Take It To The Limit

A major part of Fong’s independent nature was his ability to cross party lines and (木) 03:05:53url=http://sites.google.com/view/seo-agency-uk-/home work with Democrats.Perhaps part of that was the result of him coming from a state dominated by the Democrats, while his ethnic background also played a role.Through it all, Fong voted with his conscience and did what he thought was best for the state of Hawaii.Later Hawaii politicians of Asian ancestry recognized Fong as a trailblazer to whom they owed a debt of gratitude.After retiring from politics, Fong returned to Hawaii to help run his family business comprising insurance, real estate, and investing.Fong was a devout member of the Congregationalist Church.The couple had four children.During his time in the Senate, Fong served on several committees.Asian Humor with a Touch of CountryOr maybe it’s country humor with a touch of Asian!Well, if you’ve ever heard one of the standup routines of Korean American comedian Henry Cho, you know what I mean.Since Cho made a splash with his unique brand of observational humor in the 1980s, he has carved out a niche in the entertainment for himself as the Asian guy with the southern accent.And he was certainly a sight when he first hit the stage in those early years.But Cho proved he was much more than a gimmick.Today, Cho is one of the top performers on the Christian standup comedy circuit and has appeared in film, television, and commercials, while building a sizable following of loyal fans.Growing up Southern, and KoreanIf you’re familiar with the American South at all, you know that just like the rest of the United States, it has its own unique regional culture.As friendly as Southerners are, they’re often leery of outsiders, especially outsiders who look and sound a little different from the locals.This was the culture Henry Cho was born into in 1962 in Knoxville, Tennessee.Cho’s parents were Korean immigrants, who worked him to give him a good home and as with many Asian immigrants, did what they could so Henry could assimilate and be part of the community.And for the most part, the Cho’s were successful.Henry did well in school, had plenty of friends, and never got into trouble.Young Henry enjoyed Southern cooking like grits and barbeque, was a fan of country music and was and still is a huge fan of college football.But he was regularly reminded of his Korean ancestry.As Cho has pointed out in some of his standup routines, locals often asked him if he knew the Chinese family running the local laundry and was sometimes told to drop by and see various other Asian residents of Knoxville.Cho got along reasonably well with the other kids in his neighborhood, but as he noted in some of his comedy routines, it was clear he was different.Guys, you guys remember playing army as a kid? Cho asked in routine at the Improv in Los Angeles, California.All my buddies would go, okay Henry, it’s the neighborhood against you. He then added that when they played cowboys and Indians, I was always the cook.But instead of dwelling on things, Cho developed a sense of humor about the situation and when combined with his keen insight and intellect, he was able to find humor in his parents’ Korean background, the Southern background of his neighbors and friends, and his own background that shared the two cultures.It was comedians such as those standup guys, who influenced Cho’s clean style.So, Cho grew up immersed in that environment and it became a core part of his belief system and would play a major role in how he did his comedy.While in college, Cho was a leader in the Christian Young Life organization, and as much as his faith was, and still is, important to him, he could still find humor in those who were more risqué in the comedy world.Still, when Cho decided to make the big step by entering an open comedy competition in Knoxville in 1986, he kept things clean.He won the competition, got a contract to tour the region, and the rest, as they say, is history.After Cho arrived in Hollywood, he was under immense pressure to make his act blue by adding some swear words and maybe a couple of lewd stories.But that wasn’t Henry Cho, and thankfully, he received some advice from a pretty successful comedian to keep true to his style.Shortly after I got into comedy, I worked with Jerry Seinfeld.I got the gig since I was the only clean opener within miles, said Cho in a 2013 interview about his decision to keep his act clean.Jerry told me to keep working clean for professional reasons, if you can’t do a joke on television why spend time on it.He was great and took me on the road with him for several gigs.I learned from the best.And being himself truly proved to be the formula for success for Henry Cho.Just let it soak in a second or two cause there’s something wrong with this picture ain’t there? Cho opened one of his early acts at the Improv in Los Angeles wearing cowboy boots and a mullet.The Next Generation, where the native Tennessean appropriately played a South Korean Elvis impersonator.Although Cho’s faith is a major part of his life and career, and he’s even turned down film roles over it, he’s no prude.He admits that one of his favorite comedians is the often raucous Chris Rock.Cho has performed several times at the iconic Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, which puts him into a small group with such music legends as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Elvis Presley, and an even smaller one since he is one of the few Asians to have performed at the historic theater.The couple have three children and are still married and living in Nashville.What’s That Clickin’ Noise?With the advent of the internet, Cho got on board but unfortunately found out that henrycho.com was taken by a Taekwondo master.Henry, on everything else except his site.Told me he used my name to get more hits.And make no mistake about it, these were concentration camps by any definition.Nearly all people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast when Pearl Harbor was attacked were sent to these camps, and although the conditions in them were not as terrible as concentration camps in Germany or earlier in South Africa, they were concentration camps nonetheless.Those of Japanese ancestry, even American citizens, lost all their civil liberties in the name of national security and they were left with the label of being disloyal.This was all covered by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which President Ronald Reagan signed into law.The signing of the act seemed to have righted a wrong that most today see as a dark period of American history.But as with most things, the situation wasn’t