Double Double, Protein Style, Animal Style with a Strawberry Shake and Chips by Wyatt Conlon

When Wyatt’s grandfather passed away, he discovered a trove of photographs that documented the entirety of his life. Born in Hiroshima, Shoichi Yoshida grew up in Maui the second eldest of ten in a family working on the then Kahului railroad. On December 7, 1941, 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft rained fire on Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 Americans and wounding 1,178 others. Shoichi was drafted into the US military as America joined the Second World War, and while his future wife and her family were being “interned” at Rohwer Arkansas War Relocation Camp, he, as a Japanese American, was being sent to fight for America against Japan.

Wyatt and his grandfather’s relationship grew extremely close through his time in highschool and college as he realized their time together was waning. When that time finally came to a close, Wyatt found himself without direction with the pain of loss. So when he found the photographs, he began to gather and sort these celluloid chronicles about his grandfather—not just from his own perspective, but also from other people who had relationships through the years with Shoichi.

Double Double, Protein Style, Animal Style with a Strawberry Shake and Chips is a photographic book that deals with overcoming the grief of losing someone you love by rediscovering their story through others. The book is the result of nearly a decade’s work of bringing together all the people his grandfather loved. From getting drafted into the military, to meeting his grandmother and struggling to figure out how to be an “American” in a country he fought for that didn’t seem to want him back—Double Double isn’t just a Japanese-American story, but a project for people of any culture who have had to overcome adversity to realize their dreams.