A Tribute to Don Miyada

Last summer, I had the honor of meeting Don Miyada of Westminster, CA. Born in 1925, Don passed in April 2023, just one month short of his 98th birthday. Don grew up on a farm overlooking the Pacific Ocean, land now known as Crystal Cove State Park.

His family was one of a few Japanese American families to lease the land from James Irvine in the 1920s. Don attended Newport Harbor High before being forcibly evacuated during WWII because of his Japanese American heritage. While incarcerated at Poston, AZ during WWII, Don left to serve and fight in Europe with the 442nd, while his family was behind barbed wire back in the US. Don survived the war battles as a member of the 442nd, highly decorated and honored for his courage and military role, then returned to earn degrees in chemistry becoming a professor of pathology at UC Irvine.

What I remember most about Don was his kind and gentle spirit, his humble humility and his love of golf! He told me he still drove at 97 and played golf every Tuesday with some of my 60+ year old friends!  

With prayers of comfort to his wife and family and while I didn't know Don long, I will always remember him as a true American hero - fighting for his country even amidst the adversity he and his family faced in the American incarceration camp.

Thank you, Don Miyada, for modeling patriotism and true citizenship.  

For this month's blog, I added the interview I did at the Crystal Cove Conservancy event where I met Don. It'll give you more history on Crystal Cove, Don's young life as a farm boy and a rare interview with Sandra Mendez Duran, younger sister of Sylvia Mendez.

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