I traveled to Death Valley with once while working together in San Diego, California. We learned that we both coincidentally made sentimental journeys back to the U.S. in 2008.

My journey was a two week run in August from Calgary, Canada down to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, covering Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, totaling less than 4,000 kilometers. But theirs was a month long journey of 10,000 kilometers or 6,214 miles. He and his wife crossed the Rockies two separate ways.

He wrote that they enjoyed autumn foliage one way and saw the mountains in early winter attire with some snow scenes on the way back. He visited Yellowstone, like me, then drove east on Interstate 90 (5000 kilometers from coast to coast) to see Niagara Falls, then south on I-75, and back on I-70 to the Rockies. He highly commended the condition of the reconstructed highway.

Then he wrote that he came across Pearl Harbor Memorial signs more than once on his journey, a reminder of the bitter war in the Pacific. The Japanese committed one of the worst conduct of the century. He pointed out Route 75 in particular and sent me the photograph on the right.

Sign on I-75 with my friend Mr. Doi
This photo inspired me to check into and hunt Pearl Harbor Memorial highways in the U.S. Continent. Surprisingly, more designations were announced after the year 2000, as if Americans were re-immortalizing an event that had taken place almost 70 years ago.

Here's my findings:

1. State of Georgia, HR1092, 2/26/96
Whereas, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and many innocent and brave civilians and soldiers lost their lives, their families, and their community; and citizens of this state have historically paid homage to those survivors and victims of World War II fighting; it is befitting that the State of Georgia honor and respect the brave men and women who withstood the horrific attack; and the designation of a portion of Interstate Highway 85 as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway is an appropriate acknowledgment of the courage of those survivors. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the General Assembly of Georgia that the portion of Interstate Highway 85 running through Troup and Harris Counties be designated as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway in recognition and honor of the exemplary way the survivors of the worst attack on American shores faced such a crisis.

2. State of Ohio, Revised Code, Chapter 5533.241,
3/5/04 & HB 70, Sign posting, 10/13/03
The road known as interstate route seventy-five, running in a southerly direction from the city of Toledo in Lucas County, through the counties of Wood, Hancock, Allen, Auglaize, Shelby, Miami, Montgomery, Warren, and Butler to the city of Cincinnati in Hamilton County, shall be known as the "Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway."

3. States of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Florida designate I-10 in portions as Pearl Harbor Memorial Highways.


SCR 8 (Battin) Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway.
Designates the portion of I-10 located in California as the "Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway".

Chaptered 7/2/05. Resolution Chapter 72.
I-10 is the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway throughout Arizona, except for the portion through downtown Phoenix.

I-10 is the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway throughout New Mexico.

Florida also designates I-10 covering 340 miles serving the Panhandle and northeast Florida as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway.

*I-10 changes memorial names. Michael Jordan describes the frequent change humorously in his blog.

4. State of Michigan
Act 142 of 2001, 10/26/01
The portion of highway I-69 beginning at exit 105 in Shiawasee County and extending east to exit 135 in Genesee County shall be known as the "Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway".

5. State of Missouri
RSMO-Chapter 227.330
Missouri Revised Statutes, 8/28/08
The portion of U.S. Highway 63 located within a county of the third classification without a township form of government and with more than fifteen thousand seven hundred but less than fifteen thousand eight hundred inhabitants shall be designated the "Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway". The department of transportation shall erect and maintain appropriate signs commemorating said portion of U.S. Highway 63 at its discretion.

6. State of Oklahoma
SB 280, 4/15/03
State Highway 77H, from where it intersects with State Highway 9 in Cleveland County, north to where it intersects with Interstate Highway 240 in Oklahoma County, shall be designated as the "Pearl Harbor/USS Oklahoma Memorial Highway".