always so black and white.Not all Japanese Americans were sent to the internment camps.And as we saw earlier with Wally Yonamine and his family, most of the Japanese in Hawaii were also left alone.But the Japanese in Hawaii didn’t totally avoid suspicion and discrimination during the war.After the Pearl Harbor attack, the predominantly Nisei Hawaii Territorial guard prepared to report to duty but were told their services were no longer needed and to turn in their weapons.So how did the Nisei respond?They responded by forming a volunteer civilian group known as the Varsity Victory Battalion, which helped the American war effort by building roads and military installations.But many of the Nisei, despite what they had been through, still wanted to fight.The Army eventually reformed the predominantly Nisei 298th and 299th Hawaii National Guard battalions and sent them to the mainland, where they became the 100th Infantry Battalion.In addition to the Nisei Hawaiians of the 100th, many of the men of the 442nd came straight from the internment camps.Some joined the 442nd as a legal way to escape the camps, but others joined out of genuine patriotism.The Army wanted to move the Nisei soldiers far from the West Coast and never planned to use them for fighting in the Pacific as the government still questioned their loyalties.The 100th would be trained in the middle of Wisconsin, which is, of course, in the middle of America.Sending the 100th to Fort McCoy, though, was a little ironic, or possibly cynical.For many of the soldiers of the 100th, it was the first they’d seen America outside of Hawaii.Although all of the 100th’s officers were white, often with degrees in psychology to check members for their perceived loyalty, they gave the Nisei soldiers a certain amount of freedom.The Army decided to treat them more or less like the other units, so the 100th formed their own baseball and other sports teams to compete against the white units.Five members of the 100th even rescued some local residents who fell through the ice of a nearby lake.But the Nisei soldiers weren’t there to see dairy farms or internees, they were there to train to make up the bulk of the 442nd Army Regiment.In January 1943, the War Department directed that the 442nd Army Regiment would be comprised of American men of Japanese ancestry.The 100th shipped out to Camp Shelby, Mississippi to join 3,000 more volunteers from Hawaii and another 800 from the mainland to officially make up the 442nd Regiment.But once more the 100th was forced to prove itself.Eisenhower, but he refused to accept them.You see, the military was highly segregated by race at that time, so in addition to Eisenhower not trusting or believing the 100th could fight, their inclusion with white units went against the military policy of the period.But beginning in September 1943, the 100th was engaged in several battles in the fight for Italy, distinguishing itself every time.By the time the 442nd arrived in Europe by the summer of 1944, the 100th was an experienced combat unit that had earned the respect of many of its fellow Americans, and its foes on the other side alike.The Battle of Monte Cassino was Germany’s last major defensive stand in Italy, as around 150,000 German soldiers dug in fortifications that stretched across the central peninsula in what they called the Gustav Line.The assault on the Gustav Line was fierce, and the Allies took a lot of casualties, but the men of the 100th were up to the task, nearly taking several strategic objectives.Because of their efforts at the Battle of Monte Cassino, the 100th earned the nickname the purple heart battalion, and the men developed a genuine esprit de corps.The 100th developed the motto Go for Broke to symbolize all they believed in and how they fought, and wanted to be remembered, on the battlefield.When the rest of the 442nd joined the 100th in Italy in the summer of 1944, they also adopted the slogan as well as the general attitude and style of the veteran combat unit.After fighting in Italy, the 442nd worked its way into southern France where it engaged the Germans in numerous battles, the most Footer&af_web_dp=http://sites.google.com/view/seo-agency-uk-/home famous of which was the rescue of the Lost Battalion.General Dahlquist and the Lost BattalionGeneral John Dahlquist was the type of man any commander would want to keep things in order.Dahlquist commanded the 36th Infantry Division, to which the 442nd was later attached.The Americans were quickly surrounded and within hours 275 soldiers were trapped in a state of siege that lasted nearly a week.Supplies were airdropped to the 1st Battalion, but it was the men of the 442nd who eventually fought their way in and out of the position.The 442nd achieved their goal by bringing the surrounded Americans out of the mountains, but 161 of them were killed.After the big victory of saving the Lost Battalion, there was no time to rest for the 442nd.The America that the men of the 442nd returned to after the war was very different though.In addition to Go for Broke, the 100th’s motto was Remember Pearl Harbor. The official fight song of the 442nd started with the line, Remember Pearl Harbor.Although 21 soldiers of the 442nd earned the coveted Medal of Army for heroic actions during the war, most of them were awarded the medals later in their lives or posthumously.Munemori was a Nisei from Los Angeles who enlisted in the Army before Pearl Harbor.After the 442nd formed, he was one of its first mainland recruits, training with the unit and traveling with them to Italy where he died on April 5, 1945, when he jumped on a live grenade to save two of his comrades.The Cold War was the major conflict in the world at the time, so the Russians became the primary bad guy in American policy, and many Asian peoples, such as the Japanese, were seen as more virtuous in their stand against communism.The 1951 American film Go For Broke!Although all the men of the 442nd were in the same situation of having to fight attitudes at home as well as enemies overseas, they had quite a rivalry among themselves.Not wanting to be outdone, the Hawaiians referred to the mainland Nisei as katonks. The origin of katonk is also unknown, but Hawaiian Nisei said it was the sound their heads made after hitting the floor.All of our heroes and heroines overcame incredible obstacles to reach the top of their professions, whether in sports, entertainment, politics, art, or science.All of these men and women are to be admired for what they’ve done and the role they’ve played in uplifting their respective communities and by proving that they too are Americans who are more than capable of contributing to the American experience.