On Thursday, June 3, 2021, the U.S. Postal Service will be issuing a new “Go For Broke” stamp honoring Nisei (first generation Japanese-Americans born in the U.S.) soldiers who served in World War II. These soldiers served in both the European and Pacific theaters.
On November 12, [Major General] Dahlquist ordered the 442nd to assemble for a recognition ceremony. Seeing the small number of men in formation, he allegedly reprimanded 442nd Lieutenant Colonel Virgil Miller, stating, “You disobeyed my orders. I told you to have the whole regiment.” The colonel looked him in the eye and reportedly said, “General, this is the regiment. The rest are either dead or in the hospital.” – Go For Broke National Education Center
Although the 442nd is well-known (and justifiably so), many are unaware of the role Japanese-Americans played in the Pacific theater. Thousands, including four of my uncles served, many in military intelligence, helping with translation, decoding messages, and interrogating prisoners.
Now that the U.S. Postal Service will be issuing a new stamp honoring Nisei soldiers, dedication events will be taking place all around the country.
Nationally, there will be a virtual ceremony on Thursday, June 3, 2021, at 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT. It will be posted on the Postal Service’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
Former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, four generations of Japanese Americans, and vignettes of Oregon Nisei military service will be part of the ceremony.
My brother, David, will be included in a two-minute video reading letters from Sgt. Harold “Oki” Okimoto, a Japanese-American soldier among those who liberated Dachau.
Buying These Stamps
Although these stamps will be released on June 3rd, they may not be available to purchase at your local post office immediately.
If you are interested in pre-ordering stamps, you can do so online by clicking here.
Stamp collectors and those who are especially interested in this history can order First Day Cover collectible stamps at the same location. These can make great gifts and are quite affordable.
And for those who are ambivalent about all of this, consider buying the stamps anyway. These are “Forever Stamps,” and the USPS has plans to raise postage rates this fall. Buy these stamps now and you can save on future postage.
Reporting on the situation in downtown Portland has been, in my opinion, skewed toward breathless, whipped up controversy over the past year and a half.
Ten months ago I posted about protests and the – in my opinion – unnecessary and heavy-handed tactics used by the Portland Police Bureau and federal officers against mostly peaceful protesters.
Today, as we watch vaccination rates rise and cautiously anticipate the loosening of restrictions and rebound to our local businesses, there still persists a negative view of downtown Portland. People bemoan the boarded up and graffitied businesses and the homelessness.
Are businesses boarded up? Is there a significant homeless population? Is traffic and business down in the city center? Yes to all of these.
But that hardly justifies the persistent narrative that Portland is “a war zone,” “burning,” “just like Beirut” (how many people making that last comparison have ever been to Beirut?).
Many in the public believe businesses are boarded up due to violent protests and/or increased rates of crime (in the vast majority of cases, those boards went up before the protests as businesses closed due to the pandemic).
Sadly, the news, including our local news, does little to dispel these imaginings with fact. A recent Oregonian front-page story reported a survey where a majority of Portland residents believe the city is in “deep distress.”
Rather than examine the veracity of these views against the facts, the piece mostly focuses on people’s opinions. Only if one reads carefully does one find, about three quarters of the way through the piece, that crime is down:
Crimes against people, though, were actually lower in downtown last year compared to 2019. Assaults were down 13% from 2019 and the rate of reported assaults has continued to decrease over the last four months.
I took my time to drive through downtown just this last weekend. Traffic was light and I saw nothing to make me wary of parking, walking, or doing business downtown.
My brother, David, wrote an opinion piece in response to the Oregonian article. Since it’s been a week without a response, he suspects they will not post it. I encourage you to read it, especially if believe the news you hear about “Portland burning,” etc. and fear to go downtown.
Loftus Opinion: Portland is NOT in “deep distress”
Yesterday I received my second Covid-19 vaccination. In two weeks I should have sufficient immunity to allow me to venture out, carefully, and start seeing family and friends again, as well as pursuing activities from which I was barred for over a year.
