Tsunami

One time villain and former member of the Young All-Stars, Tsunami can generate and control tidal waves.

In the beginning

History

Miya Shimada was born a nisei - a Japanese-American born in the of native Japanese parents. She was thus a full American citizen and grew up in America. The racial prejudice against Japanese-Americans that Miya encountered during the start of World War II caused her to turn against America. She went to to study for a few years (Japanese born in but partly educated in what were mockingly called kibel) and there she joined the cause of the Imperial Japanese government. It was the famed Japanese naval commander Admiral Yamamoto who named Miya Shimada "Tsunami" (the Japanese word for "tidal wave") after her mental power to create and control such destructible waves.

In early 1942, after they had entered the war against America, Tsunami was secretly brought to by a Japanese submarine and she sought to convince Japanese-Americans to join Imperial Japan's cause. Tsunami soon found herself battling Liberty Belle and Starman of the All-Star Squadron. During the confrontation Miya’s father (later learned to be her grandfather) put himself in harms way between a crate she flung and the Squadron members.  When it looked like he was seemingly killed in the skirmish, Tsunami went into shock and fled the scene.  As Miya quickly found herself battling the Squadron once again, she met Neptune Perkins for the first time. The two would face a one-on-one battle, which Miya abruptly ended and swam back to Japan.  

Shortly afterwards, Tsunami was summoned by Prince Daka to assist him in stealing Starman's powerful gravity rod. She again clashed with members of the All-Star Squadron but was appalled by Daka's ruthlessness and lack of honor. She found herself instead respecting the All-Stars and decided she could no longer side with Daka. Yet she was not yet ready to align with the Americans, either and she fled again.

Asked to join Axis Amerika

Repentance

One more time, the Axis leaders attempted to recruit Tsunami, but by this time Miya had reflected upon and felt remorse for her actions. She declined an invitation by the Wolf to join the Axis Amerika and afterwards became depressed and contemplated suicide. At a crucial moment, she encountered the undersea hero, Neptune Perkins, for a second time.  He convinced her to try another path. Together they approached Green Lantern and asked for his help to end the imprisonment of Japanese Americans.

Green Lantern took the two to meet the Squadron where Miya met other teen heroes besides Perkins. She pled her case to the day's assembly, which also included President Roosevelt. FDR pledged to look into the matter of the detention camps then suggested that Tsunami and her new young friends travel the country on a cross-country war bond tour. She and the others were all given provisional membership in the All-Star Squadron and set off on there new task as the Young All-Stars.

Some, like Sandy (Sandman’s boy sidekick) found it difficult to accept a former adversary, but Perkins was always ready to defend her. On one of their first stops, Miya came under attack by prejudiced bystanders. The group helped her find her family in a nearby camp, where she heatedly elected to stay until they could be freed. However,sShe was soon forced to leave the camp when she learned that Axis Amerika and her former ally, Kamikaze, were initiating attacks. Tsunami stayed with the Young All-Stars throughout the War and grew closer to Neptune Perkins.

After the War Years ...

Not much is known about Miya’s life after World War II. However, Miya continued her relationship with Neptune Perkins. For unknown reasons, she let Perkins believe he helped conceived a daughter named Debbie. She never revealed the truth to Perkins, that Debbie’s biological father was actually the ancient Atlantean sorcerer, Atlan. The two would eventually go their separate ways due to some unexplained reason. It’s believed that Miya raised Debbie on her own.

Miya and Debbie reunited with Neptune Perkins years later when Aquaman called for all undersea nations to unite. At this time, Debbie had taken her own codename as Deep Blue. The three would go on to encounter the villain Rhombus, who claimed he was Debbie’s father. Neptune and Miya were instrumental in his defeat, yet Miya did not take the opportunity to set the record straight about Debbie. Miya has not been seen for some time and it’s unknown if she heard about the death of Neptune Perkins at the hands of the Shark and the similar villain called King Shark.

Powers and Abilities

Tsunami is endowed with super-human strength and the ability to swim at super-human speeds. She is a superb hand-to-hand combatant. Tsunami’s powers are mental in nature and allow her to cause tidal waves to form in the ocean with the ability to mentally control them. It has also been seen that Tsunami can control the flowing path of even smaller masses of water.