Upon graduating from high school in 1945, Yonamine was drafted into the Army.But then the war in Europe ended and then Japan surrendered.So, I spent two years at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, peeling potatoes and playing football and baseball.For Yonamine, the war was much easier than it could have been in more than one way.First, since his family lived in Hawaii, they avoided the internment camps the Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the West Coast had to endure.Second, he was able to work on his athletic skills, which earned him the attention of the San Francisco 49ers.But it wasn’t meant to be.After a lackluster season and a serious injury to his wrist, Yonamine was released by the 49ers.Yonamine, though, had learnt from his parents the very Japanese ethic of always looking ahead and never complaining, so he began working on his baseball skills.He then contacted a minor league baseball manager named Lefty O’Doul who got him a minor league contract.Yonamine was an excellent defensive player and a good hitter for average, but there was one important thing missing in his game.By 1950 I was hitting .335 and playing center field pretty well.4 hitter in the league.But I wasn’t hitting home runs, and I knew that would keep me out of the majors, said Yonamine about his minor league career.So, O’Doul suggested Yonamine should try his hand in Japan.After all, Yonamine was Japanese so the transition should be easy, or so he thought.Not a Warm WelcomeWhen Wally Yonamine arrived in Tokyo in 1951 to play for the Yomiuri Giants, Japan’s oldest professional baseball team, he was treated well by the owners and management, with indifference from the other players, and with outright hostility by the fans.Some people have compared Yonamine’s foray into Japanese professional baseball with that of Jackie Robinson in the Majors, but Yonamine himself was quick to point out that although the situations did have similarities, Robinson’s was much more intense, to say the least.You can call me the Jackie Robinson of Japanese baseball only in the sense that I was a pioneer, the first American, but not really in the sense of the kind of discrimination that Robinson put up with, Yonamine said.I mean, at first the fans over here threw stuff at me and yelled at me, but I never had to deal with anything like Robinson did.The first couple of years in Japan were tough for Yonamine.He constantly found himself starving for hamburgers and hotdogs.Even if you could have found a restaurant with American food in 1950s Tokyo, Yonamine would have had a difficult time asking directions because his Japanese was quite limited.And focus he did, hitting .311 over a course of 12 years with two different teams.After his playing career was over, Yonamine went on to manage for 20 years.But Wally Yonamine was a modest person who would never admit publicly that he was a barrier breaker.Before Yonamine came to Japan, stealing bases was a rarity.Yonamine was taught how to play tough and slide through an infielder, if need be, which was a taboo in Japan in the 1950s.Well, the first few times I did that over here, people were shocked.It was something that just wasn’t done.It was unsportsmanlike, Yonamine said.Yonamine’s rough base running was another factor in the Japanese fans’ initial dislike of Yonamine, although they did come around.Wally Yonamine’s rough American style of play gradually caught on in Japan and later Korea, but most important was the healing of the two nations he represented.Yonamine just wanted to play ball and was never political, yet his quest led two nations once at war just a little closer together.The couple had two daughters, Wallis and Amy.Yonamine was a lefty who stood 5’9, which wasn’t particularly short for baseball players in the 1950s.After playing for the Giants for ten years, Yonamine spent his last two years playing for the Chunichi Dragons.He retired as a player after the 1962 season.In 1964, relief pitcher Mansanori Murakami was the first Japanese player to play in a Major League game, but it wouldn’t be until the late 1990s that a wave of Japanese players made it to the Majors.After retiring from managing in 1977, Yonamine and his wife opened a pearl store in Tokyo.Their two daughters ran an office of the company on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, California.But before anyone knew who Chuck Norris was, Bruce Lee was the world’s first true martial arts action hero.Well, for most of us they are impossible, but for Lee challenging the impossible is just what he did.Lee then called his new form of mixed martial arts Jeet Kune Do, which he would teach to those of any ethnic background, as long as they had the discipline to handle the training.Lee began acting in television and film, where he was able to showcase his abilities to a much larger audience.Some think Bruce Lee died from a curse, while others think he simply overtrained.Lee proved that Asian males could be action stars, and he played a crucial role in making martial arts films popular in the United States.Maybe even more important, though, was Lee’s legacy in combat sports.Before Lee, martial arts styles rarely mixed and the term mixed martial arts was unheard of.East Meets WestBruce Lee was a man whose mind, body, and soul were always partially in the Eastern world and partially in the West.Lee’s mother was of partial European heritage, though, which tied him to the West but also proved to be a wedge between him and some of the more traditional Chinese people, especially when it came to martial arts.When Bruce was just a child his parents moved back to Hong Kong, leaving his two older sisters and an older brother in the United States.Lee maintained contact with his siblings off and on throughout his short life despite