At this time, it’s hard not to look back and take stock of the past 18 months of my life.
What a year and a half it has been! Most would call the last year one of the worst years in their lives, at an individual level, a national level, and worldwide.
There were very dark periods in my life, but also moments of great joy and promise for which I am very grateful.
Many have lost much more and suffered and continue to suffer much more than I. I know I am very fortunate.
So, here’s a synopsis of my last 18 months.
December, 2019
Was laid off from my job of nearly 7 years. At the time, the job market was strong, so I had little worry about landing on my feet. That changed dramatically after the pandemic hit.
I played my viola for a classmate’s mother who was sick and ailing. I played her mom’s favorite songs for about an hour and left. She passed away less than an hour later.
January, 2020
I performed with the Newport Symphony, which turned out to be the last concert for that group as the pandemic forced the cancellation of the rest of the concert season.
With fellow Newport Symphony violists Julie and Dana
February, 2020
I gave a talk at the Kennedy School about Japanese American Incarceration. My mother was supposed to speak and I was to assist, but she had to cancel last minute. So I handled it myself. Happily, mom gave my presentation a positive review. You can read about it and watch the video by clicking here.
Terribly missing my musical friends, I decided to make a video with musicians all over the country and the world. In the end, 26 musicians joined me to perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3. As of this writing, it has been viewed over 7,600 times! Click here to read about it, see the video, and watch the blooper reel!
Started hosting online karaoke parties every two weeks. I’ve had people join from all over the country and from five foreign countries! News spread and I was interviewed by tv stations and podcasters about it.
Screenshot from a recent online karaoke party
I also created a how-to website for people who might want to host their own online karaoke parties.
World map showing all the people who have joined our online karaoke parties!
Last week I hosted my one year anniversary party. The parties continue on!
Hosted the first of several “Driveway Concerts” with friends, masked and physically distanced.
Driveway Concert with my dear and talented friends, Casey, Marya, Julie, and Barbara
September, 2020
The west coast suffered some of the worst wildfires in a century. Record high temperatures and high winds whipped up the fires and brought the worst air quality in the world to the west coast.
Air quality around the world on September 14, 2020
Smoke-choked skies above my home at 9am
Same sky at 7:30pm
October, 2020
Was shocked and grieved to learn of the first Covid-19 death of someone I knew personally.
Dr. Shafiq Qazzaz
Dr. Qazzaz was a writer, intellectual, and politician. He wrote the first Kurdish-English dictionary. RIP.
I have had family members and friends get Covid-19, all who have recovered, some who suffered more severe symptoms, but none that were hospitalized.
November, 2020
Was offered and accepted a position in IT working for the City of Tigard. After a year of unemployment and no insurance during a deadly worldwide pandemic, this was a tremendous relief!
Joined an online vaccine-locator group. Helped over a dozen family members, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances find and secure vaccine appointments. Received my own vaccinations in April and May.
April, 2021
Gave a podcast interview about my family’s WWII experience being incarcerated for 3 years without charge or sentence.
Made the first trip longer than a day in over a year, driving to Nevada and Wyoming to fly fish. I caught some beautiful fish on that trip!
I recently was was traveling past Twin Falls, ID and realized I had the opportunity to visit the Minidoka National Historic Site, located near Jerome and Twin Falls, ID. This is the location of the Minidoka War Relocation Center where 13,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned for three years during WWII.
Two children in camp, c. 1943, Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho. Courtesy of the Wing Luke Asian Museum, the Hatate Collection (Number 1992-41-4 R)
Note: If you want to visit the Minidoka National Historic Site, don’t go to Minidoka, ID or Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge. That small town and the wildlife refuge are 50 miles east of the Minidoka National Historic Site. I made that mistake years ago.
History
Minidoka was not completed before the incarcerees started arriving, so the incarcerees were humiliated by having to work on finishing the construction of their own prison camp.
