Last month I spent eight days in Tokyo, Japan,
conducting research in the archives of the Pacific Stars and Stripes,
the US armed forces newspaper that has been published in Tokyo since
the occupation of Japan after the Second World War. Hiroshi
Chida, Archivist, was most helpful in locating material that would
be of interest to me in this endeavor. I took to Japan with
me my lap-top computer and scanner. We left Tokyo with over 1,000
scans of material including about 500 photographs and well over
300 articles telling of relations between the servicemen and the
children of Korea.
While some of the photographs that were obtained
already were in our collection these often had information on the back
side of the picture that told us more of the subject in the photo.
In other cases the copy in the PS&S archive was in better condition
than the other one that we obtained elsewhere. All in all it was
a most successful trip and probably brings to a close the first phase
of this project, namely the data gathering phase. We now have
well over 1,500 photographs and about 1,000 documents (newspaper articles,
letters, reports, magazine articles, etc.).
The second phase of the project, the dissemination
of this information, is now underway. The further development
of the web site is a most important element in the dissemination of
the information but it goes slowly mainly due to lack of funding.
This project has no outside source of income and depends on donations.
To date donations from others have amounted to less than one thousand
dollars limiting our ability to hire office help. All of the work
in preparing the photographs and the stories for the web and up-loading
them is done by volunteers. We also have a part-time office intern
from the local work force development agency. We keep on trudging
along and will eventually get all the information posted on the web
site. Keep checking back. It would help greatly if readers
would make a donation to the project.
We are still planning on the dedication of the memorial
structure on the 27th of July, 2003 so plan on coming to
Bellingham for the celebration.