7. State of Texas
225.026, 9/1/97
Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway Limits - US 290, from IH 10, approx. 18.4 miles south-east of Junction, eastward via Fredericksburg to Johnson City, a distance of approx. 62.1 miles. (Kimble, Gillespie, Blanco Counties)

8. Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike in New Jersey
REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR: On September 24, 1997, the New Jersey State Legislature officially renamed the turnpike spur the "Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension." To commemorate the occasion, members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association of New Jersey, other World War II veterans, representatives of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, and officials from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority dedicated the highway.

9. Pearl Harbor Survivors Memorial Highway
Cal State SR99 was named as per the CA Highways Organization. SR99 is a north (Red Bluff) to south (Wheeler Ridge) state highway, stretching the entire length of the Central Valley.

10. Pearl Harbor Memorial Flyway, 4/28/05
State of Virginia designates Interstate 95 at the Springfield interchange in Fairfax County.

11. Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge l
The Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, more commonly referred to as the Q Bridge by locals, is a bridge that carries Interstate 95 (Connecticut Turnpike) over the mouth of the Quinnipiac River in New Haven, Connecticut. Designation since 1995. Under extensive reconstruction.

12. Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge 2
This bridge carries Interstate Route 476 (aka "the Blue Route") over the Schuylkill River, in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Designation in 2005. Under extensive reconstruction.

13. Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge 3
The Naval Academy Bridge (older and outer river bridge retained as the Naval Academy Bridge) in Annapolis was officially renamed the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in Dec 2006 in honor of the 65th Anniversary of the attack of Pearl Harbor.

14. Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge 4
New York State Assembly, Chapter 225. in 2003
A bridge in the City of Olean, County of Cattaraugus

15. Pearl Harbor Memorial Expressway Bridge
K201 Bridge on the West Shore Expressway near Fresh Kills Main Creek, Staten Island, New York.

16. Pearl Harbor Memorial Park
Inside Huntington Park in Newport, Virginia

I am probably missing several other designations. And I'm sure, quite often, many signs go unnoticed by drivers and even local American residents do not know about the designations. For instance, I didn't notice until recently that the Triborough Bridge I crossed often in New York was designated as the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge. There are others that are slowly and surely being accepted by the public such as the many Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial streets found throughout the nation.

Translated version of Dear Miss Breed now registered at the National (Japan) Diet Library

A good friend is a great blessing. Our friendship, based on Toastmastering and deepened with travel, led to the book Dear Miss Breed that I translated to become registered with the Japanese National Diet Library.

In early 2000, our Toastmasters Club in Kitakyushu invited Professor Kobayashi from Shimonoseki City University to a meeting. An excellent speaker, in an ice breaker speech, Kobayashi Sensei talked about his young days in Hawaii. We learned that he graduated from the University of Hawaii with a master's degree and later earned a PhD. In 2004, he gave his retirement lecture "50 years as an Asian researcher" to Shimonoseki citizen and his students, and returned to Yokohama to live with his family. In the fall of 2006, the Kitakyushu Club invited Kobayashi Sensei to join them in attending the Toastmasters Convention held in Taiwan. He gladly accepted it, and so, three of us, Oshiumi, Kobayashi and I flew down to Kaoshiung representing Kitakyushu. There he volunteered as an ad-hoc speech demonstrator during the training sessions and was immediately surrounded by young Taiwanese fans throughout the convention. He happened to be fluent in Chinese and was a big help when we traveled to Taipei via Tainan, Chiayi, Poan, etc. and visited Taiwanese industries and universities on the way back.
A photo from Taiwan Toastmasters Conference. I am addressing the audience (of about 1,000 people) as a representative of Kitkayushu as well as District 76 (Japan) Toastmasters. Behind me were Masaki Oshiumi and Eiji Kobayashi.

One of the books he wrote in 1979, Developments of Indus River, Agriculture and Water Problems in India/Pakistan, was highly acclaimed by Japanese financiers and industrialists, Asian scholars as the best introduction available of the area. He gave detailed history of how India and Pakistan disputed water distribution and how the Tarbela Dam, the world's largest embankment dam, helped solve the problems from the Asian Development banker perspective. He was a banker himself then, before he became an educator.

