#5 "Rear Adm M. Kawabata" was Masaharu Kawabata. As a Captain in the IJN he had commanded the cruiser Tama, flagship of Ominato's fleet, and was involved in the capture of Kiska and also the unsuccessful attempt to find Halsey's fleet after the Doolittle raid. He became the CO of Yokosuka towards the end of the war, and worked with RA Benny Decker (for whom Yokosuka NB's movie theater was named) during the occupation. His wife started Seika, a Christian kindergarten (in Japan, what we call pre-school and kindergarten are combined into
yochien, with elementary school beginning at grade 1) during the occupation, and the Kawabata daughters Atsuko and Etsuko became the principals of what grew to become a collection of three Christian kindergarten schools, still running today. cf.
here for a Japanese language webpage about the schools, and
here for an article from 2003 about how the schools began, and their continuing relationship with Yokosuka NB during the annual Festival of Trees--which continues to this day,
here is a Youtube of their 2014 Festival of Trees performance. Could the Marines preparing to land on Yokosuka's shores have imagined this? It's like looking at the fulfillment of the fictional Captain Cassidy's wish, that the children of Japan would also have roller skates.
Every day I thank God for what my father did, not once but twice: first, for being part of the force that destroyed the evil empire of Japan, and second, for swallowing his vengeful anger and being part of the combined force that protected both the US and Japan from the evil empire of communism.
And I'll say one more thing before virtually commuting to my online work: for the first time in a very long while, I am beginning to think that America will become once again the force for good, that the American people will rise again and show once again the strength of their WWII forefathers. It's because of Trump. Not Trump himself: he is a side-show. Maybe he is a leader and maybe he is not, but what he has done is unchained the American people to again be themselves, the no-nonsense, git 'r dun people who can tell the difference between good and evil, and who bring good to the world while being, as Domei put it on #6, "light-hearted and agreeable." The American people have always been there, and we are about to show ourselves again.