And because Mom makes the best Spam musubi. Ever.
Happy Mother’s Day Mom <3
And happy Mom’s Day to all the other super Mommys out there too :).
xoxo,
~ e
I got this amazing Spam shirt from the Go for Broke Educational Center - whose mission is “to educate and inspire character and equality through the virtue and valor of our World War II American veterans of Japanese ancestry.”
I am very proud that my Grandpa, Tom Shimazu, was a soldier in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team - 2nd Battalion, H company (heavy artillery).
As most Japanese Americans were after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he was suddenly uprooted from his home (and college career, as he was studying to be an engineer at the time) & forced into the internment camps, specifically Jerome, Arkansas, after the signing of Executive Order 9066. My Great Grandpa had been taken away the earliest, since he was a professor and a kendo teacher, & therefore was deemed “very dangerous” in his community. We were lucky that the family had some good friends to look after the house during this time, as most families lost everything after being interned.
Photo source: Wikipedia article
Photo credit: Clem Abers
Photo Credit: Dorothea Lange
After being interned Grandpa went on to fight for his country (also overseas in Italy & France) - he was an American, and his loyalty to his country super-ceded all of the racism and injustice surrounding the situation. The motto of the 442nd, “Go For Broke”, was actually a popular saying in Hawai’i when people went gambling: when the player was risking it all and putting everything on the line in one effort to win big. This was true for the soldiers too, not only to win their more immediate fight, but also to try and conquer the prejudice they felt at home.
Photo credit: U.S Army photo by Staff Sgt. Teddy Wade
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team & the 100th Infantry Battalion, comprised of almost all Japanese Americans from mainland USA & Hawai’i, soon became known as the “Christmas Tree Regiment” since they were the most decorated unit in the entire army for its size and length of service. The 442nd earned more than 18,000 awards in 2 years, including 21 Medals of Honor. It was also nicknamed the “Purple Heart Battalion” because of the 18,000 men who served, 9,486 of those earned Purple Hearts.
There was also a special group of Japanese American soldiers who made up the MIS (Military Intelligence Service”), and were called “the human secret weapon for the US Armed Forces”. If you might like to read a bit more about them, click here to learn more!
A year or so before he passed, my Grandpa began telling me stories about the war and the camps. Being able to hear his story is invaluable to me. Racism of all kinds, for any group of people, is something that we all need to fight against - and remembering what has happened in the past is so important in order to move forward to a more beautiful future <3.
Grandpa :)