The Latest from NichiBei.org
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Canadian filmmaker explores a gap in family history
Filmmaker Natalie Murao contemplates the conversation she never got to have with her grandfather in “Blue Garden” (2022, 5 minutes). The hybrid-doc-animation tells the story of Murao’s grandfather, a Japanese… [more ... ]
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THE GOCHIO GOURMET: More than just soft and silky
I know the first thing people envision when you say tofu is that semi-solid block of soft curdled soy milk. Sometimes it’s served as is with a little bit of shoyu and sliced green onions, sometimes its heated… [more ... ]
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CAAMFest serves up sweet memories with ‘Benkyodo’
Though the line did not extend around the block like the final days of the iconic Japanese confectionery, a crowd of guests lined up May 12 for Benkyodo, San Francisco’s now defunct manju shop in Japantown. However,… [more ... ]
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Giants honor Japanese legacy on Japanese Heritage Night
On May 16, hundreds of baseball fans arrived early to the San Francisco Giants game to enjoy Japanese Heritage Night at Oracle Park. The Giants organization hosted the annual event in partnership with the Japanese… [more ... ]
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A-bomb survivors angry at G-7 summit
HIROSHIMA — Many atomic bomb survivors, including campaigner Setsuko Thurlow, voiced anger and disappointment at the Group of Seven nations’ summit on May 21 after the leaders released a statement that supported… [more ... ]
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Giants to celebrate Fuji Athletic Club on Japanese Heritage Night
As part of their annual Japanese Heritage Night on May 16, the San Francisco Giants will honor the history of Nikkei baseball with a nod to the Fuji Athletic Club, one of the first Japanese American teams that played… [more ... ]
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‘Oyakodon’ captures a Japanese restaurant heartbreakingly on the brink
“Oyakodon” (2022, 17 min.), a short film directed by Roxy Shih, is a quiet and somber look at a Japanese restaurant in decline. Mama, the owner, opens up the dark eatery and puts out a sign with the day’s… [more ... ]
From the Nichi Bei Weekly

Pasadena Buddhist Temple’s LGBTQ flag set on fire
May 25, 2023 By TAKESHI NAKAYAMA Nichi Bei News Contributor
PASADENA, Calif. — A rainbow flag at the Pasadena Buddhist Temple — a salute to the LGBTQ community — was set on fire and burned on April 24, according to Gregory Gibbs, the resident minister who is in his ninth year at the temple. Local artists made the hand-painted Progress Pride flag, which — measuring […]
Groups demand officials share information on Texas mall gunman’s motives
May 25, 2023 By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — Members of several Texas groups representing people of color on May 15 demanded that authorities quickly acknowledge whether they believe the neo-Nazi who killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall over a week ago was racially motivated in choosing his victims. More than a week after the May 6 attack at the […]
Texas mall victims include several members from two families
May 11, 2023 By JAMIE STENGLE, VANESSA A. ALVAREZ and REBECCA REYNOLDS, Associated Pres
DALLAS — The people killed in a shooting at a mall near Dallas include two elementary school-age sisters, a couple and their 3-year-old son, a young engineer and a security guard. The victims represent a multicultural cross-section of the area’s increasingly diverse suburbs. Cox Elementary School students Daniela and Sofia Mendoza, grades four and two, […]
SJ: Police arrest 3 East Bay men suspected in robberies targeting AAPI community
May 11, 2023 By Bay City News Service
Three East Bay men have been arrested in connection with recent robberies targeting the Asian American-Pacific Islander community throughout the Bay Area, San Jose police said May 1. The trio, suspected in a string of armed and strong-arm robberies from December to February, were identified as 26-year-old Joel Contreras Barron of Antioch, 28-year-old Francisco Rincon […]

The Next Generation of Chino Farm in Rancho Santa Fe: The Vegetable Shop at Chino Family Farm doesn’t open until 10 a.m., but crowds begin to swell much earlier
January 16, 2020 By Maria Hesse, Edible San Diego

A ‘twisted trip’ filled with ‘raunchy comedy and poignant tenderness’
July 23, 2015 By MARTHA NAKAGAWA, Nichi Bei Weekly Contributor
News
Pasadena Buddhist Temple’s LGBTQ flag set on fire
PASADENA, Calif. — A rainbow flag at the Pasadena Buddhist Temple — a salute to the LGBTQ community — was set on fire and burned on April 24, according to Gregory Gibbs, the resident minister who is in his ninth year at the temple. Local artists made the hand-painted Progress Pride flag, which — measuring […]
Groups demand officials share information on Texas mall gunman’s motives
DALLAS (AP) — Members of several Texas groups representing people of color on May 15 demanded that authorities quickly acknowledge whether they believe the neo-Nazi who killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall over a week ago was racially motivated in choosing his victims. More than a week after the May 6 attack at the […]
A-bomb survivors angry at G-7 summit
HIROSHIMA — Many atomic bomb survivors, including campaigner Setsuko Thurlow, voiced anger and disappointment at the Group of Seven nations’ summit on May 21 after the leaders released a statement that supported the possession of nuclear weapons for deterrence and failed to mention the treaty banning nuclear arms. The 91-year-old Thurlow called the G-7 summit […]
Our Columnists
THE GOCHISO GOURMET: Responsible cooking
By Ryan Tatsumoto, Nichi Bei News Columnist
In Sports

Giants honor Japanese legacy on Japanese Heritage Night
On May 16, hundreds of baseball fans arrived early to the San Francisco Giants game to enjoy Japanese Heritage Night at Oracle Park. The Giants organization hosted the annual event in partnership with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California. This year the San Francisco Giants recognized the 120th anniversary of the 1903 […]
In Travel

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series. Last September, Rev. Ken Yamada, the former minister of Berkeley Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, and Rev. Jerry Hirano, minister of Salt Lake City Buddhist Temple, spent 36 days driving through the 48 contiguous states in an RV, racking up more than 13,000 miles. To view […]
In Books

Stimulating an appreciation of America’s diverse history and cultures through preservation
HISTORIC WINTERSBURG IN HUNTINGTON BEACH By Mary F. Adams Urashima (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014, 208 pp., $19.99, paperback) The most fitting way I can think of to begin this review of Mary Adams Urashima’s “Historic Wintersburg in Huntington Beach,” is to appropriate and slightly modify what the great American poet Walt Whitman said […]
Ninth Circuit affirms dismissal of Tule Lake Committee v. FAA, et al.
May 25, 2023 By BARBARA TAKEI
Earlier this month, the Tule Lake Committee lost its appeal in Tule Lake Committee v. FAA, et al. The U.S. Ninth Circuit in San Francisco affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of the Committee’s lawsuit that sought to assert a Japanese American voice to preserve a site sacred to our community. The dismissal was a setback […]