often being separated by thousands of miles.For young Bruce, growing up in British Hong Kong had its ups and downs but was definitely interesting.Bruce began his entertainment career as a child actor in Hong Kong, but martial arts was what really interested him.Lee constantly got into fights with other boys on the streets of Hong Kong, sometimes due to his mixed heritage, so to hone his fighting skills, he learned as many styles as he could.But learning Wing Chun wasn’t easy for Lee.But the Chinese styles were as closed to outsiders as most of their society was.By the 1950s, mainland China was under communist rule and closed to most of the world, while Hong Kong was a place where secret societies known as Triads ruled the streets.Owing to Lee’s persistence and genuine interest in the style, Wing Chun master Yip Man eventually relented and taught Bruce Lee the closely held secret of Wing Chun.Jeet Kune Do was based on realistic street fighting techniques Lee used on the streets of Hong Kong that stressed the ability to adapt to the situation.There is no mystery about my style.The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity.Every movement in Jeet Kune Do is being so of itself.There is nothing artificial about it.I always believe that the easy way is the right way.Jeet Kune Do is simply the direct expression of one’s feelings with the minimum of movements and energy.Lee described the movements in Jeet Kune Do as being like an overflowing cup of water, casting off what was useless.So, when Lee’s parents sent him to live with his older sister Agnes in San Francisco in 1959, he was ready to bring his new style to America.Rise to FameLee spent some time in San Francisco before moving north to Seattle, which he made one of his many homes throughout the world.He married a local woman and had two children as he continued to develop and teach his unique style to Americans.He also traveled quite a bit doing demonstrations of how effective his style could be for anyone of any size.Lee’s big debut on the martial arts scene was at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships in Long Beach, California.Contrary to what many people think, Lee didn’t compete in official martial arts tournaments or matches.He did fight a number of street fights and unsanctioned matches, but his involvement in officially sanctioned martial arts competitions consisted of him demonstrating his amazing physical prowess.At 5’8 and 141 pounds, Lee has a very shredded lean yet muscular physique.In addition to the time that he spent perfecting his unique style, he also spent a lot of time doing strength and cardiovascular training.The winner of the match will probably never be known because both men and their supporters later claimed victory.But by that time Hollywood heard of Lee.In 1966, Lee was cast as Kato, the Green Hornet’s martial arts expert driver, in the superhero television show The Green Hornet.Although the show was only on for one season, it raised Lee’s profile.The Green Hornet was truly a first in many ways, as it was one of the first shows on American television to highlight martial arts and it was one of the earliest depictions of an Asian male in a tough guy role.But The Green Hornet was only the beginning of what should have been a long and fruitful career.The Curse of Bruce Lee?After he finished filming Enter the Dragon, Lee spent most of his time in his Hong Kong home.While spending time with friends in Hong Kong on July 20, 1973, Lee began having headaches, so his friend Betty Ting give him a pill that contained aspirin and a tranquilizer.Because Lee’s death was so mysterious, it immediately led to speculation and even conspiracy theories.Some said Lee died from using cortisone, while others thought his death was the result of heatstroke from overwork.Still, others believe the explanation is not of this world.There are generally three versions of the Lee family curse that have circulated throughout the decades since Bruce’s death.The first is that Bruce’s father upset some influential people in Hong Kong who then brought down a generational curse on the family.Another is that after he died, Bruce’s father was buried next to a child, which is a taboo in Chinese culture that can adversely affect multiple generations of a family.Ironically, and eerily, Bruce’s son Brandon died before his best film, The Crow, was released.Lee was buried in the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.Brandon Lee was later buried next to his father, with the graves becoming tourist attractions.Despite being Chinese and considered a role model by Chinese people all over the world, Bruce Lee’s films were banned in China for many years.Lee followed a strict diet that eschewed most processed foods, refined sugars, and bread.A Recipe for Success Despite AdversityHeroes and heroines of any background usually have to go through some pretty significant challenges in their lives before realizing their full potential and becoming important people.Yes, true heroes and heroines are unique because they can overcome obstacles, no matter if they are social, political, or even physical.Most people can’t imagine what it would be like to rapidly lose your sight as a teenager.Once the initial shock of your new reality wears off, you’d have to pretty much relearn how to do even the most mundane tasks in life.Many people would just give up while others would struggle to accept that life would never be what they expected.But for Christine Ma, it proved to be a challenge for her to overcome.After Ma was diagnosed with the rare condition neuromyelitis optica, which quickly reduced her sight from 20/20 to just being able to see objects as blurs, she devoted all her time to perfecting her passion for cooking.Ha began working as a chef, which eventually led