Barbed wire fences at Minidoka, pinhole image by Timothy Floyd
Additionally, barbed wire fences weren’t completed. Incarcerees were initially allowed to venture beyond the fences to collect firewood. But after the fences were completed they were no longer allowed, and furthermore the fence was electrified.
Up to nine people would were crammed into a one-bedroom apartment with cots and a pot-bellied stove. Because the camp was not finished in time, incarcerees had to use outdoor latrines for a much longer time than those at other so-called “camps.”
Conditions were harsh. Temperatures dropped to 21 degrees below zero (F) and up to 104, and winds stirred up fine volcanic ash into infamous dust storms.
These anti-Japanese sentiments softened over time. Idaho farmers were desperate for workers since so many men had left to serve in the armed forces. Crops were about to be lost. Many repressed their prejudices as Nikkei were allowed to help with and ultimately save the harvest.
Japanese American women harvesting potatoes, courtesy of Densho
My Visit to Minidoka
Minidoka held people from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Although I know no family members who were imprisoned here, I do know of family friends who were. I had wanted to visit Minidoka for years and was happy finally to do so.
Visitor’s Center at Minidoka National Historic Site, photo by T. Loftus
Although the visitors center was closed due to the pandemic, there was still much to see. A guard tower stands watch at the entrance of the site, as do the stone walls of the military police building and the reception/waiting area building.
Guard Tower at the Minidoka National Historic Site entrance, photo by T. LoftusStanding in front of the remains of the military police building and reception/waiting area building.
You can observe remains of one of several impressive root cellars. It was about 200 feet long, 40 feet wide, and could store 50 railroad carloads of vegetables.
Remains of the root cellar, photo by T. LoftusPeering into the open gates of the root cellar, photo by T. Loftus
Next to the site flows a soothing river with a very unremarkable name: North Side Canal.
North Side Canal with guard tower in distance, pinhole image by Timothy FloydPresent-day North Side Canal and stone foundation of visitors/waiting building, photo by T. Loftus
I definitely want to return to Minidoka when the visitors center is open. Minidoka is a mere 12 miles north of I-84. If your travels bring you anywhere near Twin Falls, ID, I highly recommend a visit.
A couple months ago I was interviewed for the “Rise and Shine Podcast” about the online karaoke parties I have been hosting (we are celebrating our online karaoke one year anniversary this week!).
While chatting with the hosts, they learned about my family heritage as a Japanese-American and how my mom’s family was incarcerated during WWII. They were interested to talk more, and so we scheduled another interview. The interview runs just under and hour and has been published.
At around timestamp 26:00 I perform my work, “How Could I Forget,” for viola and spoken word. The text comes from my mother’s book, Made in Japan and Settled in Oregon.
We are accustomed to seeing a shift from black and white photographs and movies to color occuring in the 1950s. The occasional color photograph from WWII often can be jarring.
How amazing, then, to see color photographs and movies from a century ago!
A friend just sent me a film from 1902 of an elevated train making its way through Wuppertal, a German town just east of Düsseldorf. The Museum of Modern Art used artificial intelligence to clean up the original footage, add color, and create a smooth 60 frames per second movie.
The Flying Train, Germany 1902, updated and colorized using AI
The resulting movie is startling in its normalcy. It shows people walking along the sidewalks, shopkeepers standing outside their stores, and workmen going about their tasks.
Here is the original footage:
The Flying Train, 1902, original footage
The film reminded me of stunning and gorgeous color photographs I’d seen taken during pre-Soviet Russia.
Unlike the Wuppertal video, which was enhanced and colorized using modern technologies, the color photographs below were captured originally in color.
Prokudin-Gorskii Photographs of Pre-Soviet Russia
Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the last Emir of Bukhara (present-day Uzbekistan)
Between 1905-1914, Russian chemist and engineer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) took photographs all over Russia. He pioneered a technology for taking some of the world’s first color photographs by exposing three separate chemically coated glass plates.
