When the War Came Home to Oregon

Not There Yet

A 75 year old true story of courage, atonement and forgiveness.

Nobuo Fujita was determined to bring his family’s katana with him 5,000 miles across the Pacific. The samurai sword had been passed from one generation to the next for over 400 years and accompanied Fujita on every important journey of his life. If samurai tradition was to be respected, he would eventually pass it down to his son.

Fujita had a different plan, however. He had been invited by the Junior Chamber of Commerce—the Jaycees?—?to the 1962 Azalea Festival in their home town of Brookings, Oregon. This was an annual Memorial Day event for the town on the southern coast just north of the California border. Nobuo Fujita eventually accepted the invitation, and then whatever difficulties there would be transporting the katana. It was essential to his trip because he intended to present the sword to the people of Brookings as a gift of peace and friendship.

If that plan didn’t work out, however, he would need the katana for another, equally important purpose: to commit seppuku, the hideous ritual suicide reserved for samurai who had brought shame on themselves...

Listen to the rest by clicking the play button, above. The text version of this essay can be found on Medium where it was originally published on September 26th, 2017.