Edokko

In 1926 professional musicians Constantine Shaprio, born in Moscow, 1896and Lydia Chernetsky (Odessa, 1905) met and married in Berlin, Germany,after their respective families had suffered continuous persecution in war-tornRussia, or the Soviet Union, as it was known after 1922.With Hitler's national socialism on the rise, remaining in Berlin was for thenewly-weds out of the question and they decided to continue their odyssey, firstto France and Palestine, then China, to ultimately spend the World War II yearsin the relative safety of Japan.In 1931, Isaac, son number four and author of this memoir, was born. A fewyears later, with World War II imminently looming, and the subsequentbombing of Pearl Harbor, their lives were disrupted once again.In 1944, the Yokohama shore was banned for foreigners and the Shapiro familyincluding their five children, were forced to move to Tokyo, where theysurvived endless hardships, among others the intensified strategic United Statesbombing campaigns on Tokyo. Operation Meetinghouse started March 9, 1945and is regarded as the single most destructive bombing raid in human history.The Japanese later called the operation the Night of the Black Snow.During the subsequent American occupation of Japan, 14-year-old Isaac, beingmulti lingual, was hired as an interpreter by John Calvin 'Toby' Munn, a UnitedStates Marine colonel, (later promoted to Lt. Gen.) who, when the war wasover, paved the way for Isaac, or Ike as he soon became known, to immigrate tothe United States. In the summer of 1946, Isaac landed in Hawaii, at the time aUnited States territory, altering the course of his life forever.