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Tani’s Mother Dies in Car Crash Daniel Tani, aboard the international space station, unable to return until January.
HOUSTON.—NASA was reassigning the duties of an American astronaut aboard the international space station as he grieved for his mother, who was killed when a train struck her vehicle. Rose Shigeno Tani, the 90-year-old Nisei mother of astronaut Daniel Tani, died Wednesday in the Chicago suburb of Lombard. Daniel Tani, 46, is believed to be the first American astronaut to lose a close family member while in space, NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier said. A NASA flight surgeon at Mission Control used a private radio line to inform Tani of his mother’s death and offer help. Police said Rose Tani stopped behind a school bus at a railroad crossing and then drove around the vehicle, bypassing the lowered crossing gate. The train struck Tani’s vehicle on the passenger side and pushed it down the tracks before stopping. Paramedics took Rose Tani to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. “He is obviously pretty sad,” the astronaut’s brother, Richard Tani, said in Thursday’s edition of the Chicago Sun-Times. “He was pretty close to her. We are all close to her. She was loved by everyone.” Daniel Tani was supposed to fly home aboard Atlantis on Wednesday, but the shuttle’s flight was postponed until January due to a fuel gauge problem. The earliest he could return to Earth at this point is late next month. “Before anyone launches, they understand that unfortunate things could happen and that’s unfortunately part of the difficulties, hardships and risks of space flight,” NASA spokesman Jim Rostohar said in Thursday’s edition of the Chicago Tribune. Rose Shigeno Tani was born near Sacramento, where her family grew grapes and strawberries. Henry and Rose Tani were interned during World War II, first in California, then at Topaz in Utah. Henry headed the San Francisco chapter of the JACL in 1942 and testified before a congressional committee in a vain attempt to avert the interment of the entire Japanese American community residing on the West Coast. The Tani family left the internment camp and lived for a time in St. Louis and Philadelphia prior to settling in Chicago. Henry was a founding member of the St. Louis JACL and served as its first president. Rose and Henry’s son, John, who passed away in 1992, served as president of the Chicago JACL and as governor of the Midwest District Council. “Rose Tani had a resiliency that belied her gentle nature,” said JACL Midwest Director Bill Yoshino. “She typified the quiet dignity of her generation and generously supported her community and its organizations,” Yoshino said, offering the JACL’s condolences to Daniel and the other surviving Tani children, Richard, Steve and Christine. Henry died when Daniel was 4, leaving Rose to raise five children on her own. In a message from the astronaut read at the 2002 Topaz Reunion by his uncle Paul Tani, Tani paid tribute to his mother and the Nisei generation. “When my mother talks of the camps, her stories are of a difficult, uncomfortable life. But her stories also include times of joy, laughter, and camaraderie. What are missing from her stories are bitterness, anger and resentment,” Tani wrote. “I view their forced relocation to the camps as a violation of their basic rights as United States citizens — yet I get the sense that they felt that they were doing what was asked of them – to prove their loyalty. In the end, I think the Japanese Americans not only proved their loyalty but also their resourcefulness and their ability to rebuild their lives to become a vital component of the post-war society.” NASA spokeswoman Eileen Hawley told the Houston Chronicle that Tani’s duties will be postponed or handled by his crewmates, station commander Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. “Something like this is always very personal, so it will depend on his wishes,” Hawley said. |
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