The 8th Grade students at Sunnyside and Tecumseh Middle Schools in Lafayette ,Indiana are undertaking an awesome and inspiring project, a 19 X 41 ft quilt honoring the Japanese American soldiers who fought in World War II. This project is under the tutorship of their teacher, Mrs Leila Meyerratken. In addition to memorabilia, including dog tags of Nisei veterans , and the two poems written by 8th Graders, there will be over 20,000 names of Nisei soldiers, from the 100th Battalion, the famed 442nd Infantry Regiment, the 522nd Artillery Battalion , 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion and MIS (Military Intelligence Service) . There will be 120,000 tassels representing the number of Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated in Relocation Camps . The quilt dimension of 19X41 feet was chosen to represent the year 1941, the year Pearl Harbor was bombed. Like the "Go For Broke"Memorial in Lost Angeles, this quilt will be a tribute to the Japanese Americans who volunteered to fight for their country to prove that they are loyal Americans despite the incarceration of their family members in Relocation Centers. They are hoping that this quilt will be seen by others in the United States to teach others how they rose above the indignities they suffered by making sacrifices in the field of battle . The students strongly feel that this WWII history of the Japanese Americans soldiers , which is not covered in history books, should be told. To read more......
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