“Basically, over the years, this has become Grandpa’s story.”

Alyssa Nilemo’s mother Donna Inouye steps me through their family tree. Alyssa has ancestors from Japan who settled in Colorado over a century ago, and tracing the threads that weave through California, rural Colorado, and Downtown Denver, I learn about the multiplicity of the Japanese American experience within Alyssa’s family history. Herb Inouye, who experienced the caravan journey in 1942, became a cornerstone of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist community and a force that shaped Alyssa’s kindness worldview.