At 16, Don Miyada was wrenched from his family’s farm near Laguna Beach and sent to a prison camp in Arizona.
Two years later, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, ready to give his life for the country that stole his home.
Now, Miyada and the 30,000 or so other Japanese Americans who served in World War II are being honored with a postage stamp.
On the stamp, a soldier stands in uniform and helmet with a serious expression on his face, the motto “Go For Broke” emblazoned vertically.
The image is taken from a 1944 photo of U.S. Army Pfc. Shiroku “Whitey” Yamamoto of Hawaii, a member of the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team whose heroics in Europe earned them thousands of Purple Hearts, awarded to soldiers wounded in combat.