Wealthy woman poses with her ornate rug and accompanying outfit
Two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière, took their own color photographs. Here are a few from their vast portfolio of color photographs taken from 1907 – 1927.
Christina in Red (1913)Mark Twain (1908)Lunch Of A French Soldier In Front Of A Damaged Library, 1st April 1917
There are over 100 color images taken by the brothers Lumière. You can see them by clicking here.
The arduous and expensive technique for taking color photographs used by Prokudin-Gorskii and the Lumière brothers became obsolete with the invention of Kodachrome film in 1935. Kodachrome film was then overtaken by digital photography. The last year Kodachrome was manufactured was 2009.
As people become eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, people are scrambling trying to find open appointments to receive the vaccine. This post offers a few tips and tricks to finding and securing a vaccine appointment.
Note: The information here is Oregon-centric, although several of the links may be helpful to folks across the country. This information is not the end-all. It is just what I have been able to compile over the last several weeks.
General Recommendations
Check often – We don’t know what days and times sites are updated, so I recommend checking daily. Check early – I found appointments before 7am. Within 30 minutes, they were gone.
Eligibility
For those in Oregon, everyone 16 years or older is eligible. Those under 18 may only receive the Pfizer vaccine, however.
Since this information is subject to change, visit this site for up-to-date info: COVID-19 Vaccine in Oregon
Here’s a quick list of sites you can check for vaccine appointments:
OHSU Hillsboro and PDX Airport Drive Thru – best to check at 9am weekdays; PDX usually offers Pfizer, Hillsboro varies between Moderna and Pfizer depending on the date. Check the Link.
Oregon Convention Center – Register, and you will receive an email invitation when appointments are available.
Many tribes are offering vaccines to all adults regardless of your state’s vaccination guidelines and schedules. Read carefully as appointments may vary between serving all adults vs. only those affiliated with their tribe. Here are some tribal locations in Oregon you might try:
Here are tools for searching multiple pharmacies nation-wide. Although it doesn’t search every site, they have most of the major pharmacy chains.
https://www.vaccinespotter.org/ – this tool allows you to specify which vaccine you seek, which is helpful to those who need Pfizer vaccines for their under-18 teens.
Every site updates at different times. For example, the OHSU site usually publishes new appointments around 9am weekdays. Walgreens seems to update theirs early in the morning (although I’ve also seen updates at other times). Try regularly at different times during the day and week.
If there are supposed to be available slots, but you keep find no available appointments, try either of these tricks: – Use a different browser(!). Several times I have found simply switching to a different browser, different computer, or phone, etc., and voila, appointments suddenly appear – Change your answers to the eligibility questions (e.g. profession, etc.). Since (at least in Oregon), everyone 16 and older is eligible, those questions really don’t matter.
Expand your search area. Try different cities and zip codes, and expand the radius of search.
Join a vaccine finder Facebook group. This one (serving Oregon) is full of people helping each other out and posting fresh updates of available vaccines. I found mine that way and am now helping others. https://www.facebook.com/groups/oregonvaccinehunters
During this year’s Valentine’s Day, a holiday when many friends and loved ones express their affection through cards and gifts, many around the country were stuck at home, many without power or heat for days. Severe snow and ice immobilized much of the Northwest, Texas, the Southeast, and beyond. At this moment, millions are still without power.
On this day, 80 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, precipitating the forced removal of 120,000 persons from their homes, without charge or trial, into incarceration camps for 3 or more years.
FDR in 1932 – Getty Images
On Day of Remembrance, Japanese-Americans and civil libertarians recall this disastrous and dangerous Executive Order. They remember the fear, hatred, and racism out of which it was born, and the same fear, hatred, and racism further incubated and exacerbated during and after WWII.
My mother was a grade school girl when she was forced with her family from their Hood River home and into hastily built and poorly insulated barracks in Tule Lake, CA and Heart Mountain, WY.
