Note: This letter was sent in response to the article entitled “The astonishing history of Japanese Americans in Louisiana,” which ran in two parts in November. Dear Editor, I was sent copies of the Nichi Bei Weekly, dated Nov. 3-9, part 1 and Nov. 10-16, 2011, part 2, to our Gardens in Louisiana. I really [...]
The Great Unknown and the Unknown Great
LETTERS: Greetings from the Koharas
January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Note: This letter was sent in response to the article entitled “The astonishing history of Japanese Americans in Louisiana,” which ran in two parts in November. Dear Editor, Thank you for including our Kohara clan in this article. We are all proud of our family in Louisiana. JD Sparks (Kohara) Pewee Valley, KY
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: A MAN OF PRINCIPLE: Robert Chino, civil rights activist, draft resister and veteran
January 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The New Year’s season is a special time for wrap-ups and updates. One interesting, if slightly frustrating, part of doing my Nichi Bei column is that my research does not stop with publication of a given essay. Instead, I continue to discover more information about the people I write about even after the pieces have [...]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The astonishing history of Japanese Americans in Louisiana (pt. 2)
November 10, 2011 By 1 Comment
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series. The Second World War hit Louisiana’s Japanese population hard. On Dec. 8, the Japanese consulate closed its doors and its Japanese alien employees were incarcerated. Japanese shrimp boats were grounded, and the Hinata art store in New Orleans closed its doors. The Hinata daughters, anticipating [...]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The astonishing history of Japanese Americans in Louisiana
November 3, 2011 By 1 Comment
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part series. The story of Japanese settlement in Louisiana, whether in the metropolis of New Orleans or in the bayous, is rather unknown, even to locals, but Nikkei have had a surprisingly large impact on the state’s history. Jokichi Takamine was possibly the first Japanese settler in [...]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Nisei exclusion at Penn (Pt. 3 of 3)
October 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: Part of this piece was previously published as ‘Admission Denied,’ in the Pennsylvania Gazette, January-February 2000 issue. Until the story of her exclusion was broadcast nationwide, Naomi Nakano had been, by her own admission, rather removed from the controversy. She had not participated in the protests, and The Bennett News had been careful [...]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Nisei exclusion at Penn (Pt. 2 of 3)
September 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: Part of this piece was previously published as ‘Admission Denied,’ in the Pennsylvania Gazette, January-February 2000 issue. In the spring of 1944, the University of Pennsylvania’s blanket policy excluding Japanese Americans rebounded strongly against it after Naomi Nakano, a senior majoring in philosophy in the College for Women, applied for admission to the [...]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Nisei exclusion at Penn (Pt. 1 of 3)
September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: Part of this piece was previously published as ‘Admission Denied,’ in the Pennsylvania Gazette, January-February 2000 issue. Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, was far removed from the endemic anti-Japanese American prejudice that marked the Pacific Coast during most of the 20th century. During World War II, Philadelphia’s tiny Japanese American population remained [...]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The Japanese American fight for gay and lesbian rights
June 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This week’s piece represents a fifth entry in the series of annual columns I have produced for Nichi Bei on the Queer heritage of Japanese Americans. In past pieces I have looked at the hidden and sometimes complex sexual history of early Japanese immigrants; the evolution of widespread anti-gay prejudice in mid-century Japanese communities, [...]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Multiracial pacifist and activist, Yone Stafford
June 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
One of the more pleasant aspects of doing “The Great Unknown” is the responses that I get to my columns from readers, including friends and family members of the people whom I write about. They not only offer praise but provide additional information and inspire further work. Not long ago I did a column about [...]
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