I forgot that I sent the publication notice of my translation to the professor. After a month long trip to California, I found his letter, dated March, waiting for me upon my return in April.

He wrote that he was so impressed with the translation of the book that he felt the need to help promote the book. He voluntarily sent his book review to the biannual newsletter published by and for the ex-employee association of the National Diet Library. Attached to the letter he sent me was the said Newsletter No. 44 dated March l, 2009 with a full page of the book review.

My quick search yielded the following designation of my book at the National Diet Library as follows:

NDC (Nippon Decimal Classification) - (9) 334.453,
NDLSH (National Diet Library Subject Heading) - JP: 21460307

Thank you, Kobayashi Sensei. I feel really honored. I'm hoping that I may travel again, not only to Taiwan, but to other Asian countries where your expertise shines.

*****

Book Review by Dr. Eiji Kobayashi (formerly with the Legislative Reference Bureau, National Diet Library)

As in the subtitle, the book depicts "the true and heart warming stories of Japanese American children and a librarian Clara Breed" in San Diego, California. During World War II,.Clara taught the children of the neighborhood how to enjoy reading and was popular as their friend.

It all started the day of December 8, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese forces raided Pearl Harbor. I myself remember the day well as a first grader. However, until I read the book, I didn't know what happened to the Japanese Americans in the West Coast, as a consequence of the raid. In reflection of the Americans' terrible fear of a possible Japanese invasion of California, then President Roosevelt issued his Executive Order to evacuate all those people who had Japanese ancestry, regardless of their status of naturalization.

Suddenly on April 8, 1942, a total of 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned into relocation camps scattered internally off the coast lines. The children Clara Breed served as her students were first sent to the Los Angeles Assembly Center. There they had to live in horse stalls turned housing, which emitted a most unpleasant odor.

It was shocking to Clara Breed who believed incarceration based on being a descendant of a particular nation was a mistake. She began to receive letters from her children, all with the heading "Dear Miss Breed." Children wrote about their camp lives - barbed wire surroundings, watchtower guns aimed at those inside rather than intruders from outside, waiting in long lines for everything from meals, laundry, showers, mail, etc. One young man (Tetsu), desperate from seeing nothing but shanties wrote that he was betrayed by his mother country. They were then herded into a permanent detention camp in Poston, Arizona, in a desert full of snakes, scorpions, tumble weeds. There they had to face extreme summer heat, sand storms, freezing air and bitter coldness in winter. Riots broke out among those who could not bear their situation.

Clara Breed continued to ship books to children in the camps for encouragement. She sent not only books but also some daily necessities, shoes, woolen yarns, socks as requested by children in their letters along with candy and gum. Christmas presents Clara sent particularly cheered up the children. In their homesickness they asked Clara to update them on news from San Diego. Soon some of them graduated from high school and joined the American military or entered universities, leaving their camps with WRA permissions. San Diego, a naval town, however, was reportedly still hostile toward them and children hesitated to return there despite their homesickness.

In 1970, Miss Clara Breed, then promoted to the Head Librarian, had a great reunion with all the children who finally returned to San Diego. She retired from the the San Diego Library system after 42 years of service and passed away in 1994 at the age of 88. Her creed was "I can't imagine life without books. Reading is food for the spirit and immeasurable."

Author Joanne Oppenheim (born 1934) has written many children books. She happened to see the "Dear Miss Breed" letters in the National Japanese American Museum and contacted the writers of those letters to interview them in hopes of putting faces to Breed's human characters and to document the period of infamy in American history.

I know the translator, Rio Imamura, who worked for a San Diego manufacturer and was a resident there for over 20 years. We are fortunate to be able to read Oppenheim's book in Japanese published by Kashiwa Shobo. Thanks to his hard work, explanations of photos, illustrations, footnotes and indexes are all painstakingly translated for easy reference. I was glad to see that all the library terminology was correctly translated.

