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My Journey to Discover the Legacy of my Grandma, Yuri Kochiyama

mkochiyama
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What a Cute Baby :)

As you may have guessed, this is a picture of me with Grandma.

Growing up, people would tell me, “Your grandma is an amazing lady,” but I never really knew why or what she did that made her so famous. She’s way too humble to talk about herself and her accomplishments, so I never really got a chance to hear the stories from her. Conversations with my grandma were quite normal I suppose. She would always ask with sincerity how school was going, what I was into these days, and what kind of sports I played and then when I got older, conversations included current global and national events and her stance on them. I just thought she was a normal, loving grandma that I would only get to see a couple of times a year and who sent hand decorated cards and interesting clippings of articles in the mail that she thought we would enjoy or should know about. Slowly, as I acquired fragments of her life from my family and friends, I became more curious as to who she really is.

Based on this original

Baby Maya with Grandma Yuri
uploaded by mkochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama holding granddaughter, Maya Kochiyama.  1991.  Photo courtesy of Alison Kochiyama. More »


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