Wednesday, October 6, 2010

1942 to 2010 - congressional medal of honor for JA

To continue the last blog, I learned that, today, Congress awarded Medals of Honor to the Japanese American troops who fought for the US Army in World War Two (in France, and Germany) while their families were incarcerated in "interment camps" (In the United States) Heralded as patriotism at its apogee: that grown men would fight for the nation that jailed their mothers and sisters- and would have jailed them unless they were willing to fight on enemy soil- the reward comes after a 68 year hiatus- meaning that the men who fought, and survived, are most likely in their late 80's now.

Surely, after the decades of commitment it required to build the political capital to reify such an act, it is truly an honor, mixed with relief, that one's sacrifice was recognized.

However, this blog is about to turn into a personal reflection on this history. It is a painful surgery to unsuture wounds now covered by scar and callous.

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