When Katsuji and Kinu sent their firstborn youngsters five thousand miles from American shores to be immersed in all things Japanese, they were thinking ahead. Nor were they alone. In 1929, almost four thousand nisei Japanese Americans attended elementary and middle schools in Hiroshima prefecture. So common was the practice that the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Japan Mail shipping line printed farewell postcards with steamship photographs for passengers to fill in their departures. Unlike a daily trek to school, the two-week-long Pacific commute involved homestays with relatives that stretched
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