In Our Community – World War II AJA Veterans Joint Memorial Service
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Lead Story – The French Still Say “Okagesamade”
Seventy-five Years After Liberation, the French Remain Grateful Gregg K. Kakesako Special to The Hawai‘i Herald As Americans pause this Memorial Day to remember fallen military members from the nation’s current and past wars, residents of two small hamlets in northeastern France will be hard at work finalizing their plans to honor the Japanese American....
Remembrance – Remembering Hiroshi Arisumi
Karleen Chinen Commentary As the eldest of 10 children born to immigrants from Japan, no one would have thought badly of Hiroshi Arisumi if he had decided to remain home on Maui to help his parents rather than volunteer to fight in Europe with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. But Arisumi wouldn’t do that. In....
“Proof of Loyalty”
WHO/WHAT: PBS Hawai‘i will rebroadcast “Proof of Loyalty: Kazuo Yamane and the Nisei Soldiers of Hawaii,” which premiered at the 2017 Hawaii International Film Festival. The film by documentarians Don Sellers and Lucy Ostrander...
AJA Veterans – “All the People, All the Time …”
Tom Coffman Published with Permission Editor’s note: Historian, author and documentary filmmaker Tom Coffman was the keynote speaker for the 13th annual Joint Memorial Service, organized by the Nisei Veterans Legacy. The service was held Sept. 30 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl and was attended by approximately 15 World War....
Veterans Day Tribute – Excerpts from “Biffontaine”
Susan Nunes Published with Permission Sketches by Ryo Shinoda Editor’s note: In observance of Veterans Day, we are pleased to share with you this excerpt from writer Susan Nunes’ short story, “Biffontaine.” It is part of her collection of short stories titled “Paradise Café: A Family Memoir in Stories.” Nunes is a Hilo native who....
The Pacific War as Seen by Nisei Soldiers of the MIS
WHO/WHAT: The UH Manoa Library and the UHM Center for Okinawan Studies will present a public talk focusing on the Pacific War from the perspective of the Nisei soldiers who served there with the...
Nisei Veterans – “Okage Sama De, Grandpa”
442nd RCT to Celebrate 75th Anniversary of Unit's Formation Gwen Fujie Special to The Hawai‘i Herald When I was a little girl growing up in newly developed Käne‘ohe, I used to play “army” with the boys in the neighborhood. We would play in our neighbors’ backyards and down the dead-end street (now called a cul-de-sac)....
Spotlight – JCCH Hosts GFBNEC’s “Courage and Compassion” Traveling Exhibition
A traveling exhibit chronicling the story of the Japanese American experience in World War II opened on Veterans Day at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i. “Courage and Compassion: Our Shared Story of the Japanese American WWII Experience” was produced by the Los Angeles-based Go For Broke National Education Center. It will be on display through....
Lead Story – “Go For Broke: A 442 Origins Story”
World War II Nisei Soldiers’ Story Comes to the Big Screen Gregg K. Kakesako Special to The Hawai‘i Herald In January 1942 —a month after Japan’s attack on the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor — a group of dejected University of Hawai‘i Army ROTC students were sitting under a tree near Dean Hall on the....