By Jessica Huey* It was the worst day of his life. That was all he would ever say about it. Looking at black and white photos of my great-grandfather, the stoicism etched in his expression is impossible to ignore. But to understand his story—that of a quiet, Japanese merchant who came to America with his wife to start a new life in the early 1900s—it becomes clear the extent to which living in America, filled with its golden grain and promises, also took its toll on him. Like millions …