Fifth annual Nichi Bei Day of Giving telecast Sept. 6 to focus on Nikkei legacies
Select video segments from the Nichi Bei Day of Giving telecast:
• “Chizu Omori’s Antidotes to Aging,” a short film by award-winning filmmaker Emiko Omori
• Nikkei Legacies: Yonsei Judge Stephanie Sato, interviewed by KTVU-2 News Reporter/Anchor Jana Katsuyama
• Nikkei Legacies: Yonsei filmmaker Myles Matsuno, “First to Go: The Story of the Karaoke Family,” interviewed by KTVU-2 News Reporter/Anchor Jana Katsuyama
• Nikkei Legacies: Interview with Yonsei comic artist Sam Nakahira
• Perspectives on the Nikkei Press with community journalists Takeshi Nakayama and Martha Nakagawa
• “Origami Now”: Linda Mihara demonstrates how to make heart origami
• Yuzu Spritz by Ryan Tatsumoto, The Gochiso Gourmet
• Nichi Bei Internship Fund: Former Nichi Bei interns reflect upon the impact of their internships
• Nichi Bei People: Nichi Bei Weekly columnists
• Nichi Bei People: Nichi Bei Staff
• Nichi Bei People: Nichi Bei Foundation Board of Directors
• Mask and Vax: A Special Message from the Nichi Bei staff and board
• “Love Over Hate” (Nichi Bei Day of Giving Remix), by the Yokohama Sisters, featuring former Nichi Bei Times intern Maho Watanabe and special America-based cameos including Mountain View Mayor Ellen Kamei, Mountain View City Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga, and NBC Bay Area’s Mike Inouye.
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The Nichi Bei Foundation will hold its fifth annual Nichi Bei Day of Giving Monday, Sept. 6, from 3 to 6:30 p.m. on Facebook Live and its YouTube channel. The virtual event will feature a series of interviews and special video presentations centered around the topic of Nikkei legacies.
The event, a peer-to-peer funding effort on an online platform, hopes to raise $120,000 to support the Nichi Bei Foundation. A matching grant of $60,000 pledged by The Craig Foundation will double the first $60,000 raised.
The fundraising effort will help the Nichi Bei Foundation address critical budgetary shortfalls impacted by COVID-19, including revenue lost from canceled fundraisers and downturn in advertising revenue; help to maintain or expand staff capacity, create reserve funding and support the community’s pandemic recovery.
“This unexpected coronavirus pandemic has surely changed the world, and we are certainly not immune to the dire economic effects of the COVID-19 virus,” a statement from the organization said. “And while several fundraisers and one of our largest advertising revenue efforts had been wiped out due to the impact of the virus, we remain committed to serving our community with renewed commitment.”
Through the pandemic, the Nichi Bei Weekly, the Japanese American community news publication of the Nichi Bei Foundation, increased its regular issue page count by 33 percent, bucking the trend of most media to downsize. Aided by numerous funding resources, namely grants by The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, Renaissance Journalism, the Oshima Ueunten Foundation and the JA Community Foundation — as well as last year’s record Day of Giving fundraising with a $50,000 matching grant from The Craig Foundation and $20,000 from the Kinjiro and Eiko Moriguchi Fund — the Nichi Bei Weekly launched several new features and columns geared toward keeping an increasingly isolated community connected and engaged.
Day of Giving Livestream Telecast
The livestream event will include:
• A rebroadcast in the first hour of “A Remembrance for Peace: Commemorating Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” with new reflections by Takeno Suzuki in Sendai, Japan, daughter of atomic bomb survivor Seiko Fujimoto of San Francisco.
• An extended version of the 45th anniversary cast reunion of “Farewell to Manzanar,” produced for the 2021 Films of Remembrance and moderated by cast member Frank Abe.
• A Genki Aging video on writer and activist Chizu Omori, who has kept active by writing a Nichi Bei column for more than 20 years and protesting at rallies across the country, produced by her sister Emiko Omori, an award-winning filmmaker.
• An interview with Yonsei former Nichi Bei Times columnist, Northern California Cherry Blossom Queen and recently-appointed Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sato, by KTVU-2 reporter Jana Katsuyama.
• An interview by Katsuyama with multiracial Yonsei filmmaker Myles Matsuno from Southern California, whose film “First to Go: The Story of the Kataoka Family” — telling the story of Aki Hotel owner Ichiro Kataoka through the eyes of Matsuno’s grandmother May Matsuno, debuted at the 2017 Films of Remembrance.
• An interview with Sam Nakahira, a Yonsei comic artist from Torrance, Calif., who has created comics published in the Nichi Bei Weekly.
• A discussion with long-time Nichi Bei contributing writers Takeshi Nakayama and Martha Nakagawa, highlighting the importance of the Nikkei press and the issues they’ve covered over the past decades.
In addition to short videos of Nichi Bei programs, the telecast will feature:
• An origami heart instruction video by Nichi Bei columnist Linda Mihara of Paper Tree.
• Cooking videos by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook and Ryan Tatsumoto / The Gochiso Gourmet, including a Yuzu Spritz.
• Nichi Bei people — staff, board, interns and columnists reflect upon the Nikkei legacy.
• The event will end with a special music video for “Love Over Hate” by the Yokohama Sisters, written and performed by former Nichi Bei Times intern and Yokohama Ambassador Maho Watanabe.
“Nichi Bei Day of Giving will continue to help us sustain our operations; expand our mission to keep the community connected, informed and empowered; and allow us to keep building upon our 122-year legacy of community leadership through media,” the Foundation stated. “This is also a celebration of our collective Nikkei legacy.”
Special Gifts for Donors
Those who donate at certain levels will receive thank-you gifts, and all are eligible for the opportunity drawings every half hour.
Those who donate $100 to $249 will receive a one-year Digital Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei Weekly.
Those who donate $250 to $499 will receive a one-year Digital Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei Weekly and an adjustable Tofuro face mask in collaboration with makimino.com.
Those who donate $500 to $999 will receive a one-year Premium Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei Weekly and an adjustable Tofuro face mask.
Those who donate $1,000 and above will receive a two-year Premium Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei Weekly and two adjustable Tofuro face masks.
How to Join in the Efforts
• Contribute at www.nichibei.org/give2nichibei.
• Build your own fundraising page, or create a fundraising team.
• Join live Sept. 6, 3 to 6:30 p.m. with live drawings: facebook.com/nichibei/live, youtube.com/user/NichiBeiWeekly1 or nichibei.org/give2nichibei.
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