Japan

I recently found out I was picked to volunteer in Japan and will be leaving in early July to assist with the relief effort in Ofunato! 

This is huge for me...I am part Japanese but never got to connect with that side of me.  My paternal grandmother was full blooded Japanese living in Philippines with her parents and brother. She met my grandfather and soon fell in love and married.  World War II started a few years later, and despite helping many Filipinos escape the Japanese prisons, one of them turned her in as a Japanese national, and the Philippine Army imprisoned her into a camp for the Japanese. My grandpa followed her and stayed outside each camp she was transferred to.  My grandparents lost one child during the war and two after, leaving them with six children.  She tried to find her father and brother after being released, but they were never found. Our family in Japan were unfortunately located in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to this day, we know of none that survived the atomic bombings. 

I've never met my paternal grandmother, but everyone who's met her tells me I look a great deal like her.  My father doesn't like talking about what my grandma went through because it's too painful for him.  I wish I could get more history from him, but I'm sure my dad will reveal more once he's ready.  In the interim, going to Japan makes me feel somewhat connected to her and the family I never met. 

And, I'm hoping that finding this part of me will somehow help me make a decision on where to settle down.  I love living in Sacramento, but I also feel like a part of me was left when I moved out of San Francisco, and an even larger part of me is in Boston. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!