Doctor Bob's Bike Blog: Day #47 - 4/28/2011

You will want to click on some of the photos, like that of the SR-71 BlackBird. It is so cool.

Two days ago, Lani and I were at the Japanese-American National Museum so Lani could look up on microfilm records of the internment of her grandparents. An hour of research with the librarian turned up the original records, including the imprisonment of her great grandfather for suspected espionage, all of which she left behind at the museum. So, we headed back downtime, taking some time to stop at the California Science Center, a great science museum with an attached IMAX where we took in Hubble 3D. Adjacent to the museum and parking lot was a new outdoor display, the SR-71 Blackbird.

Maybe it's a guy-thing, but this excites me. Doesn't it look incredibly fast just sitting there?

The successor to the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 is considered by many to be the greatest plane ever made. More like a steerable rocket, it flew at 80,000 feet at Mach 3+. It avoided threats, like missiles, by out-climbing and out-running them.

32 were built with 12 lost in accidents with one pilot death. The pilots wore a pressurize suit and, in the event they bailed at 80,000', would free-fall to 15,000' before the parachute would deploy.

Returning to the Japanese-American National Museum, Lani repeated her research on the library microfilms. Meanwhile Russell, Susan and I went to the nearby Go For Broke monument, dedicated to the exploits of the 16126 Nisei (2nd generation) men who comprised the all Japanese-American Army units: the famed 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, as well as lesser-known Nisei units, the Military Intelligence Service, 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, 232nd Combat Engineer Company, and the 1399th Engineering Construction Battalion.

The inscription reads: Rising to the defense of their country, by the thousands they came – these young Japanese American soldiers from Hawaii, the states, America's concentration camps – to fight in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. Looked upon with suspicion, set apart and deprived of their constitutional rights, they nevertheless remained steadfast and served with indomitable spirit and uncommon valor, for theirs was a fight to prove loyalty. This legacy will serve as a sobering reminder that never again shall any group be denied liberty and the rights of citizenship.

The combat units of the 100th Infantry and 442nd Regimental Combat Team were made largely of Japanese-Americans from internment camps given the opportunity to prove their loyalty.

All 16126 Japanese-Americans are named. The 100th/442nd were combined and went on to become the most decorated fighting unit of WWII, with 22 members receiving the Medals of Honor, the military's highest combat decoration. "Go For Broke" was the motto of the 442nd.

We ended the day at Santa Monica Pier, a popular destination that screams "tourist". We blended in.