Welcome

Welcome to the blog for Awakening the Past, my senior honors thesis completed as an undergraduate at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.  This site, along with a Facebook group, a Picasa web gallery and the original thesis will serve as an ongoing research and discovery project focused on my grandfathers and their experiences before, during and after World War II.

Initially, this site will follow my journey of tracing the history of several Japanese items my grandfather brought home from the Pacific. I hope to track down the families of the men who carried these items into battle, and ultimately ended up in a cardboard box in my grandfather's closet until the year 2000 when I began my senior honors thesis at Ball State University.

The circumstances under which Grandpa acquired the wallet are not known, but in a conversation with Wallace Ralston, he found the items on Iwo Jima after an attack by Japanese forces.  It was during this time that Mr. Ralston found the Japanese sword featured in a number of the photos taken while on Camp Maui in 1945.

Already, I've made great progress in translating a number of the items thanks to Mrs. Fumiko Kishi-Chiuini, a Japanese teacher at the Indiana Academy, and Timothy Takemoto at Kurume University in Japan.  We've identified several names and addresses on the photos and the letter, and I have also submitted a request to the Japanese Office of Foreign Affairs - Planning Division of War Victims' Relief.  In addition, I've submitted a request to Dr. Yasuhiko Kaji, a physician from Toledo, Ohio, who has been coordinating efforts with Americans and searching for Japanese families for the past 30 years.

My hope is that one of these fronts will prove fruitful and I will be able to return the items to the families.

More updates to come!