Scholarship Awardee, Stays in Touch with JAVA
Los Angeles, CA.
I had the honor of receiving the Ranger Grant Hirabayashi
Scholarship in 2011. The scholarship helped allow me to graduate from Harvard in 2015 and, consequently, to enter UCLA where I am currently pursuing a PhD in astrophysics.
My thesis project will attempt to learn about the nature of dark matter using cosmic ray anti-matter. I am still grateful to JAVA for their generosity.
Thinking of the scholarship, I can’t help but be reminded of the role Japanese-American veterans have had in securing the opportunity Japanese-Americans like myself can enjoy today. Through JAVA members, I was made aware of the incredible courage and patriotism demonstrated by Ranger Hirabayashi and others like him, including fellow MIS member R.
Lee Ujifusa, my grandfather, in the face of great adversity and
prejudice. Their example paved the way out of an era of widespread anti-Japanese sentiment, and the lives they led continue to inspire me today.
Receiving this scholarship led me to learn more about Japanese-American
veterans. Conversations sparked by this scholarship, for example, inspired me to visit the Japanese American National Museum and nearby Go For Broke Monument. Due to the JAVA scholarship, I also feel like I have learned more about my grandfather – a member of the 191st Signal Repair Company.
[EdNote. Grant Hirabayashi is one of 14 linguists of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) who volunteered to serve in the Merrill’s Marauders, a special forces unit whichoperated behind enemy lines in Burma to disrupt their activities. Nisei translated captured documents, interrogated prisoners, eavesdropped on enemy discussions and served as riflemen. Hirabayashi received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, two Bronze Star Medals, and was inducted in the Rangers Hall of Fame.]
