The Story Behind the Pic...by Juli

Some of you may have noticed we have a new blog header this year. I felt the 3 girls slightly fuzzy represented our own sisterhood, yah know we are a little in a daze but stick close together...right? Did you think the picture was us?!? As our mom would say, "hot wrong!" The cute little japanese girls are actually our grandmother {in the middle} and two other unknowns that were obviously good buddies. After the bombing on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, all Japanese Americans were shipped off to "War Relocation Centers" also known as internment camps {Colorado/Utah/Arizona etc.} for fear that they were all spies. Grandma was just a teenager but she actually had a baby brother born behind the barbed wire. The Japanese had to sell or leave behind whatever they owned, including businesses, homes and precious possessions usually never to be seen again. Our Grandma never spoke about this, probably because it stung a little and no use talking about things in the past. From what my mom says and by the looks of these pictures, these teenagers were making the best of what they got.

Now here's the cute part...My grandma and grandpa met there while picking strawberries at a nearby farm while in the internment camps {awwwwe!} The gentleman on the very top right is our grandpa aka Papa Kiyo. They eventually were released from the camps, fell in love, had a few babies and a lot of grand babies. When I asked my mom why she or my uncle weren't taught to speak japanese {cuz how cool would that be?!} she replied that due to what happened to her parents they wanted to prove to everyone that their children were americans so they refused to teach them japanese. Interesting huh?

The rest is history and if it wasn't for a few random events we would not be here to bore you with silly things like why I bought 12 boxes of crackers yesterday {all for $9!} or how much organic chicken is this week {yikes, i have been picking on jess a lot lately! sorry}. So now you know the story behind the picture.

If you would like a fictional flick or read that revolves around these events checkout the movie "Snow Falling on the Cedars" and the book "On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" {one of the few books I have actually read...and loved!}