A Final Tribute to a Remarkable Man

Over the last few days we have been mourning the loss of our dear friend Mr. Shoji "Stogie" Kanogawa. We had talked many times with him to learn about his personal experiences during the 1930's - 1940's. Over this last week we learned a few more remarkable details about a man while not famous lived a full life. We are thankful that the surviving Kanogawa family shared these rare photos of Stogie during his three year enlistment in the United States Army during the years of 1946-1949. Like my own father, the skills he acquired in the Army as a radio repairman - technician helped pave the way for his early post war career as a Television install repair technician. He would do this until his father's passing in 1965 by which he took over his father's gardening business and stayed with it until his retirement in 2006. 

Much like my own father's wartime photos, these three grainy black & white photos are quite revealing. Mr. Kanogawa always had a smile on his face and was just one of the nicest gentlemen you could ever meet. Throughout his life he always found the positive in everything even through troubling times. Nothing was going to bring this man down. Not even what happened next.

On December 7th 1941 the day the Empire of Japan declared war against the United States, Shoji's father who owned the 12th Street Market in Seattle was arrested by the FBI. Being an Isei, the feds wasted no time rounding up Japanese men. Shoji was then a junior in high school and a Ni-Dan in Judo. He along with his mother, brothers & sisters would be rounded up like many other Japanese American families in Washington State and sent to the Minidoka "War Relocation" Camp in Idaho as seen in the above photo. They would not see their father again until 1945 at Ellis Island. We can not begin to imagine how difficult this must have been for the Kanogawa family yet Shoji could speak of it without bitterness. His father, the Senior Kanogawa was considered a Prisoner of War despite being a civilian and was to be exchanged for American POW's in Japan. But that's not what happened. Shoji and his siblings were American Born and begged their father to keep the family in the United States and this is where they stayed. It was curious note how he became known by his most famous nickname "Stogie." He once told me that was what they called him in the Army but as it turns out the name originated during his time at Minidoka before Shoji actually took up smoking cigars. 

Having chosen to stay in America, the Kanogawa family was transferred to Crystal City Internment Camp in Texas as seen in the above photo. They would remain there until the end of the war. Sadly, the Kanogawa family never returned to live in Seattle. Having their 12 Street Market and the family home taken away from them we suppose there was nothing to return to. They instead moved to Los Angeles where in 1946 just one year after being released from America's Concentration Camps, Shoji now a free man and a United States Citizen once more was drafted into the United States Army. 

What a transition this man had made! He had just missed WWII and managed to get out before the outbreak of the Korean War. He returned back to Los Angeles in 1949 where he would meet his future wife "Massie" and would live a beautiful life with two daughters and scores of grandchildren. He loved to go hiking up in Mammoth Mountain and fish while smoking his famous stogies which we never saw but we'll take their word for it. Through it all Shoji kept his infectious smile. They said in his final years he and his wife had traveled the world and had gone on the Shikoku Island "Henyo" Pilgrimage. But all that would end after he suffered a stroke during elective surgery to replace a heart valve in 2013. He spent his last two years unable to walk and in steep decline. It was hard to watch because he had been so full of life. It was said during his funeral that in the Koyasan Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo on it's 75th Anniversary that he had been given a Buddhist Name and title of Bodhisattva for the enlightenment of all beings. This is one hell of a commitment and very difficult for someone in this complicated world to live up to yet Mr. Kanogawa achieved this and more. We were so fortunate to have been his friends. Thus we pay tribute to our dear departed friend and hope to see his smile again across the sea of birth and death on the shores of liberation. Much like the fictional characters he inspired for our epic novel The Soldier and the Samurai, we hope somewhere out there he's smiling right back at us from heaven. 

Shoji Kanogawa

1927-2015

The Soldier and the Samurai Teaser Trailer

Seen here is the first Promotional Trailer for American Mishima's epic generational saga: THE SOLDIER AND THE SAMURAI by Louis Edward Rosas.This book is available on Amazon.com While this is is only a visual representation made from an earlier film, we hope that this book will one day be made into a full length feature film that will convey the story's epic scale for all to behold!

Obon Memories: Terminal Island

While many people visit Temples and the graves of their ancestors this Obon, let us not forget entire communities that have also passed on. For this we chose to visit the Terminal Island Memorial in San Pedro California with it's iconic stone Tori Gate that stands without color like a faded memory of the lively once thriving Japanese-American Community that was bulldozed by the US Navy after the forced internment of all US Citizens of Japanese Ancestry.  When you arrive there it is hard to believe that this barren strip of wharf was once home to some 3000 Nikkei and their families with houses, trees, and a real Shinto Jinja. All that remains are the ghostly reminders of the people that spoke their own distinct dialect of Japanese and once made this place unique. While it is off the beaten path there are many signs that will show you the way there. It is if the spirits of the place want you to visit and during Obon it is the perfect time to do it. Gassho!

 

New American Mishima Epic Released!

Our long awaited Historical epic has finally been published!

Story Synopsis:
When the Elite Corps of Samurai known as the Shinsengumi were driven from their base in Kyoto, they were branded Imperial Rebels. Of their 300 members, few survived. Of its three famous surviving Captains, no one knows for certain what became of 10th Unit Captain Harada Sanosuke. Based on a real life 1965 rumor that surfaced in Japanese newspapers, The Soldier and the Samurai is a tale of gratitude and redemption that tells the story of a mysterious old man who claimed to be the famous lost Samurai who surfaced in 1895 Manchuria saving the lives of three Japanese Soldiers during the first Sino-Japan War before disappearing again. It will be up to Nishida Keisuke who must return to Manchuria during the Japan-Russo War to solve the mystery of the elderly Japanese man’s identity who saved him and that of a mysterious inscription written on the back of a Tanto knife that will alter the course of his life and that of the Nishida family for generations to come!

