• Kristen Hiyashi embarked on a personal journey that lead to a PHD and a career at the Japanese American National Museum. As a curator, she collects and preserves the relics, stories and histories of Japanese-Americans. Her own family history leaves broad strokes in her work and as we find in this episode, that history is marked by relocation, incarceration, sacrifice and war.

  • Eighty years earlier, Kristen's Great Uncle, Henry Kondo, walked the same route, but the conditions then were bitter and the enemy was everywhere. We follow her on her travels as she meets local historian Gerome Villain and crosses paths with fellow Nisei descendant Kevin Kuroda with whom she shares a surprising connection, bound by a legacy of sacrifice.

  • Speaking directly from the collection room in the Japanese American National Museum, Kristen shares letters between her Great Uncle Henry Kondo and his parents who had been relocated to Gila River. We learn about life and concerns of this Nisei solder, as he prepared for war at camp Shelby, and later as he brought hope to his family from the front lines. We're given insight into the bright young mind of this compassionate and brave soldier on a Mother's Day in 1944.

  • While in France, Kristen discovers that the memory of the 100th/442nd Nisei soldiers has been kept alive by the diligent and thankful townspeople of Bruyeres, France. From immaculately restored vehicles to historically accurate uniforms, these re-enactors express their gratitude in a creative an festive way.

  • As the story continues to ripple outward, a chance meeting between two researchers uncovers a stunning connection—two fallen heroes, laid to rest side by side, their families now brought together by fate.

Henry Kondo

Kristen Hiyashi

The incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII left a deep rift in this country—one softened, but not healed, by the quiet patriotism of those who served despite being betrayed by their government. Their stories were often left untold, their sacrifices undocumented.

While in college, Kristin Hayashi listened as a professor spoke about a Nisei soldier who had died in Europe while his family was imprisoned back home. That soldier, she soon realized, was her great uncle—Henry Kondo of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

That moment sparked years of study, leading to a Ph.D. and a career at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), where Kristin now serves as Collections Manager. But in 2024, on the 80th anniversary of her great uncle's death in the Vosges Mountains of France, Kristin set out on a different kind of research trip—one not bound by books, photographs, or letters.

Join us on a powerful journey from the archives of JANM to the mist-covered forests of France, where Kristin retraces the footsteps of her great uncle. Guided by a local historian, she visits the very foxholes and wooded ridges where Nisei soldiers fought and fell—bringing the past to life in ways no document ever could.

The Story Boldly Legacy Project is being funded, in part, by a grant from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program.