Manzanar “War Relocation Center” – Photo by Ansel Adams, 1943
She remembers the blazing heat and awful dust storms of summer and the biting cold and blowing ice crystals in winter that burned her arms and legs. Unlike my many friends today, however, my mother and her family could expect no utility workers to work tirelessly to fix their power and heat within days. She and her family endured extremes for months and years with little relief.
Also, I encourage you to learn more about Day of Remembrance and the history of the forced mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans – like my mother and her family – during WWII.
I have created a blog article with many links to pictures both public and from my own family, videos of talks my mother and I have given, animated short films, documentaries, recommended reading, and much more. I update it periodically with new content. You can find it here:
Three years ago today I posted the following on FB. His words resound all the more significantly today.
Today, two days prior to MLK’s birthday, his words still resonate, inspire, and instruct:
“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
…Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed – we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
…With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood…This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning: ‘My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’ And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.”
(MMOTIRT = Making Music Online Together In Real Time)
tl;dr: A joyful musical reunion, technical challenges, and many lessons learned
Beloved musical friends connect for our first online string quartet
Yesterday I hosted my first over-the-internet string quartet with friends in Idaho, Oregon, and California. Several of us had not played our instruments in months and most had not played music with anyone else since February or March, 2020.
It was very emotional for us just to see and hear each other. Musicians live to play with each other and for an audience, and we haven’t been able to do that in at least 10 months. Jamkazam offers us the possibility of doing both, and we were eager to give it a try.
We had a lot of fun, and we learned a lot from this session:
Test your own configuration thoroughly to improve sound quality and remove noise
Know how to host private vs. public jam sessions
Know how to reconnect if you get dropped or Jamkazam quits
Thoroughly test and adjust session sound levels
The Jamkazam metronome
Video and recording can cause issues
Three of us had had one or two very brief Jamkazam sessions before, but none had attempted a jam session with this many folks at the same time. Here is a summary of our members’ location, equipment and network latencies:
Instrument
Location
Microphone
Latency
Violin
Idaho
Yeti Blue
7.8ms
Violin
Oregon
Schure with Yamaha AG06 mixer
8.4ms
Viola
California
Yeti Blue
10.8ms
Cello
Oregon
Yeti Blue
10.6ms
1. Sound issues At the very start, our violist reported hearing a slight echo on her own end. This was distracting and made it very difficult for us to play in time together.
As musicians, we are so used to using our ears to help us stay together that any latency or echo can really throw us off.
She experimented with plugging her headphones into her Yeti mic versus directly into her laptop. That change seemed to help.
Any changes to your mic and headphone setup requires you to leave your active session and reconfigure your audio gear. Then you have to be able to re-join the session (see 3 below).
Additionally, I was hearing some static and distortion over my headphones and sometimes when I was speaking or playing. The others could sometimes hear the static on their end.
Turning off my mic instantly cleared much of the noise for my friends. I need to look into my wiring and configuration to remove any sources of static and distortion.
A good idea is for each person to take turns turning off their mic. When they do, the others can listen to see if any background noise including hum or static goes away (Yeti Blue microphones have a mute button on their front which makes this easy to test). If so, the muted person has some homework to do to reduce and eliminate noise.
At one point when we were playing, we all heard a repeating note loud enough to distract us. It turned out it was my cell phone. It was on vibrate, and the alarm’s vibrations were transmitted from my desk up through the mic stand to my mic. So I will a) silence my phone, b) not place it on my desk, and c) reconfigure my mic stand.
Lesson 1: Thoroughly test your audio setup with a friend to minimize latency and optimize your sound quality.
2. Different types of sessions in Jamkazam
During our time together, we started with a Quick Start Friends session, which I’ve described in Part 4 of this series.
However, when we encountered some issues where people got disconnected, I decided to try a “Scheduled Future” session. That worked, but it apparently made our jam session public, because a random electric guitarist briefly joined us.