her to apply to be a contestant on the hit show MasterChef with the notorious, obstreperous celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay.Defying the odds, Ma won the third season of the show in 2012 and never looked back.Seeing Things DifferentlyLife began easy enough for Christine Ha, if not a bit more interesting than the average American.The Ha family eventually relocated to Houston, Texas, where Christine was given considerable attention as an only child, although she was never spoiled.Her parents were truly a positive force in Christine’s early life, which made her mother’s death all that much tougher to deal with.Christine was only 14 when her mother died of lung cancer.Losing a parent at such an age is probably the toughest time since it is a formative period in your life.But Christine used the experience to reflect on her life, get closer with her family, and move toward her goals.When Ha was diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica in 2004, the prognosis was not good.It’s a rare disease where the optic nerves and the Footer&af_web_dp=http://loudlyandclearly.blogspot.com spinal cord become inflamed, resulting in varying levels of blindness.By 2007, she could only make out blurry images.Of all the senses, most people consider vision to be the most important.We use our sight constantly, often unconsciously, which meant that Ma had a lot of adjustments to make, especially since she was embarking on a career as a chef!Although you think of cooking as involving primarily taste and smell, you still need to see the portions, right?You also need to actually see what you’re cooking, right?To overcome the challenge, Ha learned to rely more on her other senses.I use a lot of my Wars - tic tac too flash game. sense of touch, smell, taste and sound, Ha says.My sense of taste has become more nuanced because I have one less sense to depend on.Ha also took the disability in stride, adopting the nickname The Blind Cook as part of her personal branding mission.And by 2012, all of her hard work and persistence finally paid off when she won season three of MasterChef.Perhaps what has endeared Christine Ha to so many people around the world is her easygoing attitude and pleasant nature that seems so natural.Many people would’ve reacted with bitterness over her circumstances, but for Christine Ha, it was just another bump in the long road of life.Ha opened her own restaurant in 2018 in Houston, Texas called The Blind Goat. The word blind refers to her disability, while the goat is her Vietnamese zodiac sign.Food has become more important to me.Traveling to me is not about sightseeing, obviously, Ha says.In order to learn about another culture, I really need to eat their food, find out what the locals eat and eat the same thing.That’s how I sightsee, she said.Although Ha says that her mother was a great cook, she never took the time to learn from her before she died.Connecting AmericaToday, there are more than 20 million Americans of Asian ancestry from more than 20 different countries, but the largest and most established of those are Chinese Americans.By the late 1800s, Chinatown neighborhoods could be found in most major West Coast cities, and they became gathering points not just for the Chinese but for later waves of immigrants from all over the Asian continent.The establishment of the Chinese American community wasn’t easy, though.Like their American counterparts, the first Chinese immigrants in the West had to battle against the elements, occasional Indian attacks, and more frequently the hazards of dangerous work.Still, even with all those barriers, the first Chinese immigrants in America made significant contributions to the development of the nation’s infrastructure.After the discovery of gold in California brought tens of thousands of settlers to the new territory, it eventually became a state that was essentially an island separated from the rest of the country by what seemed to be an endless stretch of mountains, deserts, and plains.Wagon trains weren’t going to efficiently connect the East to California and ships had to go all the way around the southern tip of South America.So, the government and the railroad barons embarked on a great quest to connect the country via a transcontinental railroad.When the golden spike was laid in Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, that connected the Central Pacific (木) 02:59:33url=http://loudlyandclearly.blogspot.com Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, more than 10,000 Chinese workers were among those who contributed to the achievement.Today, most of these men aren’t known by name, but there is no doubt that they were all very important.Gold and ChinaIn 1849, China was an exotic country that few Americans knew about.It was halfway around the world, but it may have been on another world as far as most Americans were concerned.The Americans hadn’t invited the Chinese and the Chinese government at the time generally prohibited its people from leaving.But rules are meant to be broken, right?By the 1800s, the Qing rulers exerted little control outside of Beijing and a few other major cities, so adventurous Chinese men were beginning to take their chances more and more to work in Singapore, Malaysia, and even the United States.By 1851, more than 25,000 Chinese men joined tens of thousands of European immigrants and Americans in the new state of California panning and mining for gold.Needless to say, things weren’t always easy for the Chinese miners.They obviously looked different physically from the vast majority of the other miners in California, but they also dressed and spoke differently.Few Chinese people knew English at the time and most wore their traditional clothing.
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