A Hero Lived Quietly Across the Street. Little Did I Know He Helped Save the World.

Enoch H. Kanaya was my sun-seeking neighbor who plucked red, ripe tomatoes off the vine in his sunny garden on our tree-lined streets in Chicago. He and his family—his wife, Carolyn, and their four daughters—moved into their modest brick home across the street from our family in the late 1960s.

One of those daughters, Barbara, was a petite, vivacious child with a quick laugh who played bongo drums and loved to sing. She was limber enough to do “the splits” after a few deep stretches, and she easily fit into our existing all-girl friend group.

We thrived on silly conversations, sleepovers, and pranks, and like most children, we did not consider parents three-dimensional beings. We took up the proscenium stage; parents hid behind the curtains.

I was too distracted and self-involved to recognize that Mr. Kanaya—who tended to ripe garden tomatoes on humid summer days or tinkered with electronic equipment as we raced in and out of rattling screen doors—was a hero living quietly across the street.


https://thewarhorse.org/japanese-american-wwii-veteran-enoch-kanaya-was-a-quiet-hero/