SAN JOSE — Kids anxiously waited outside the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose to catch a peek of their favorite teacher, “Miss Lynne,” and to celebrate Lotus Preschool’s 25th anniversary. “I don’t think she knew it would be this big or last this long,” George Yamaichi, Lynne Santo Yamaichi’s husband, said of the last […]
Lotus Preschool in San Jose’s Japantown turns 25, celebrates the love
August 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
My Little Love of Ponies
March 19, 2011 by 6 Comments
I was born in the ’80s. I was brought up by the miracle of ’90s era-parenting: television. I was a fan of “Cow and Chicken“ and “The Rugrats;” I wanted to be a part of the “Round House“ and “All That“ casts; and, damn it, I really hated Barney, Barbies and My Little Pony because […]
On mystical wings
January 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
THE BOY IN THE GARDEN By Allen Say (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Children, 2010, 32 pp., $17.99, hardcover) Reviewed By Twila Tomita, Nichi Bei Weekly Contributor If you are a fan of Allen Say, you’ll be happy to know that he has a new book, “The Boy in the […]
Away game
January 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
THE LUCKY BASEBALL: My Story in a Japanese-American Internment Camp By Suzanne Lieurance (Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2009, 160 pp., $14.95, paperback) Twelve-year-old Harry Yakamoto lives for baseball. Growing up in Cedar Grove, a small town in Central California with only a handful of Japanese Americans, his peers do not allow Harry and […]
Hard luck Himiko
January 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
ANSHU: DARK SORROW By Juliet S. Kono (Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 2010, 327 pp., $18.00, paperback) Being a historian, like other callings, carries its occupational diseases. To be sure, I do not face the same hazards as, say, a coal miner. Instead, my curse is that I am unable to take in historical novels or […]
A timeless tale of wartime loss — now a children’s book
August 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment
In 1942, when Yoshito Wayne Osaki was forced into an American concentration camp along with some 120,000 persons of Japanese descent, he and his family could take only what they could carry. For Osaki, this meant leaving behind his prized possession and best friend: his dog Teny. As his family set off for the camp, […]
Call for artwork and stories from WWII camps
About five years ago I met Mrs. Rosalie Gould, the former mayor of McGehee, Ark. and a strong advocate for teaching and visiting the Japanese American concentration camps in her community. Mrs. Gould told me she had a collection of children’s artworks in her spare room and welcomed me to see them. I was absolutely […]