While news of the current war dominates televisions and newspapers, Julie Onitsuka, 13, hangs on every word from a man who has lived through many battles.
Onitsuka, a youth producer for Stories of Service, is busy chronicling and preserving memories of WWII through veterans like Mike Salome. Started by the Digital Clubhouse Network in 1998, Stories of Service teams a veteran, youth producer and adult volunteer to create three to six minute digital films.
At a time when WWII vets are dying at a rate of 1,800 per day, Onitsuka's work is part of a larger, nationwide trend to remember the war before its forgotten.
This weekend Onitsuka -- along with Salome, 50 others from the Silicon Valley and 15 youth delegates -- will watch the unveiling of the first WWII memorial in Washington D.C.
Stories of Service organizers hope that bringing together vets and youth to memorialize the past will cultivate intergenerational relationships that will breed compassion for elders, veterans of war and a better understanding of history.
"We're concerned that the stories that are the most vulnerable, the most in danger of being lost, are the ones in Mike [Salome's] generation," Stories of Service Director Warren Hegg said.
Salome agreed.
"They don't teach you nothin' in school today about World War II," Salome said, discussing the project. Through the project "people can understand what we did, what we did it for, and what the story was," he added.
Onitsuka began working with Stories of Service in December 2002. Onitsuka, the youngest youth producer, has since worked with veterans at the Palo Alto VA nursing home in Menlo Park to create two films. She is currently working with Salome to finish her third.
"It's like a book," she said. "You open it and they tell you a lot about what they did and why."
Onitsuka has heard tales of fear and strength. Salome, who was detained in a German prison camp for nine months, has made an impression on Onitsuka. The men both in front and behind Salome were shot, yet somehow he escaped.
Onitsuka, who admits she used to hate history class, has developed a new appreciation for the past through her work.
"There are things vets won't tell their spouses or children, but will tell us kids," said Onitsuka, who offers an opportunity for vets to discuss such personal matters as nightmares, depression and flashbacks as well as the happier moments. And for this, veterans are grateful.
"The vets here in the hospital really appreciate what they're doing," Salome said. "They get their life story on a disk, the whole sha-bang all the way."
Onitsuka spends hours on her documentaries. Challenges she faces include the artist's dilemma of what to include, and occasionally the high-tech frustration of a malfunctioning program.
"We're grooming her to be an executive producer," Hegg said, explaining that Onitsuka would then supervise and train other youth producers.
When the documentaries are completed they are sent to the Library of Congress. Onitsuka will visit the Library and the Smithsonian on her trip to D.C.
Onitsuka, who intends on being a nutritionist, is also involved in several other community service programs. She has worked with the anti-tobacco Don't Start program and the African-American history project Digital Griot. But her concentration has remained steadily on Stories of Service.
"When I come here, it's fun," Otinsuka said about working with the vets. "It's not homework. I get to talk to people."
Intern Jaime Marconette can be reached at jmarconette@paweekly.com
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