My Aunt holding Uncle Paul’s Congressional Gold Medal for the first time, Aunt Eiko cried for happy. Incidentally, she became an American citizen about 15 years ago.
Writing about the firebombing of Tokyo during WWII based upon my aunt’s written notes and conversations has been a project in process.
My simple goal is to be factual; however, I hesitate as I am fearful some people may view it for what it not.
We’ll see.
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In the meantime…
For many of you, Autumn is in full swing. Here, in southern California, it is barely starting with daytime temps still in the high 70’s and 80’s. There is forecast of nearing 90F this week!
Here are just some recent snapshots taken here and there:
An aster Explored on flickr
A plumeria in B&W
A petunia petal in B&W
This cute pup always comes to sit on my lap while I wait at my local barbershop. Just too cute!
I hope you all are well and I pray for our young souls going into combat for our sakes.
In addition to investing time into reading WWII history books, my snapshot side of me still beckons.
“EXPLORE” is a featured group on the photo website flickr.com. Out of the close to 2,000,000 photo uploads daily, about 500 are selected for “EXPLORE” by the website for “interestingness”. Some of my photos have been fortunate enough to be “interesting”, 19 in total.
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The last four are below; hope they are “interesting” to you. Clicking on the images will take you to the actual photograph. 🙂
This is called “painting with light”. You leave the shutter open then use a flashlight to illuminate the subject.
A Lantana
A blue Balloon flower
An Amarcrinum Lily X taken at Descanso Gardens
A summary as of today of my photographs selected for “Explore” on flickr:
Although not an indicator of quality, my macro shot of a lily got selected for “Explore” on FLICKR. It was one of 500 “interesting” photos of May 2nd and FLICKR states over 1.4 million photos are uploaded daily worldwide.
There have been over 11,500 views of the picture so far in 24 hours. That’s a REAL high volume for me.
Sure wish that many would read my blog. I’ll even settle for a paltry 10,000 views a month. 😜
Eighty years or so after he posed for a photo, my Grandfather Hisakichi is in an American book.
Standing “Marine-esque” in his Seattle barbershop.
Incredible to me.
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I had come to know Rob Ketcherside from flickr. We had helped each other out looking at some old photos he had of Seattle – where all my aunts and uncles were born (except one). He had some fascinating tidbits on some of my Grandmother’s photos.
Well, it turned out he was an author. He had been doing a ton of research into “lost Seattle” – skylines and communities now long gone. With his fascination for “what was” (me, too!), those sights are now basking in sunlight once again through this mesmerizing book.
It was boosting to me when he asked if he could use one of the family’s vintage photos in his book; specifically, the photo of my grandfather’s barbershop. It is on loan to me from my cousin Masako (yes, the Masako after whom my blog is named) who luckily kept these family treasures all these years. It is more wonderful in that the home in which the photos were in survived the atomic blast – as did my family.
I hope Rob (and his publisher) don’t mind a couple of pages of his book are shown herein…and I’ll be picking up a few more copies to take back to Hiroshima in a few weeks.
In the description below, Rob also mentions Masahiro Furuya and his business. As it turns out, both my dad’s oldest brother Yutaka and his best friend John Tanaka worked for Furuya… And yes, that is the same John Tanaka my Aunt Shiz married. Small world, yes? Actually, Uncle Yutaka was the matchmaker.
A close up of his photo caption from above:
Grandfather is standing at the right-rear of his barbershop. And the photo is a full pager in Rob’s book! Cool! Grandfather should be pleased. In the original print, you can see the brand names of the hair tonics popular at that time. The gal in the middle was quite a cutie, too. I wonder what happened to her. If she was still there in Seattle when war broke out, it is likely she went to the same prison camp my dad and uncle were incarcerated in.
On an interesting note, the consensus is the calendar shows January 9, 1930.
In concert with Rob’s massive research effort, gone is my father’s precious Hotel Fujii and my grandfather’s pride and joy barber shop. It was demolished to make room for “Hing Hay Park” taking its place.
Grandfather Hisakichi holding Aunt Shiz in front of the barbershop. Circa 1918.Dad on right with his youngest brother Suetaro in front of the barbershop (circa 1922). They are likely standing where the label “Hing Hay Park” is on the map above. As readers know, Uncle Suetaro was killed as a Japanese soldier by the US Army on Leyte on July 15, 1945. Dad was imprisoned in Minidoka, ID at the time of his death.
Eighty years later.
My gosh.
And like the barbershop and Hotel Fujii, my dad is the last one standing out of seven siblings and two courageous grandparents.
Thanks, Masako-san and Rob.
I kinda wish my grandparents could have seen this.
Masako and Spam Musubi 