Over the years, Kellyn Acosta desperately wanted to fit in. However, the midfielder for the Los Angeles F.C., a Major League Soccer club, realized that being different made him who he was. This past year in Qatar at the World Cup, Acosta became the first Asian American, and the first Japanese American, to play on […]
Helping my mixed-race kids rethink their ideas about race and privilege
September 29, 2022 by Leave a Comment
A few months ago, while I was getting my 6-year-old ready for an evening bath, he pointed to his deeply tanned arm and blurted out that he was white because his skin is white. I quickly replied, “Your skin is not white, darling, and being white is not really about the actual color of your […]
Ethnically ambiguous
September 30, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Sometimes it is hard to fully grasp that you have been living on an island until moments after you have left its gravitational pull. Last week, I watched as the place I will always consider home rapidly shrank in size as my plane lifted higher, the blue vastness of the ocean soon overtaking the views […]
Olympics carry a question: What does it mean to be Japanese?
August 5, 2021 by Leave a Comment
TOKYO — Two multiracial athletes, two high-profile roles: Rising NBA star Rui Hachimura carried the Japanese flag at the Olympics’ opening ceremony. Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron. For Japan, it was a remarkable showcase of racial diversity — but one that also highlighted how much remains missing in a nation that values […]
The Megumi Nishikura Story: Filming the distant dance of multiracial Japanese identity
September 24, 2020 by Leave a Comment
To many in Japan, Megumi Nishikura doesn’t look like a Megumi. “People would assume that I was fully Japanese and when I would go meet them in-person they would do a double take,†Nishikura said. “They would be shocked that I look like I do and speak as well as I do, and when I […]
Multiracial athletes sparking debate in Japan ahead of 2020 Games
August 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment
TOKYO — Amid a shifting cultural landscape, a handful of talented multiracial athletes are among some of Japan’s best chances to reach the podium at next summer’s Tokyo Olympics and consequently draw attention to an often ignored yet growing segment of the country’s population. At the top of that list is tennis superstar Naomi Osaka, […]
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 […]
WALKING THE MIDDLE PATH: USC professor engages hapa identity via Buddhism
May 23, 2019 by Leave a Comment
If there’s one person besides, perhaps, Naomi Osaka, who has reinvigorated the subject of mixed race in the Japanese diaspora, it’s Duncan RyÅ«ken Williams. Born and raised in Tokyo by his Japanese mother and British father, Williams came to the United States to attend Reed College for his undergraduate work before going on to earn […]
Multiracial athletes of Japanese descent and their ascent
May 23, 2019 by Leave a Comment
March 21, 2019, Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. In the bottom of the eighth, Ichiro Suzuki trotted off the baseball diamond for the last time, waving to an unusually emotional Japanese crowd. Soon after, fellow Seattle Mariners Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. remarked that, during his career, Ichiro was able to “cross barriers.†When […]
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