Today I visited the USS Yorktown in Charleston SC and was surprised to discover a stunning memorial display to my uncle Joe. His name was Joseph Timothy O'Callahan and he was the chaplin on the USS Franklin. His story is well known. There's a bit of irony I can add to the story. His brother John was married to my dad's older sister Ann. Ann's maiden name, also my father's last name and my last name, was and is Yoshida. It's a Japanese name. Ann's father was Manzo Yoshida. He and 2 cousins arrived in Victoria B.C. Canada in 1898 aged 16 years. They found their way to Seattle and then to the east coast where Manzo met and married an Irish lass by the name of Mary Kearney. They were married in Wildwood, New Jersey in 1906. Ann was born in the USA and was thus a citizen. Manzo & Mary moved to Canada where their 2nd child Richard was born in Toronto in 1911. A 3rd child Rosemary was also born in Canada. At some point the family moved to Montreal and lived in Outremont an affluent neighbourhood. I do not know how Ann met John O'Callahan but they lived in Boston and I remember writing to her there at the same adress for many many years. Father Joe did visit Montreal at some point and there was a photo of he and I standing on the front porch of the Yoshida farm in Cap St Martin, Quebec. I remember him being very tall. Following John's death in Boston, Ann moved to Canada and spent her last years living with her younger sister Rosemary who never married. Ann & John had no children. Ann died in Kelowna B.C. in the 80's and Rosemary died in 1994. Both sisters are resting in a stone wall in a cemetary near the Kelowna airport. Richard, my father died in 1974 and is buried in Victoria, B.C. Both Manzo & Mary Yoshida are buried in the downtown mountain cemetary in Montreal, Quebec. There was a photo in a Montreal newspaper shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack of Manzo, my father and Rosemary. The accompanying article was a condemnation by the family of the attack and was a reflection of the changing allegiances that were undertaken by most Japaneses-Americans and Japanese-Canadians. They rejected the Japanese position and were staunch pro Allied supporters. The war proved devasting to the family. Most of their friends abandoned them and they were mostly isolated socially. They were fortunate in not being sent to any camps however. When the USS O'Callahan was comissioned my aunt Rosemary (both Ann & my dad having passed on) was present as a guest of the US Navy.
It was a very emotional day today for me to walk the decks of the Franklin's sister ship and to see the memorial to uncle Joe.