America saw the birth of the first African American President, Barak Obama, who proclaimed "Change". However, has America really changed as in President Obama's slogan? Am I the only one who feels that the dark shadow of racial discrimination and injustice still continues to linger in America and elsewhere?

(Review translated by Rio Imamura)

Original Text:

The Song that Sent Bobby Kennedy to the Podium

(Photo courtesy of Josephine Ong)

"Yuyake Koyakeno Akatonbo Owarete Mitanowa Itsuno Hika?"

"Homeways on pre sunset
When was it that I saw them on Mom's back?
Color deepening red dragonflies!"

While waiting for the Newbury Park Library to open in California, my wife and I browsed the gallery of local artists and sculptors next door. Among the large frame mountain and oceanic paintings, we found two modest sized photographs of a red dragonfly perched on the point of a reed, absolutely still. We marveled at the work for a while.

As I was exiting the gallery, my wife beckoned me to return to the gallery. She was talking with an elderly gentleman on duty. She introduced him to me as the photographer of the red dragonfly. Apparently he noticed that we showed interest in his work and wanted to talk to us. I wrote out the above lyrics from a Japanese children's song and told him it is a popular song called "Akatonbo".

On my drive back home from the library I recalled a 1962 incident involving this particular "Akatonbo" song and the then U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy's visit to Waseda University in Tokyo, witnessed by one of the students in attendance. He was a student from Taiwan, experiencing changes in life, language and culture. He related the incident to his fellow countrymen, asking them if the Taiwanese had a song like Akatonbo that could unify divided minds when it is most needed.

After dinner that night I recounted the following tale to my wife, daughter and her husband.

I was under the impression that Bobby Kennedy visited Waseda University by request and a transcript of his speech would be available. I was working in New York at that time. Information was not readily accessible in those days as it is today. After searching through all available speeches by Bobby Kennedy, I was not able to find a copy of that particular speech. To this day I have not been able to find his Waseda speech.

Upon returning to Japan to retire, I started digging again, especially for the Waseda speech. Then I ran across a blog written by the Taiwanese student described above. He wrote that Bobby Kennedy was not officially scheduled to speak that day. It was a day of student debates. Bobby happened to attend the debate with hopes of getting a chance to speak.

The eventful debate was chaotic from the start. As time went on, it took a turn for the worse, escalated into antagonism, and the division was driven further apart uncontrollably. Bobby stood on stage perplexed and bewildered. A depressed mood fell over the crowd with no rescue in sight. Suddenly someone started singing or humming from the corner of the auditorium, inaudible at first, then gradually the lyrics took shape and fell into rhythm of the song "Akatonbo." More and more people joined in, forming a chorus. Everyone was singing with one voice, loud and proud, forgetting hatred and erasing the chaos. The Akatonbo song eventually restored civility and invited Bobby to take the podium. Students, afresh from the song, were eager to listen to what he had to say.

After years of searching, I found that Bobby did speak to the students. On his return to the U.S., Bobby published his account of his travels in a book entitled Just Friends and Brave Enemies. He used the royalties from the book to create the Robert Kennedy Scholarship, which he donated to Waseda University.

Here's my translation of the complete song:

Homeways on pre sunset
When was it that I saw them last on Mom's back?
Color deepening red dragonflies!

Blurred in memory is the day
When the mountain field mulberries
picked and carried in a small basket?

At age 15 my beloved maid got married
I haven't heard from her since
My first love!

Greg Irwin, an American songwriter translated the lyrics differently by ryhthm and tone.

Dragonflies as red as sunset
Back when I was young
In twilight skies there on her back I ride
when the day was done

Mountain field in late November
Long ago it seems
Mulberry trees and treasures we would gather
Was it only just a dream

Just fifteen she went away one day
Married then so young

Like a sister lost. I loved and missed her
Letters never seemed to come