Forgiveness (Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month)

This is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and as I think about my many friends whose ancestors called Asian and Pacific nations home, I'm reminded of my love for them.  This month also reminds me how grateful I am to live in a country whose people forgive and help even those who sought to oppress and destroy us.  

In WWII when the Japanese Empire attacked the United States and many of its Asian neighbors and imprisoned, mistreated, enslaved, tortured, and killed millions, the U.S. and its allies sent many from the Greatest Generation to defeat Japan and restore freedom to Japan's Asian neighbors and even to the Japanese people themselves.  Hundreds of thousands of America's youth never got to live the lives they had imagined but gave them up for their brothers and sisters around Asia and the Pacific.

After victory, the U.S. helped to rebuild Japan and its economy, gave the Japanese their freedom, and even defended Japan from other military aggressors.  A few generations later, Americans look at Japan with a kinship and fondness that could only come from forgiveness.

That's what Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month reminds me of.