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 14, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1500183059
• ISBN-13: 978-1500183059
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Kindle Format Available

Click Here to Order Your Copy of The Soldier and the Samurai

一日の画像 - Picture of the Day

Seen here are Local Japanese-American WWII re-en actors pose for photos representing the legendary "Go For Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team at the Battleship Iowa. The 442nd was entirely comprised of Nisei recruited from the was "Relocation" camps.

Uncovering The Past

As I go through my father’s things in the aftermath of his death, I came across a small book about the town we had lived in during the 1970’s, that town being Oxnard California. So what is so special about Oxnard in relation to American Mishima? Aside from it being the birthplace of our illustrated book Ichiro Dreams In Color, it was the home to a thriving Japanese American Community before World War II and remains such today. But as most people know, what happend during the war left a big mark on this community. And so having made this discovery, we choose to share this important piece of the Nisei story here.

Growing up sixty miles north of Los Angeles in the sleepy sea side community on California’s Gold Coast,  we have always been aware of the Nisei presence there. From Mrs. Kato who scolded us in 1^st Grade for being ungracious kids who didn’t suffer the internment camps as she did to the many Japanese owned farms that dotted the landscape. But what eluded us until now was the truth and that being the raw details and a sense of the true history of that community's hardships. As a child I often would pass by an old abandoned Japanese Cemetery overgrown with Ivy and wondered what really happened during those dark years following FDR’s Executive Order 9066. You see, we didn't have a Japanese American National Museum back then like we do today. You couldn't find more than four sentences in a school history book much less any sense of the degree of social injustice these people suffered. It wasn't something anyone wanted to talk about much less cared for among non-Nikkei peoples some 25 years after the war's end with lingering feelings of resentment towards Japanese people for the bombing of Pearl Harbor still running high in a town flanked by two US Naval bases. But as kids, we were curious to know what was it that the adults were not telling us past the sugar coated version of how we won the war and how they justified things. Had it not been for Mrs. Kato back at Ramona Elementary School, we would have likely never known about the forced relocation of Japanese Americans until we were adults. Well thanks to Author Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt’s “Images of America - Oxnard 1941-2004,” a clearer story of what took place there emerges.

 

It is often said two wrongs don't make a right. But back in the days after the outbreak of war, that didn't seem to matter. Wartime hysteria and fears of a Japanese Mainland Invasion while improbable gripped America with fear and cultural distrust of its own citizens of Japanese Ancestry. In February 1942, there were approximately 343 residents of Japanese ancestry living in Ventura County, the majority of them farmers whose farms comprised over 10% of the farmland in the Oxnard plain. It is said they exclusively grew cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, and bell peppers.  But three months after the outbreak of war with Japan, the Nisei community was forced to leave Oxnard for far away camps such as the one at Gila Arizona in the above photo. And while many Japanese American communities didn’t survive the war, many like Moriwaki family returned and rebuilt. 

In 1970, one such former internee by the name of Neo Takasugi went on to become Mayor of Oxnard and later on a California Assemblyman.  How’s that for perseverance! American Mishima applauds Author Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt for both his research and preservation of this piece of Japanese American History.

While this book does not spend too many pages on the Japanese American Community, it is a noteworthy addition we felt worth mentioning here. 

To buy a copy of Images of America - Oxnard 1941-2004, 

Please click on the following link: Oxnard 1941-2004

Please Enjoy!

To learn more about the forced internment of Japanese Americans,

Please visit Japanese American National Museum.

一日の画像 - Picture of the Day

For this Valentines Day we thought we would share with you this photograph courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum. This photo of a young couple was taken at Heart Mountain, WY during WWII. They're sitting in front of a barrack, reminding us that love, like freedom, is something we shouldn't take for granted.

Greatest Generation: Dying Man Casts Final Vote

As the World War Two or Greatest Generation leaves us in ever greater numbers, We at American Mishima from time to time like to feature these old Warriors who make the news. As previously posted on CNN, seen here in the above photo lies Frank Tanabe of Honolulu Hawaii who in 2010 was among a group of Japanese-Americans who were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal as part of the Military Intelligence Service Unit during World War II. (Better late than never no?) As seen in the photo, Mr. Tanabe 93, cast his final mail in vote as he is in the final stages of inoperable liver cancer. Mr. Tanabe grew up in the Niesei community of Seattle and attended University of Washington when he was forced to drop out and abandon everything they owned in compliance with Executive Order 9066 to be put on trains and forced into the Interment Camps that imprisoned Japanese Americans following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during one of America's darkest chapters of World War II.

Upon hearing that there was a need for interpreters, Mr. Tanabe volunteered for the US. Army while his family remained imprisoned. As previously posted on CNN: According to his daughters, Frank has never missed a presidential election, and wasn't about to let his illness deter him from voting this time around. Since this photo was taken and uploaded to the internet, Mr. Tanabe's story has been reposted and seen around the world including here on American Mishima. His daughter Barbara said that she has been telling her dad about all of the internet "buzz" and is sure he is "thrilled about it." "He is very patriotic, very proud," she said, adding that her father instilled a similar sense of appreciation to his children. "He always told us it was very important to vote, because he saw his comrades in arms fight and die for American rights," she said. Among those, she added, was the right to vote. As the Greatest Generation and in particular those MIS and Go For Broke Japanese Americans leave us there will be fewer opportunities to feature them, So here at American Mishima we would like to offer one final salute for his service and long standing patriotism. Thank you Mr. Tanabe!
ありがとうございます!