Eternal Love: Tales of Love and War Through the Eyes of a Soldier

The ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association held a very special Veterans Day program with Louis Moore, who is 99-years-old and a WWII veteran. He talks about his beloved wife, Nellie, and the book he wrote, Eternal Love, about their life together. 

This program concludes with a truly memorable moment when Mr. Moore will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

They met in 1946 right after WWII had ended. He saw her as a dancer at the China Doll nightclub in New York City. He could not take his eyes off of her. Weeks later, a chance meeting in a coffee shop launched a decades-long love affair between a Chinese American soldier who was trying to restart his life after the war and a Japanese American woman trying to rebuild her life after the U.S. Government incarcerated her and her family at the Gila River Relocation Center.   

Mr. Moore has lived history through the last century, despite discriminatory laws such as the Japanese internment and laws preventing Asian Americans from purchasing a home. Hear from Mr. Moore about his life, his love and his resilience that propels him forward. Mr. Moore’s story is even more poignant and compelling during this time where we have seen a spate of anti-Asian violence.

Panelist

• Louis Moore, Author, Eternal Love

Congressional Gold Medal Presentation

• Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, U.S. Army (ret.)

Co-Moderators

• Wendy C. Shiba, Former President, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association; Member, Board of Trustees, Japanese American National Museum; Vice Chair, Rights of Women Committee, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice

• Mary L. Smith, Former Secretary, American Bar Association; Chair, Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation

Joint Sponsor: National Asian Pacific American Bar Association

Co-Sponsors: ABA Center for Public Interest Law, ABA Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice, ABA Commission on Disability Rights, ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights & Responsibilities, ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, ABA Commission on Women in the Profession,  ABA Council for Diversity in the Educational Pipeline, ABA Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division, ABA Section of State and Local Government Law, ABA Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law, ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel, ABA Standing Committee on Public Education, Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation, Chinese American WWII Veterans Recognition Project, Japanese American National Museum, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates

Resources

About the Book | Eternal Love | Buy HERE

Eternal Love is the memoir of Nellie and Lou Moore - a uniquely American love story that stood the test of time in a racially torn world.

In 1946, Lou was a third-generation Chinese-American soldier just out the US Army after World War II. An honorably discharged staff sergeant, Lou learned to fight racial prejudices while bravely serving the United States in the European Theater of Operations. When the young veteran returned home to America, he met the love of his life.

Nellie was a Japanese-American dancer, the third one from the right in the chorus line at the famed China Doll Night Club in Manhattan. Like other United States citizens with Japanese heritage, Nellie endured tremendous losses when she and her family were unjustly locked away in a harsh American internment camp until history's biggest war ended.

Destiny brought these two individuals together so that an unforgettable love story could begin. It was a completely chance encounter, one returning G.I., one beautiful, young woman rebuilding her life far from her California home. For Lou, it truly was love at first sight, and Nellie joined in that nearly immediately, returning that love in kind. Once they met to talk, they never stopped talking and spent every day together until their wedding day, a little over a week after they met in 1946. It is a love story and life together that went on for 74 year. Their whirlwind 10-day romance turned into a marriage of devotion, faithfulness, thoughtfulness, tenderness, tolerance, understanding, caring, compassion, mindfulness, patience, and togetherness.

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