Kiyoshi's Smile

I am not sure, now, where I got this picture, or whether I was the photographer. I hope you are dating and labeling your photographs better than I have done. What I do know is that this is the wonderful smile of the co-founder of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Kiyoshi Tokutomi. His life story is better than most movies: born in the USA, he was sent to Japan at a young age to be educated, as his brothers had been before him. Much later, with the war impending, he had his ticket to return to the USA. After Pearl Harbor, the boat did not sail. Kiyoshi had to remain in Japan during the war and became a teacher. He boarded with a local family and contracted tuberculosis there. This eventually resulted in his loss of one lung (and the strength and usefulness of his arm) and total deafness caused by a newer medication whose correct dosage was not  established where he was treated. 

But look at that smile! 

to the other side

I try to toss a pebble

spring melancholy

Kiyoshi Tokutomi

This haiku is cited as inspirational by Clark Strand in his book

Seeds from a Birch Tree

A translated diary Kiyoshi kept is available from 

Amazon, and so is a volume of the letters exchanged by Kiyoshi and Kiyoko, after the war--and after they were married and she had emigrated to the USA--but he had returned to Japan for more experimental treatment, which he hoped would restore his hearing.

youngleaves.org

is the website of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society