My kids, 12 and 9, are Chinese and Japanese American, their elementary school in Oakland, Calif. primarily Asian American, and the two branches of their families both began immigrating to California over a century ago. Thanks to their family and community, they are surrounded by various reminders of their cultural heritage. Of these, food might […]
Nikkei Brewers Yelich and Hiura having monster seasons in Majors
August 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
After taking the Los Angeles Dodgers to a full seven games in the 2018 National League Championship Series, the Milwaukee Brewers entered the 2019 Major League Baseball Season with high hopes. Those hopes hinge on a talented roster that includes Nikkei players Christian Yelich and Keston Hiura.
ELUSIVE DREAMS: Proud hapa finds marrow match but loses cancer battle
May 23, 2019 by Leave a Comment
After enduring a year’s worth of treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Paul Ota decided to fly home to the Bay Area to pick up his universal passport. A universal passport is a document that symbolizes a person’s goal to travel the world. He had been on the waitlist for one since before he was diagnosed with […]
Mixed-heritage Japanese Americans seek bone marrow matches
October 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last January, Paul Ota felt a pain in his chest. Maybe, he thought, he had pulled a muscle at the gym. Upon visiting his doctor, though, Ota was diagnosed with advanced non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that can start in a person’s lymph nodes. After six rounds of chemotherapy and surgery to destroy the […]
New headquarters for J-Sei in works
February 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment
EMERYVILLE, Calif. — J-Sei, a multi-generational and multi-cultural organization with its roots in Nikkei values and culture, purchased and is in the process of remodeling its new headquarters at 1285 66th Ave. in Emeryville, Calif. Located about two miles from the organization’s current headquarters and one mile from its senior center space — both in […]
Multiracial, multiethnic patients struggle to find marrow matches
July 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Because Michael Sakata is of Japanese and Mexican ancestry, the need for new donors to register is crucial. Unlike blood donations, bone marrow matches depend more on the ethnicity of the individual donating their marrow and the individual receiving the transplant. According to Carol Gillespie, Asian American Donor Program’s executive director, it will be difficult […]
New report details the changing demographics of the AAPI community
February 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice released a new demographic report, “A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in California,†Feb. 4. The report provides data on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, other minorities and the general population of California, with respect to topics including health, income, education […]
A comprehensive and complex look at multiethnic Asian American identities
January 1, 2013 by 1 Comment
WHEN HALF IS WHOLE: MULTIETHNIC ASIAN AMERICAN IDENTITIES By Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu (Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2012, 248 pp., $21.95, paperback) The whole spectrum of the mixed race, multiethnic Asian American experience could never be contained in a single book. That said, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu’s new book, “When Half is Whole,†comes pretty close (without […]
Film to highlight need for multiethnic donors
March 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The award-winning team behind “Mixed Match,†a feature-length documentary about the difficulties multiethnic patients with deadly blood diseases face when searching for bone marrow donors, has launched an online fundraising campaign to raise $25,000 to support its production and post-production work. Jeff Chiba Stearns is the director and executive producer of […]
Multiracial: Border Crosser: Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu navigates nations, cultures and academia
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu is looking again toward Japan. A psychotherapist, writer and academic, Murphy-Shigematsu has lived in Palo Alto, Calif. the past eight years, teaching at Stanford University and running an independent multicultural consulting practice. Life in the Bay Area, he says, is easy for someone like him, the son of an Irish American man and […]