Welcome!
Welcome to my website. Thank you for taking the time to visit. I very much appreciate your interest.
I created this website in order to stay in touch with people with whom I have worked on projects these many years, as well as people with whom I am currently working. I have devoted the last 40 years of my life to telling unknown historical stories.
For more than 30 years, I was involved in the study of American military history. I was the Director of the Presidio Army Museum in San Francisco from 1973-1986. While there, I developed a number of exhibits related to the role of minorities in the United States Army. These included women, African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipinos who served in segregated units. I also curated exhibits honoring OSS Detachment 101, which served in Burma during World War II, and the 101st Airborne Division in the Battle of Bastogne in the winter of 1944-45.
In 1980, I was the founding curator of Go For Broke, Inc. This was a San Francisco-based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the memory of Japanese American soldiers in World War II. In 1983, this organization became the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS). We curated a number of major traveling exhibits on the Japanese American experience that toured the country. This program was the catalyst for the Smithsonian’s landmark exhibit, “A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the US Constitution.” I am happy to say that this organization is still highly active and thriving.
I had the distinct honor and pleasure of working with the Japanese American community toward obtaining redress and reparations by Congress for the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. Redress was approved by the United States Congress in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
In 1994, I was asked to curate an exhibit on Japanese diplomat rescuer Chiune Sugihara. This led to nearly 25 years of research on the study of altruism and rescue in the Holocaust. Since that year, I have created a number of traveling exhibits documenting this topic. Please visit my website on rescue in the Holocaust. Much of this information is unique and will provide a perspective on thousands of courageous individuals who defied the Nazis in helping save tens of thousands of lives.
In 2011, I became deeply interested in the history of the abolition and anti-slavery movement in the United States. This historic movement in America, which was one of the first civil rights movements, was directly responsible for the ending of slavery in the United States. Thousands of dedicated men and women devoted their life’s energies to ending that evil institution. I have created a reference website, which I believe has the largest database of abolitionist organizations and individuals. As part of this database, I have created a virtual, online encyclopedia of abolition. This includes historic timelines, bibliographies, photographs, and histories of abolitionist and anti-slavery organizations. I am presently working with several African American community organizations to curate a traveling exhibit on this important topic.
I recently created a new Civil War website, the Civil War Encyclopedia. The purpose of this site is to provide those interested in the American Civil War with an extensive body of historic reference works on the war. It deals with all aspects of the Civil War, including the political and social history of the war. The central part of this website is an exhaustive, encyclopedic reference document on the Civil War. This includes biographies of soldiers, political leaders, inventors, financiers, and others involved in the war effort. It also includes a list of all of the Civil War battles, arranged chronologically. Also included are military terms and concepts. Other documents will include citations from Union and Confederate Army and Navy regulations and the Articles of War.
The photographic windows above represent a sampling of some of the projects that I am proud to be associated with. Please click on these images to learn more about these projects. I hope they are informative and interesting to you.
I am still very active in developing these exhibits and doing research. If you would like information on these projects, or would like to have any number of exhibits shown at your institution, I would be happy to coordinate with you.
By clicking on the home page, this will lead you to much of my research. I will be continually publishing all of my research. This includes rescue in the Holocaust, African American soldiers, and Japanese American soldiers in World War II. I will be posting virtual exhibits on these topics, with an extensive collection of unique photographs, in the very near future.
For more than 30 years, the United States Congress has been considering a bill to establish a commission to study the idea of reparations for slavery in America. This bill is entitled H.R.40, named after the famous Union Special Field Order No. 15, better known as "40 acres and a mule." Amy and I fully support this bill, which is intended to study the effects of slavery on current generations of African Americans. Here is a link to our thoughts and a proposal for this legislation: AmericanSlaveryReparations.org
I recently had the honor to teach a mentoring class to young physiologists, pre-medical students, and pre-nursing students at West Virginia University. I was asked to give them some advice on their careers, especially in the helping professions. I remembered hearing the profound words of Joseph Campbell, who advised everyone to follow their bliss. Click here to hear some thoughts on this.
Please check back with us!
Please feel free to email me at VisasForLife@cs.com or click here to contact us. I would be happy to hear from you.
Eric Saul
