In this year’s Rose Parade, the float “Let Your Life Soar” celebrated the traditions of the Children’s Day festival in Japan, in addition to paying tribute to organ and tissue donors.
Nisei internment survivor and tissue donor Yasushi Iseda is remembered in this year’s Rose Parade.
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU STAFF WRITER
Among Yasushi Iseda’s loves was fly fishing, a passion he shared with his daughter and others.
Before the fires, before the politics and calamities, there was a day of celebration in Pasadena.
Among the majestic floats and marching bands in the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena on Jan. 1 was a colorful tribute to dozens who gave the gift of life.
“Let Your Life Soar” harnessed the traditions of the Children’s Day festival in Japan, including koi nobori– carp-shaped streamers – decorated with floral portraits of family and neighbors who are posthumously remembered for their donations of organs and tissue.
“At first, I was a little shy about the idea, but then I thought, ‘No, he has a wonderful story to tell,’ and you know, it’s such a unique opportunity, I would say it’s once in a lifetime,” said Anissa Iseda, whose father, Yasushi, was one of the donors whose faces appeared on the float.
“He would say this is great. The float is so fitting to his heritage, and I love it. They’ve done a beautiful job with that float. And the fact that he was an avid fly fisherman, and he’s sitting up there like a scale on a fish.”
Sponsored by the organ donation advocacy group One Legacy, “Let Your Life Soar” also included living recipients of organs and tissue, either riding or walking alongside the float.
Anissa Iseda shows the floralgraph portrait of her father that later became part of the One Legacy parade float.
Born in Riverside, Yasushi Iseda was the youngest of eight children. When the 1942 roundup of those of Japanese heritage got under way following the attack on Pearl Harbor, his family was forcibly removed from their home and eventually landed at the concentration camp in Poston, Ariz.
After the war, Iseda went on to play football and earn a bachelor’s degree from Long Beach State, before becoming a teacher in Gardena. Soon thereafter, he bought a home in Seal Beach and settled down to start a family.
“He had to really work hard, a couple jobs here and there, to get everything that he built up for us. We had a great life,” Anissa said.
“He had a ton of hobbies and he was a big fly fisherman. That’s something he’s passed on to me. We would go out fishing together, and now I’m an avid fly fisher. I love it. I’ve used it as a healing mechanism to get through his passing.”
After his death at age 80 in 2021, it is believed some of his donated tissue has been life-changing for one or more recipients, although Anissa doesn’t have exact details.
“He lived a full, wonderful life,” she said. “He traveled to a lot of different countries, saw a lot of different things. He was a generous, kind man with a ton of friends.”