Pacific Citizen

Mlt>-YEAR CAMPAIGN NEVER FORGET Think JACL is doing a Community remem Filipino star crosses L.A.'s Nisei Week great job? Show your bers tragic shooting over to Hollywood in Festival celebrates support with a donation. of Joseph lIeto. 'The Great Raid.' 65 years. PAGE 2 PAGE 3 PAGE 9 PAGE 10 Since1929 ________________________~-------- ..;J INSIDE Hockey all-star Paul Kariya heads ~CIFIC to Nashville, CITIZEN Tennessee. The National Publication of the Japanese American Citizens League Pursuing the American (Baseball) Dream Yuki Llewellyn is the little The Samurai Bears, the ing their team on with an "oendan" girl in the famous evacua tirst all Japanese profes and a wave of their '1etto fusen" tion photo. Now she's hop sional baseball team, make balloons. Pretty soon taiko drum ing to bring a part of her history whife players pur mers and ondo dancers will enter life into focus by returning tain the enthusiastic crowd. sue dreams of a major to Manzanar for the first league baseball career. No, you're not in Tokyo, Japan. This is ' Fullerton, California and time. you're watching the independent By CAROLINE AOYAGI By LYNDA LIN Golden Baseball League's all Executive Editor Assistant Editor Japanese baseball team - the Samurai Bears. The melodic sounds of the In her ·childhood mindscape, "With the success of Ichiro Japanese national anthem can be Manzanar looks like an abstract [Suzuki] and [Hideki] Matsui - top heard playing in the background as painting where images, colors and notch Japanese baseball players the Japanese baseball players get sensations blend together without who can play at the all-star level ready to take their positions on the borders. Her memories of a place grassy field. A quick glance around called -"home" in the early part of See BASEBALLJPage 12 the stadium reveals loyal fans cheer- her life are fuzzy at best, but Yukiko Llewellyn's face may be one of the best reminders of the World War II evacuation and internment of Japanese Ameri cans. She is the little girl in the photo Photo by Charles Mercer Photography with the pageboy haircut, sitting 'The best part abo·ut that photo is that it's anonymous;' said Yuki amidst duffel bags and suitcases Llewellyn, 66. 'It doesn't need to be Yuki. It just needs to be a with a half eaten apple in her right child. It's so much more powerful that way.' hand and a purse in her left. The history - she is now 66. had to embmce." emotions drawn across her face "It just seems kind of ironic that Historians and community are a mix of fear, confusion and my claim to fame is from an acci members regard the photo as sadness. Yukiko (or Yuki as s.he dental photo taken at a time of great emblematic of a dark historic likes to be called) was three years . stress to adults," said Yuki by tele event. old ~hen photographer Clem phone from her Champaign, Illinois ''This is one of a number [of Albers immortalized her image in Yuuchi Nomura husles for a headfirst slide into home plate. home. "It's a part of my life that I've See LLEWELLYNlPage 2 WWII Veteran Ben Kuroki to Receive Distinguished Service Medal By ASSOCIATED PRESS he received an hon force groups over There's no doubt he deserves. the mcy,' and it's Americanism at its orary doctor of letters Europe, North Distinguished Service Medal, said very best," he said. "I feel that more LINCOLN, Neb.-A farm boy degree from the Africa and Japan John R. Doyle, a Lincoln attorney so than any personal glory it gives to from Nebraska who has the distinc University of during the war, the and highly decorated WWII veter me." tion of being the only Japanese Nebraska-Lincoln. only known an. - Kuroki was born in Gothenburg American known to have flown W. Don Nelson, the American to have "It's just phenomenal he went ori in 1917, one of 10 children of over Japan during World War II is in Nebraska director for done so. That that many missions. He was amaz Shosuke and Nakil Kuroki, line for a rare military honor. U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, includes the famed ing," Doyle said. "And fighting Japanese immigrants who later Ben Kuroki, the son of Japanese said that after several attack on Ploesti, prejudice all the way, that was raised their family along with pota immigrants who was raised on a years of providing doc Romania, that remarkable." toes and beets near Hershey. Hershey, Neb., farm, has been umentation and filling claimed the lives of Kuroki, who now lives in After the attack on Pearl Harbor, approved by the military to receive out forms, the award BEN KUROkl 310 Americans. He Camarillo, Calif., said he feels hum Kuroki's father urged him and