Find the Asian/American connection between :

• 1986 Challenger explosion -video-
• Paull Shin -video-
• WWII Stragglers -video-
• How I Met Your Mother -video-

VAFB reconfigured for shuttle missions 

The space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff on 28 Jan 1986. One of the seven casualties was US Air Force Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka who was born 24 Jun 1946 in Kealakekua, Hawaii. Onizuka entered the US Air Force in Jan 1970, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and was promoted to Colonel posthumously. As a result of the disaster, the Air Force decided to cancel its plans to use the Shuttle for military satellite launches from Vandenberg AFB, CA… a base I would be stationed at the following year (I know, I’m supposed to be looking for Asian/American connections, but I can’t help noticing connections with my life as I read these– and considering this is my blog…) Even though Vandenberg AFB was completely reconfigured to support shuttle missions it never launched one.    (Wiki)

Osan AFB Korea

Paull Shin; 7 Jan 2014 resigned from the senate after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Born 27 Sept 1935 was the first Korean American elected to the Washington State Legislature. As an orphan he lived on the streets of Seoul until the Korean War in 1950 when he became a house boy for a group of US Army officers. He is adopted by one of them, brought to the States where he later earns his BA from Brigham Young, MPIA from the University of Pittsburg , and his MA & PhD from the University of Washington. So far both Onizuka and Shin are Strangers From A Different Shore, and have US military connections. Personal connection with this one…? Also military, I was stationed in South Korea and visited Soul many, many times…  (Wiki)

Last WWII soldier to surrender

WWII Stragglers: 17 Jan ’14 the last Japanese soldier to surrender dies at age 91.The best report on this I could find is from ABC news which I’m briefly summarizing here. Intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, 29 years after the war ended was last of the imperial soldiers to surrender. He was hiding in the Philippines jungle gathering intel until he met a young man named Norio Suzuki in 1974 who was searching for Onoda. Suzuki returned to Japan and reported Onoda’s whereabouts. Onoda’s superior, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi personally gave the order to surrender. Connections? The military obviously. He was born in Japan living (in hiding) in the Philippines so he can still be considered a Stranger From A Different Shore… Personal connections? Only the fact we were both military and both went to war. I never made it to the Philippines.  ABC News

Finally, How I Met Your Mother. There was a lot of controversy over last weeks Kun Fu episode. Reported on 17 Jan ’14 on USA Today the headline is “‘How I Met Your Mother’ goes into the sunset with a Twitter-fueled controversy.” The show is closing out its last season and an episode spoofing Kung Fu movies upset a lot of

How I Met Your Mother

folks over its immature use of  Stereo types. I’ve never watched the show, or the episode in question but from what I’ve read Twitter is all-a-buzz. The Connections here are of a more pop-culture bent; first HIMYM with the genre of martial arts films, retold on a TV sitcom, that generates a lot of activity on a pop-culture activity–Twitter. WWII has provided much pop-culture references since the beginning of the war, much of which has been transmitted through TV. Connecting with the space shuttle & Paull Shin maybe less so. The shuttle and the Discovery disaster are both iconic images. USA Today

Of course another connection that binds each of these events together, is time– each occurred in the month of January– moments in the space/time continuum, which coldly afflicts both Asians and Americans equally.

   Omg. What did I just see? Just see Hiroo Onoda, one of the imperial soldiers and just came out of hiding after 29 years after World War ll. He was hiding in the Philippines in a jungle and that fact that he thought the war was still going on is amazing that he made it so far and also still wearing the 30-year old army uniform and I’m thinking to myself ok. That’s incredible. My question would be why now? Why wait so long if you didn’t hear any explosions later after the war ended. I would want to see what his response to what happened after the war and what he thinks about it and what should have been done.

Ellison Onizuka, one of the first Asian Americans to reach space and put his mark on history and just the knowledge well at least for me, I think is incredible. The challenger explosion that happened off the coast of Miami in the Atlantic, that broke apart in just 73 seconds of departure and that is astonishing yet tragic. I hate to hear that, but sometimes things happen in life, people can’t explain. I just want to know if it was an accident or did that explode on purpose because of the race on board the shuttle. These questions that come to my head when someone from a different race than Caucasian somehow someway dies when they become famous in history and making their race proud and on the map, and then poof their gone. What the hell is going on here? I say to this man, I applaud you and know that the Asian American community is forever proud of you as well and what you did even if it was for a brief few moments, but sometimes that’s all it takes.

Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese soldier who served during WWII. Emerging from a jungle in the Philippines in 1974, Hiroo was the last Japanese soldier to surrender and return home. He died at the age of 91 in a hospital in Tokyo this month. Onoda was still hiding out for 29 years after the war had ended. He would not officially surrender until the commander that gave him his orders flew to the Philippines and personally told him that his duty was fulfilled. Onoda was living proof of not only human persistence and survival, but of the loyalty that Imperial soldiers had during WWII.

Paull Shin

Paull Shin was the first Korean American to be elected into the Washington State Legislature. He grew up as an orphan in Seoul during the Korean War. A military dentist adopted him and brought him to America in 1954. He went in search for education and wound up completing his GED and continuing on to earn a BA in political science, an MPIA, and an MA and PhD from the University of Washington. He was elected to the Washington State Senate in 1998. Early in January of this year, he resigned after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Comedian Dat Phan’s take on the episode. Just disregard some of the ignorant comments on youtube. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with this perspective and the idea that we are too sensitive. Being from Minnesota, I always thought that Marshall was pretty funny, even though the portrayal of Minnesotans is not that accurate. But, emphasis on the BUT, that is not the same thing as what went down in this episode. To me it, it looked like a modern twist on old blackface make up. Am I being too sensitive, I don’t know. When something is put into the realm of comedy, it can blur the line on what is acceptable and what is not. Things could change depending on the who is in the audience and who the comedian is.

The first Asian American to reach space. He met his death when the space shuttle Challenger fell apart and killed the entire crew.

“I’ll be looking at Halley’s Comet… one of the best views around.” – Ellison Shoji Onizuka

The popular CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” is in its ninth and final season, which as of late is not going as successfully as the producers would have liked. During Mondays episode the cast is doing an ill received parody of Kung Fu movies, which resulted in backlash by many in the Asian American community. In the episode one of the character played by Actor Jason Segal is attempting to learn Kung Fu, and is being taught by his fellow white cast members, who are all sporting stereotypical Asian costumes. One character is even sporting a Fu Manchu. Many viewers saw this as a form of “Yellowface” which has been seen many times in Hollywood History where white actors are donned in Asian attire and utilize makeup to give the character and Asian appearance. It is without question that the show took their Kung Fu parody a little far. Some of the twitter responses to the episode were as follows…

•   ”Yellowface? Orientalism? Fu Manchu? What?”
• “@CBS #Yellowface doesn’t get you better ratings, it just makes people want to boycott your network,”
• “people are already claiming asian americans are overreacting. demanding to be treated w/ decency is never overreacting,”

This backlash had the producers scrambling to apologize to the viewers they had offended. Through tweets “Carter Bays tweeted that the episode aimed to be a “silly and unabashedly immature homage to Kung Fu movies.” But Bays added that some didn’t see it as funny at all, and for that, “We’re deeply sorry.” http://http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/15/showbiz/how-i-met-your-mother-controversy/