O que Pearl Harbor fez
What Pearl Harbor Wrought é um romance episódico escrito por Akio Konoshima, um Issei que foi internado em Heart Mountain durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. As histórias contidas são baseadas nas observações do autor tiradas de sua juventude na Califórnia, do tempo que passou em Heart Mountain e de seus anos de serviço no Exército dos Estados Unidos. O Descubra Nikkei publicará alguns capítulos selecionados desta obra, começando com “Flo”, a história de uma jovem apaixonada e os efeitos da guerra em sua família. Aguarde ansiosamente por “A Soldier is a Soldier” e pelo epílogo do romance nas próximas semanas. Konoshima espera que as suas palavras ajudem a “dar aos seus filhos e netos uma noção da sua herança”.
Stories from this series
Epilogue
16 de Novembro de 2010 • Akio Konoshima
Life: …the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual…from Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Father would have liked the simple ceremony at the cemetery where his ashes were being interred. The group was small: just family and a few friends. Jo’s father was 92 years old when he died; his mother had passed away a short year and a half before. None of his father’s personal friends were there, all having already died or …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 5
29 de Outubro de 2010 • Akio Konoshima
As he sat alone, Jo scanned the room. In the dim light of the room's lone bulb, he could see a scroll with Chinese calligraphy in the room's alcove with the Japanese word "Manzoku -- fulfillment." A rural work scene was painted on the screen which partitioned the room; the house's rough-hewn center beam -- more than a foot and a half square -- was covered with a dark stain, maybe from the soot of the open fire in the …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 4
22 de Outubro de 2010 • Akio Konoshima
The hon-ke (family home) stood on a rise at the start of a small vale. In the twilight, Jo could make out rice paddies; flat rows of vines, probably yams; hedgelike rows of tea plants; and low fruit trees on the side. Close up, the house seemed much larger than it had when he and Isamu saw it from the river ferry. The thatched roof was about two feet thick. In spots where the mortar had chipped off of the …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 3
15 de Outubro de 2010 • Akio Konoshima
The flat wooden deck of the river ferry was small. Jo, his duffle bag and small back pack, and Isamu and his mo-ped, took up a third of the deck space. Two steel cables, anchored on both banks of the river, straddled the ferry while a third was attached to a two-cylinder motor, which popped and smoked as it was revved up. The ferryman, in an old pair of denim coveralls and wearing a conical straw hat, could have been …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 2
8 de Outubro de 2010 • Akio Konoshima
Two hours later -- the road's ascent seemed endless -- the bus finally moved into a small valley. To one side, narrow-gauged railway cars, which looked like toys when compared to the freight cars at home, stood intermixed with flat-bottom gondolas, some stacked with lumber, others empty. In a far corner lay twisted rails, other debris, and the stubbed remains of a steel radio transmission tower. However, no signs of the war could be seen as the bus moved through …
A Soldier is a Soldier - Part 1
1 de Outubro de 2010 • Akio Konoshima
June 25, 1950: North Korea invades South Korea. The United States was convinced that the Korean War made an early peace treaty with Japan imperative…President Truman announced in mid-September, 1950, that the United States intended to begin informal discussions with the Allies on the question. (Hugh Borton, Japan’s Modern Century.) Jo studied the other passengers on the bus. Could any of them be a relative? The farm woman in baggy, unbleached denim workpants, a pin-striped blue blouse and a graying …