his the Distinguished Service Medal, had been approved by was awarded a bled by the efforts of so many brother to 'volunteer for service. the third highest of the U.S. Army's the military. Distinguished Nebraskans who have worked to see After being turned down by recruit decorations. Kuroki manned bomber guns in Flying Cross with two oak-leaf clus him awarded with the medal. ing officials in North Platte, the A banquet in his honor was held 58 missions in four different air ters before receiving an honorable "Most importantly, I feel that it recently in Lincoln, and on Saturday discharge. gives creden~e to the word 'democ- See KUROKlIPage 8 COMMENTARY JA Artists Reflect on the 60th Anniversary Looking of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings at the JACL By AMY E. IKEDA By JOHN TATEISm Special to the Pacific Citizen JACL Executive Director Artist Clement Hanami feels a When I stepped in as the JACL close connection to the horrific sub executive ject of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki director, we atomic bombings. Hanami's mother commissioned who passed away in 2002 was a a study to deter hibakusha, an atom-bomb survivor. mine the demo But it was not until his 20s that graphics of the Hanami found out about his moth organization. er's past. Having spent a "Growing up I knew she had number of years on staff as the these visible keloid scars on her legs redress director in the 1980s, I but I never knew they were as a See TATEISHlIPage 2 See BOMBINGSIPage 4 2 NATIONAL NEWS PACIFIC CITIZEN, AUG. 19-5EPI'. 1, 2005 LLEWELLYN apple. For Yuki, the post-war years were plunder was big news. Most of the memories Yuki does accented with life's little byproducts "We were all delighted because PACIFIC CITIZEN (Continued from page 1) have of growing up in the barracks - happiness, tragedy and an unlike we thought we put one ov~r on the 7 Cupania Circle, photos] that shows individuals and mess halls of Manzanar are ly twist of fate. She was a senior in adults. But little did we know that Monterey Park, CA 91755 being impacted," said Franklin Odo, warm and perfumed with sweet high school when she got into a car they knew exactly who we were. I Tel: 3231725-0083, . director of the Asian Pacific scents of mochi making and open accident and flew through the wind mean there was a barbwire fence all 800/966-6157, Fax: American Program' at the houses, a tradition which she and her shield right as the engine blew up. around us - who else could it be?" 3231725-0064 "Wouldn't you know it, it was Her students loved this story and . E-mail: [email protected] Smithsonian Institute. "In this case, mother carried on even after the war. letters2pc@ aol.com the young girl is surrounded by evi 'They are not unhappy memo December 7," said Yuki ironically. always exclaimed, "You had fun?" dence of the horrendous event, the ries," said Yuki. She received "Of course I did. I was a kid!" Executive Editor: "I was a child." about 360 stitch In over 35 years as an educator Caroline Y. A0y'agi mounds of baggage. She is isolated Assistant Editor: amidst the evidence and clearly rep As a young es i.n her face Yuki said students were awestruck Lynda Lin resents an innocent victim of great girl, she remem and her right and often asked for her autograph Office Manager: injustice." bers a trip to the eyelid was tom . because she is that little girl. Brian Tanaka In late September, the little girl in cinema a off, so she had "Personal stories such as Yuki's Circulation: Eva Lau-Ting the photo is making her first return makeshift venue to wear a patch. are critical to quality education," Intern: Amy Ikeda trip to Manzanar, stopping first at in the mess hall In a flash, all her said Kent Ono, director of UIUC's Publisher: Japanese Los Angeles' Japanese American with a few rows college dreams Asian American Studies Program. American Citizens League National Museum to research the of chairs and a were gone until "Her personal story helped students (founded 1929) 1765 Sutter camp years that she lived through white bed sheet a plastic surgeon understand that this historical event Street, San Francisco, CA but remembers very little about. acting as the sil with no experi actually affected people and altered 94115, tel: 415/921-5225 Jax: Like many' other young internees, ver screen. Her ence recon the course of their lives forever." 4151931-4671, www.jad.org mom had structing Asian. At UIUC, Yuki was a vocal advo JACL President: Ken Inouye Yuki feels a need to fiU in the blank National Director: John spaces where her memory left off.

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