
The Crooked Mirror l Louise Steinman’s Blog
Journeys within and beyond
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Swans in the Morning: My Japanese Translator
April 15, 2025
I was lucky to be paired with a wonderful Japanese translator, Masako Hayakwa, on a trip to Japan in 1995, when I was on my quest to return a Japanese flag to the family of a Japanese soldier.

"Happiness is Bullshit" Celebration of the Life of Judge Harry Pregerson
When asked once what guided his decisions, Judge Pregerson explained: “My conscience is a product of the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights, the Boy Scout Oath and the Marine Corps Hymn. If I had to follow my conscience or the law, I would follow my conscience.”

A Return (Chatham Cemetery, August 2016)
Usually when we walk, we’re the only ones there. A few days ago, we encountered a rare invasion: pick-ups parked along the gravel drive; young men with weed whackers cleaning around graves. What had summoned so many volunteers on a hot afternoon? A friendly matron collecting litter filled us in: a WW2 soldier was soon to return home. She pointed to a grave bedecked with small American flags where the remains of PFC George Traver, a Marine born in Chatham in 1918, will soon be re-interred from a mass grass on Tarawa, a coral atoll in the Pacific. Travers died there in November 1943, along with a thousand other Marines and some 4500 Japanese (most of whom fought to their dea