Jack Rose was my Uncle through marriage – his wife Shirley was my Aunt. He taught me a few things in life, to juggle 3 balls, use chopsticks and to appreciate Japanese cuisine long before it was fashionable especially out here on the east coast. Distance made it difficult to not only become close to either my aunt or to Jack but to understand him as a person. I guess it’s just one of those things that you can’t appreciate until it’s too late. His wartime experience was to me quite important and to put it into context his brother in law, my Uncle Gideon, Shirleys brother was shot down and killed in the European theater.

I will stop rambling at this point and use this moment to illustrate Jacks character regarding his past wartime experiences and how he managed to deal successfully with them. I was married in August of 2002 and was fortunate enough to have many members of my family in attendance including Jack. Also paying us tribute was my wife’s Uncle through marriage Ikuo Matsui a Japanese American who met my wife’s Aunt while she was traveling in Japan in the 70′s. Now Jack’s mind at this point was drifting a bit at this point and at a party for all the out of town guests it didn’t take long for Jack to single out Ikuo and make his way over to him. He immediately struck up a conversation with him in Japanese which as my sister related to me later, came as quite a surprise to Ikuo because we assumed he know through experience that very few westerners let alone older ones speak his language!

When Ikuo mentioned to my sister that he had had a very nice conversatin with Jack in his mother tongue he asked her where Jack had learned his Japanese! My sisters response was simply “courtesy of the Emperor of Japan!” I never did bring this up with Ikuo and we see each other about once a year!

I will leave it at that – I wish I had know him better he was a pretty good egg!

Respectfully

Jordan Davidson
Moncton NB.