02-21-2015, 05:43 AM
Did you know Nichijo? Free Book.
My name is John Oliver. I lived on The Big Island from about 1974 through 1986. I picked up Nichijo hitch hiking one day in Puna. I got interested in his story, and we spent most of a year working to make a book of it. We copyrighted what we had written in 1986, and we were seeking a publisher, when he got cold feet. Years before in Honolulu, when his story was featured in the newspaper, all the accusations of the past came out. It had caused him a lot of anguish, which he couldn’t face again. We decided to work on a re-write that would be published after his death. I moved to California 1986. He passed away in 2001.
Last fall I completed the rewrite of his biography, and I ended up with a number of proof copies with too many typos to sell to the public. But for the minor annoyance of these typos, the complete story is told. I'm hoping to get these copies into the hands of people that have some connection with this Big Island Character, Reverend Nichijo Shaka, born John David Provoo. The book will be of interest to Hawaii residents on many levels, and I encourage the curious, wherever they are, to take me up on this.
Here's his story: In 1940, he was a young American Buddhist studying at an ancient monastery in Japan. He was being urged by the U.S. Embassy to return home, as war seemed inevitable. In 1941, he enlisted in the US Army in San Francisco, and was soon stationed in the Philippines. Within six months of the December 7, 1941 outbreak of war, he was captured along with thousands of others on the island fortress of Corregidor, in the mouth of Manila Bay.
In the early months after capture, the Japanese used him as an interpreter, a role that created suspicion in the minds of some that he had become a collaborator. After years of privations in POW camps in Taiwan, he was moved to Bunka Camp in downtown Tokyo, and forced to make propaganda broadcasts with others, including Iva Toguri, from Radio Tokyo, until the end of the war.
In the post war years, he was continually harassed by the FBI throughout a second Army enlistment. In 1949, he was discharged, taken immediately into federal custody and charged with treason for events on Corregidor and taking part in radio programs. His trial was foreshadowed by the conviction of Iva Toguri, cast by the government as the non-existent "Tokyo Rose". Among the prosecution's dirty tricks, were the awkward attempts to introduce his homosexuality into the record, to influence the jury with that irrelevant fact.
This book is his personal account of the events that led up to his prosecution and his final return to the training for the Buddhist priesthood. In the late 1960's, as a Bishop of the Nichiren sect, he moved to the Oahu and finally the Big Island where he lived until his death in 2001. Many people knew him but never heard his backstory.
I have lived in Northern California for the last 25 years, I have a number of proof copies in Hilo that I can't sell to the public because of the typos, so I have been sending a copy free to anyone who has a hunch that it will be meaningful to them.
Just e-mail me your mailing address, and I will send you one.
I'm happy to have found Punaweb. I think it will be a better way to reach the people I'm looking for. I have been running Craigslist ads for the last month. The feedback has been a daily joy for me. Among the responses I received were 12 people who knew Nichijo personally, so far. They are beginning to share their own stories with myself and another researcher. The anecdotes range from the reverent to the bizarre; if you knew him, you would expect that. I still have free books available, but I expect to run out in a few more weeks.
So if you knew Nichijo or ever heard about him, I still have some free books stashed in Hilo, waiting to be mailed out.
Aloha,
John O.
My name is John Oliver. I lived on The Big Island from about 1974 through 1986. I picked up Nichijo hitch hiking one day in Puna. I got interested in his story, and we spent most of a year working to make a book of it. We copyrighted what we had written in 1986, and we were seeking a publisher, when he got cold feet. Years before in Honolulu, when his story was featured in the newspaper, all the accusations of the past came out. It had caused him a lot of anguish, which he couldn’t face again. We decided to work on a re-write that would be published after his death. I moved to California 1986. He passed away in 2001.
Last fall I completed the rewrite of his biography, and I ended up with a number of proof copies with too many typos to sell to the public. But for the minor annoyance of these typos, the complete story is told. I'm hoping to get these copies into the hands of people that have some connection with this Big Island Character, Reverend Nichijo Shaka, born John David Provoo. The book will be of interest to Hawaii residents on many levels, and I encourage the curious, wherever they are, to take me up on this.
Here's his story: In 1940, he was a young American Buddhist studying at an ancient monastery in Japan. He was being urged by the U.S. Embassy to return home, as war seemed inevitable. In 1941, he enlisted in the US Army in San Francisco, and was soon stationed in the Philippines. Within six months of the December 7, 1941 outbreak of war, he was captured along with thousands of others on the island fortress of Corregidor, in the mouth of Manila Bay.
In the early months after capture, the Japanese used him as an interpreter, a role that created suspicion in the minds of some that he had become a collaborator. After years of privations in POW camps in Taiwan, he was moved to Bunka Camp in downtown Tokyo, and forced to make propaganda broadcasts with others, including Iva Toguri, from Radio Tokyo, until the end of the war.
In the post war years, he was continually harassed by the FBI throughout a second Army enlistment. In 1949, he was discharged, taken immediately into federal custody and charged with treason for events on Corregidor and taking part in radio programs. His trial was foreshadowed by the conviction of Iva Toguri, cast by the government as the non-existent "Tokyo Rose". Among the prosecution's dirty tricks, were the awkward attempts to introduce his homosexuality into the record, to influence the jury with that irrelevant fact.
This book is his personal account of the events that led up to his prosecution and his final return to the training for the Buddhist priesthood. In the late 1960's, as a Bishop of the Nichiren sect, he moved to the Oahu and finally the Big Island where he lived until his death in 2001. Many people knew him but never heard his backstory.
I have lived in Northern California for the last 25 years, I have a number of proof copies in Hilo that I can't sell to the public because of the typos, so I have been sending a copy free to anyone who has a hunch that it will be meaningful to them.
Just e-mail me your mailing address, and I will send you one.
I'm happy to have found Punaweb. I think it will be a better way to reach the people I'm looking for. I have been running Craigslist ads for the last month. The feedback has been a daily joy for me. Among the responses I received were 12 people who knew Nichijo personally, so far. They are beginning to share their own stories with myself and another researcher. The anecdotes range from the reverent to the bizarre; if you knew him, you would expect that. I still have free books available, but I expect to run out in a few more weeks.
So if you knew Nichijo or ever heard about him, I still have some free books stashed in Hilo, waiting to be mailed out.
Aloha,
John O.
John Oliver