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Virgil William Westdale Takes One Last Flight at 104
If you’ve ever found yourself looking for someone you’ve never met in a crowded setting, hoping to connect with another pair of eyes that are seemingly on the same quest, I suggest you turn around.
Scouring a hotel lobby in Chicago with fellow Hanashi Oral History Program volunteers Richard Hawkins and Darrell Kunitomi, we were on the lookout for a Hapa (a Hawaiian term indicating someone of mixed Asian heritage, in this case half Japanese) World War II veteran. Turning 180 degrees to realize that we were standing back-to-back is how I first met Virgil William Westdale.
He was…
