Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima
It’s the human experience we can feel when we visit Pearl Harbor and imagine what it was like that morning of December 7, 1941 when the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service unleashed chaos and death in the devastating surprise attack that lured the US into World War II.
USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor
It’s what touches us and moves us that imprints upon us the lessons of history – the way I feel when hot tears fill my eyes and my throat closes tight every single time I look down at the USS Arizona from the memorial and send a prayer from the service men entombed in the ship beneath my feet.
It’s the way I get goosebumps on my flesh and a lump in my throat when I see the shadow of a child on the remains of a staircase, her imprint permanently burned on the earth as her body disintegrated during the nuclear blast in Hiroshima. It’s the way my stomach gets in knots when I see full grown Marines with tears in their eyes as they roam the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the realization of the total devastation to real human life – innocent civilians – hits them like a mortar.
Nuclear Shadow, Hiroshima
I’m half Japanese and half American. The child of a Japanese national and a U.S. Marine.
My two homes are the United States – the world’s only nation to have used nuclear weapons – and Japan – the world’s only nation to have been attacked with those same nuclear weapons.
I was born only 29 years after those nuclear weapons were used to kill 200,000 Japanese and end WWII.
Sworn enemies – now the best of friends. My grandparents fought on opposite sides of the war.
I am a representation of what is possible for the world when love is at the core.
