Join local author Wendy Noritake for a reading of her newly released book, Finding Uncle Yosh, and get to meet with and talk to her after the reading!
“What does a brave man do when faced with a terrible decision that could mean life or death?
Yoshito Noritake was a shining light with a promising life ahead of him. WWII broke out, and he and his family were suddenly charged as enemy aliens. His choice was to follow his family into a concentration camp complete with barbed wire and armed guards, or to join the armed forces with fellow Japanese-American prisoners to fight and to prove their loyalty.
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was given difficult and dangerous assignments, which they embraced with dignity. But Yosh died at the tender age of 23, and the details of his service and death were later lost in a Federal Archives fire.
Decades passed. When he had been long forgotten by even his family, his niece Wendy, whom he had never met, heard his story and felt a duty to know who he was and how he died. Her ten-year journey to find answers eventually took her to a small town in France, where the Japanese-American soldiers were not forgotten: a place where the brave men of the 442nd saved many lives, even as they lost their own. They are honored to this day. Against all odds, she discovered the very spot where his life ended.
Wendy had given up hope of ever finding a veteran who might have fought by Yosh’s side. Those who were still alive and coherent would be in their 90s. Until the spring of 2017… “

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