The sword my great-grandfather (Kenneth Lisk) passed down to my father(Jason Lisk) is a Shin Guntō, a Japanese officer’s blade from World War II. Its presence in our family is a mystery—no one knows exactly how he acquired it—but we do know he fought as an American soldier in the Battle of Saipan, one of the fiercest campaigns in the Pacific. The Shin Guntō, with its elegant yet utilitarian design, symbolizes a complex history: a relic of an enemy officer, now a treasured heirloom. For us, it represents not only the brutal realities of war but also the enduring stories that survive through generations, even when the details remain shrouded in uncertainty.

– HL

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