What should you do with a family heirloom that does not belong to your own family? Kevin Chroust decides that the answer is to give it back. Determined to reunite a Japanese sword his grandfather took home after World War II with its original owner, Chroust begins a quest to track down the Japanese family it came from. Starting with internet searches during the pandemic and ending with a momentous trip to Japan it’s a fascinating journey.
When Benny came home, he picked up the sword at his parents’ farm and moved with it to an apartment before he built the home I’d come to know. There it occasionally emerged from my grandparents’ basement and into the kitchen, with too many of us gathered around their three-seat table. Benny was modest and quiet while my grandma and elder brother, Erik, nudged him toward the memories. If he complied, Benny began by saying how easy he’d had it compared with front-line infantry.
We were left with an image of him finding the sword. We didn’t consider a next step. When the stories of our grandfather as a younger man were over, the silent blade went back into the cool basement on Louis Street. He didn’t display it. It wasn’t a trophy. Eventually he stopped telling people about it. He’d grown tired of answering the same irritating question: Did you kill him?
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