Heirlooms

Recently E's Ojisan brought me his mother's china.  The pieces are not very old, younger than Ojisan himself but they have so much value to our family.  The little green ringed rose printed dishes mean so much to the Imai family because they are one of the only heirlooms we have.

E loves her granddaddy
and grandma!

Someday E will ask about heirlooms and old pictures.  The Matthews/Reeves side is full of all sorts of fascinating old trinkets and pictures.  A rich history of life in the south.  So we will be able to show her lots of information and pictures about her history on that side.  We can even take her to see the old country home her grandparents reminisce about.  We can roll biscuits on the Hoosier her great-great grandmother used.  Eat off of china that has been in the family for generations.  Hold her great-great grandfathers baby shoe.  How fun that will be to show her her roots.  To look at old photos with her Grandma, to go hiking through history with her Granddaddy.  To be able to see and know where she comes from.

And then she will ask about the Imai/Hohn side.  For the Hohn side we have some pictures of her German ancestors beyond her great-Oma's, only a scant handful but some.  We can take her to Germany and show her her Oma's child hood house and the bomb crater that she swam in as a child.  ...and then we will have to explain the bombs.  We will have to explain that the Imai's and the Hohn's were in different countries but that the courses of their lives were totally changed by events that occurred from 1939-1945, things that started before her Oma and Ojisan were even born.  We will explain how lucky she is to live in a country that has never been bombed in such a way.

Can't wait to see you again Oma!

We will tell her about Hitler and what a powerful, malevolent man he was.  About how her great-Oma was exposed to the Hitler youth, and probably a member, because at that time you were either in or you were ostracized and possibly killed.  About how we don't really know because she never talked about it and there are no pictures from that time because she didn't want any.  We will talk about the Holocaust death camps and about how good people can do very bad things because of hate, fear and ignorance.  We will talk to her about how this is a part of her history just as much as the Old Mill house in the south.  We will talk about how a country's actions can make the past something that people don't want to remember but the should never be forgotten.

And when she asks about why there are no pictures or memorabilia beyond her great-grandma on the Imai side we will talk about Internment.  About how her great grandfather, her pregnant great grandmother and their three children were told they had to leave their cabbage farm.  To sell or store all their belongings.  They had to sell their land for far less than it was worth.  They were only able to bring what they could carry.  They had to do this all because they were "dirty Japs"  Perhaps we will go to Santa Ana and talk about the stables.  How her family ate, slept and lived in a horse stable with some linoleum slapped down over the muck of the stable.


We miss you Ojisan!  Come visit
again soon!

We may go hiking in Utah, not for the beautiful canyons or great camping (though we'll do that too) but in the north, on a grassy field where we might see a few stone blocks.  Maybe by the time she's old enough to hike, the museum will be there.  The museum to Topaz, the internment camp where her family lived in roughly thrown together buildings along with thousands of other Americans.  All put there because of their heritage.  We will talk about the similarities and differences between Internment and Holocaust.    About how both wiped out the heirlooms of two cultures.  About how both are sore and sad things that the American and German people try not to think about.  About how we can't let them be forgotten but also can't let them breed more hate.
We will talk about hate and fear and propaganda.  About how people who gave into their hate and fear on one side of her family hurt others and caused a mass genocide of an entire religion.  And how that same hate and fear on a different continent hurt her family and how all her heirlooms burned in the storage facility where her ancestors had stored their things.    We will talk about forgiveness.  We will talk about making sure these kinds of things never happen again.

And then we will build new traditions and new heirlooms for her to pass on to her future generations.


Maybe we will go to the beach house where her uncle and I spent our summers with our Imai family.  Hopefully we can get her first cousins to join us since their parents were our playmates at the beach house.  Hopefully we will travel to Germany to meet and bond with her first cousin, to show them both the castles and magic of the old history.  And we will travel the southern US and explore her roots there.  And when she is older and has a family of her own, if she wants them the green ringed rose printed dishes will be my heirloom to pass onto her.