Well, another year has come and gone in what seemed like a blur in time. This is partially due to that theory of relativity — since I’m down to that last third of my personal movie, with the credits waiting to appear in the wings, every year seems to be progressing a lot faster — […]
Archives for 2017
Memoir offers insights into WWII JA teen’s relationships
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
American Yellow By George Omi (Sarasota, Fla.: First Edition Design Publishing, 2016, 140 pp., $14.95, paperback) George Omi’s “American Yellow” (2016), a memoir on his Japanese American teenage experiences during World War II and incarceration, provides an intimate lens to view his relationships with his family, community and outside world. The memoir offers a glimpse […]
Former picture brides’ oral histories enlightens
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
PICTURE BRIDE STORIES By Barbara F. Kawakami (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016, 408 pp., $39.99, cloth) “Soto Kimura’s story is typical of the stories of early Issei women. They arrived in Hawai’i unprepared for the harsh realities that confronted them. The majority of them came with only a fourth-grade education from rural villages. Yet […]
‘Rare and enlightening addition’ to the ‘black hole’ of JA scholarship
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
THE LONG AFTERLIFE OF NIKKEI WARTIME INCARCERATION By Karen M. Inouye (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2016, 256 pp., $55, hardcover) Karen M. Inouye, a professor of American studies at the University of Indiana, has launched a new book that takes up a subject still relatively unknown, the long-term resonance of the wartime Japanese American […]
C(API)TOL CORRESPONDENT: AAPI political power on the rise in face of new threats
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
A few rays of hope for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders penetrated the dark shadow cast by hate crimes and the resurrection of the white supremacy movement following the presidential election in November. AAPI candidates won a historic number of races and broke new ground in communities where AAPI elected officials are few and far […]
San Francisco’s Japantown witnesses considerable turnover in 2016
January 1, 2017 by 1 Comment
Throughout 2016, San Francisco’s Japantown saw many changes. Several longtime businesses changed hands while others have taken over empty locations. As the changes affect Japantown’s landscape, some expressed wariness over the neighborhood’s future as well as pointed out the difficulties the ethnic enclave’s business owners currently face today. Unique New Businesses Richard Hashimoto, president of […]
‘Fresh’ history of Hawai‘i’s Nikkei is somewhat lacking
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
FROM RACE TO ETHNICITY: INTERPRETING JAPANESE AMERICAN EXPERIENCES IN HAWAII By Jonathan Y. Okamura (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014, 272 pp., $42, cloth) It is a somewhat curious fact that many of the people I have met on the mainland, Japanese Americans and others alike, seem rather uninformed about the Nikkei experience in Hawai‘i. (I […]
Let’s Talk: About unfinished business
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
A young man once told me about the time his father was facing a terminal illness. He had gathered his sons together before his last days to apologize for having been neglectful and abusive. At the time, the adult son felt relieved to finally hear his father take responsibility for the way he had treated […]
Mike Honda is our Nikkei of the Year
Mike Honda has had a long and storied career in public service, which started with the Peace Corps in El Salvador to his steady rise up from a teacher, principal, member of the San Jose Planning Commission, San Jose Unified School Board and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. He was elected to the […]