20 years ago

Twenty-seven swim clubs from around the state descended upon Homer last weekend. The 600 people brought a brief, but concentrated, boon to the Homer economy, earned a slew of ribbons and awards and left happy and tired with a pile of wet towels. When it was over, two local swimmers had broken club records, the home team had earned sixth place finishes in both boys and girls competitions, and the majority of the Kachemak Swim Club members who competed in the event had new personal best times to brag about. In all, more than 300 swimmers vied against the clock and each other in the 2003 Alaska Age Group Championships.

— From the issue of Dec. 11, 2003

30 years ago

Fifty-two years ago this week, Americans everywhere were galvanized by the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese fighter planes. It was a traumatic time, but few Americans were affected as significantly as this country’s Japanese-American citizens. Everyone with a Japanese surname became instantly suspect, born in this country or not. Within weeks some 110,000 Japanese from major coastal areas on the mainland had been rounded up and shipped to internment camps in the interior. Those born in the United States, the Nisei, were not spared, making it all the more remarkable when thousands of them volunteered to serve in this country’s first all-Japanese unit. They fought so bravely that the unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, became the most decorated unit in the history of the United States. Homer’s Henry “Hank” Nakada brought home three purple hearts.

— From the issue of Dec. 9, 1993