Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum Podcasts

Japanese American Heroism in WWII

February 20, 2022 alasken@icloud.com (Ken Winterberger) Season 2022 Episode 220
Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum Podcasts
Japanese American Heroism in WWII
Show Notes

Stuart Hirai grew up as a Sansei — 3rd generation Japanese American — in eastern Oregon, where Nisei mentors who had served in the famed 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team were instrumental in shaping his life. The Hirais were one of 350 families who were moved to eastern Oregon in June 1942 as laborers in the first internment camp established as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt’s infamous Executive Order 9066. “Stu” graduated from Oregon State University and received his Master of Science degree in Hydraulic Engineering from Colorado State University. He worked for 35 years with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and participated in the Senior Executive Fellowship Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Stu is a member of numerous historical and educational organizations. He has made presentations at incarceration camp pilgrimages about the Nisei soldiers from those camps, conducted tours, and spoken at WWII seminars about the Nisei soldiers who served in the Pacific and Europe. Stu is writing a book featuring his Nisei mentors who were in the camps, the military, and resisters during the tumultuous times after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. ​The slides can be found here - https://www.akwebguy.com/AUUF/AUUF_Sunday_Program_20220220