Dear Editor, I’m very sad to hear the status of the Hokubei Mainichi. However I do like the idea of Nichi Bei Weekly. We as Japanese Americans must be able to keep the Japanese heritage, culture and values alive continuously. Many non-Japanese people do not know things about the Japanese… Newspapers are downsizing and limiting [...]
Scent of ‘Mums’ Evoke Memories of Fall in Japan
November 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
San Jose Police Beating Stirs Distrust and Resentment
November 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
On Oct. 24, the San Jose Mercury News released the video of a San Jose State math major getting beaten and stunned with a taser by the San Jose Police Department in his home on Sept. 3, 2009. Police were called to the scene after 20-year-old Phuong Ho allegedly wielded a knife during an altercation [...]
YAKYU BY THE NUMBERS: So Long to the States: Yakyu Vets Say Sayonara
November 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Japan has lost some of its best players to the United States over the years, including Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka. In 2009, no less than 18 Japanese players, which is perhaps the largest number ever, took the field in major leagues. However, in what might be a reversal of fortune, at least [...]
THE POWER OF WORDS REVISITED: ‘Concentration Camps’ and ‘Internment Camps’
November 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Note: The following is the second part of a series on the terminology used to describe the incarceration of Nikkei during WWII. The first piece, which focused on two specific terms — “evacuation” and “relocation” — appeared in the Nichi Bei Times Weekly July 23-29, 2009 (www.nichibeitimes.com). Some people have told me the problem with [...]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: Stereotypes Can Save the Balloon Boy’s Japanese Mom
October 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment
In last week’s column, I wrote about the refreshing lack of a racial angle in the media coverage of the so-called “balloon boy” incident. Just as we were going to press though, I came across an article on the ABC News Website that places a large amount of the blame for the incident on Japanese [...]
THE GOCHISO GOURMET: The ABCs of Nutrition
October 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Nutrition really is that simple. Like A, B, C or 1, 2, 3. There are no magic potions, no magic nutrient combinations, no hocus pocus. Many “experts” publish books on the ideal diet more often than not focusing on some ideal nutrient ratio or combination that will make you shed pounds while others downright feed [...]
ENTERTAINMENT RE-ORIENTED: Race and Reality: The ‘Balloon Boy,’ Jon & Kate
October 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
On Wednesday last week, a six-year-old hapa boy captured the attention of the world when it was reported that he was trapped in a homemade helium balloon floating 15,000 feet in the air. Falcon Heene, dubbed “the balloon boy,” replaced President Obama’s New Orleans town hall meeting as the day’s big story on cable news. [...]
Race Relations in the Neighborhood
October 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
When I first came to California I was warned to be careful about certain neighborhoods. I didn’t know what it meant until I heard about a tourist being robbed on a quiet street in San Francisco. He was surrounded by a group of little boys between eight to ten years of age each wielding weapons [...]
The Nakazawa Redwood
There is a redwood. Rather inconspicuous in the backyard of an ordinary residence in south Berkeley. It is an inconspicuous as the man who planted it some 70 years ago. Mr. Nakazawa was Japanese by birth and the Japanese were denied naturalization no matter how long they lived and worked in this country. They were [...]