As Dad passed away less than two years ago at 99 years of age, he would have turned 101 today if he were still around.  I truly believed he would be the first Kanemoto to live to be 100.  Unfortunately, he just quietly passed away after eating a good lunch – eating was his pastime.

When I was in elementary school, I remember being at Belvedere Park in East Los Angeles. I might have been maybe eight years old. It was a breezy day and he had bought us brand new kites.  A wind gust pushed the kite and therefore, the spool got pulled out of my hand.  The kite took off – as did my Dad chasing after it.  To this day, I thought to myself, “Darn.  Dad can run fast.”  I didn’t know until just a little over six years ago he was a high school track star in Hiroshima.

Anyways, I thought of him today and his high school yearbook.

A link to his 1937 Hiroshima high school story is here.

I hope you are playing jump-frog with your favorite brother at Zenshouji, Dad, and eating loads of odango.

Happy birthday!