Lesson 2: I recommend only using Quick Start Friends for now
3. Reconnecting to a session
There were a couple times we had to reconnect to the session.
When trying to record inside Jamkazam, my application completely quit. Another time, our violist was testing changing her audio gear setup, which required her to leave our session.
For these reasons, know how to rejoin a session. It’s actually pretty easy:
a. From the Jamkazam home screen, click Find Session, and the Find a Session window will appear. In the lower half of the screen, you will see Sessions for Me. Your active session with your friends should be listed b. Click the Join or Rejoin button to the right to get reconnected
4. Thoroughly test and adjust session sound levels
Even if everyone diligently goes follows #1 above to reduce extraneous noise and optimize their own sound, in the group you may have to make adjustments so you can hear everyone. No one should be too soft to hear or too loud that they overpower everyone else.
If someone is too loud or too soft, their level can be adjusted either at their end or everyone else’s.
For example, three of us were using Yeti Blue microphones. This microphone has a gain dial on the back which can be turned up or down to adjust its sensitivity.
Yeti Blue microphone gain dial
I was not using a Yeti Blue mic, but my Yamaha AG06 mixer has a gain dial for my mic that accomplishes the same task.
Alternatively, in the Jamkazam session screen, you can adjust the level of each player. This will only impact what you hear, not what the others hear. a. Go to the Jamkazam session screen. If you have video running, you will need to minimize or move it to the side.
b. Locate the musician from the session screen whose sound level you want to adjust c. Click the speaker icon and a vertical volume level slider will appear. d. Adjust the slider up or down to make that musician’s sound level more in line with the group
5. The Jamkazam Metronome I was unfamiliar with this feature, and we tried it during our session. It helped a little bit in keeping us together, but there are far more features to the Jamkazam metronome which I learned this morning watching this video:
In short, the metronome can not only help you stay together, but it will give you an audio representation of how much latency there is across the group!
I definitely will be using the Jamkazam metronome in the future both to test latency and to improve our ability to play together.
6. Video and recording can cause issues
During our jam session, we naturally wanted to see each other.
On the Session screen, simply click Video in the top center, and a pop-up window will show you and everyone in your jam session.
We did have some issues where one person’s video just would not come up. We tried having her disconnect and reconnect, and finally gave up.
Also, people with Gold level accounts (your first month on Jamkazam gives you free Gold level access) have the option to record the Jamkazam session: a. click Record b. choose whether you want to record audio only, or audio and video c. choose whether you want to record your own webcam only, or the session
Naturally we wanted to record everything. However, we noticed sound quality quickly deteriorated – if we even were able to get that feature to work. I suspect the computing demand to both run the jam session and record pushed the boundaries of my MacBook Pro’s capabilities.
Lesson: Video and Recording may degrade your session. For best sound and reduced latency, you might not want to try to record everything unless you have an especially powerful computer. Also, consider disabling video altogether.
Summary: It was so much fun and very emotional for us to be able to play together. However, many moments felt and sounded like a junior high orchestra – pretty loosy-goosey and mediocre in terms of sound quality.
Patience is required since network hiccups, sudden computer crashes, and other technical issues may arise and need to be addressed. However, the joy of playing together far outweighed the struggles we initially encountered.
For those unfamiliar with this sacred choral work, may I recommend this Tallis Scholars video – and read wiki the incredible story of 14 y.o. Mozart’s transcribing it from from memory after one hearing.
I know this is a very long post, and those who are hesitant to give it a try may be further intimidated by reading the trials my friends and I are going through. However, I do encourage anyone with even a little interest in signing up and trying. The more people we have online, the quicker we can collectively overcome these obstacles and arrive at the place where we can easily find people with whom to joyously jam!
I will continue my testing and troubleshooting and am committed to making this smoother and easier for everyone.
Friends, please contact me if you are interested in trying this out!
Blatant Calm 