culture en

Persimmon and Frog: Reading a Kibei-Nisei Tacoma Artist's Journey

In 2014, I had visited Tacoma artist Fumiko Kimura in order to profile her for a retrospective exhibition at Tacoma Community College. Kimura’s story ...

community en ja

Yoemon Shinmasu – My Grandfather’s Life in Seattle

Part 6 – Atae’s education

In Part 5, I wrote about the pinnacle of Yoemon’s barbershop business in Walla Walla. This time I will focus on Yoemon’s other ...

community en ja

Yoemon Shinmasu – My Grandfather’s Life in Seattle

Part 5 – Barbershop business in its heyday

In Part 4, I shared how Yoemon’s Seattle-born children were left with Yoemon’s parents in Kamai and how Atae was brought back to ...

community en ja

Yoemon Shinmasu – My Grandfather’s Life in Seattle

Part 4 – Sending children to Japan

Part 3 introduced Yoemon’s family in Seattle after his marriage and his barbershop business with his wife. In part 4, I will write about ...

community en

Tessaku

Lily Yuri Tsurumaki - Part 1

“One day, a classmate saw my name is Lily Oki and she was surprised she says, ‘You know I asked my mother, you disappeared you ...

migration en

Hatsumi Imagawa’s Return to America

I was surrounded by thousands of passengers; many were Japanese immigrants just like me. But amidst the hustle and bustle of all these travelers who ...

war en

Tessaku

George Shimizu - Part 2

Read part 1 How did you and your wife meet?  It’s a long story. Do you want to hear it? I do, I’m ...

war en

Tessaku

George Shimizu - Part 1

“I could hear a sailor behind me saying, ‘White flag, 2 o’clock, four hundred yards.’ Those were magic words, I’ll never forget it ...

community en ja

Peace Activist Passes Away at 90 – Remembering the Energetic Kaz Suyeishi

Call Me Grandma Kaz Suyeishi would start off her talks on peace by calling out to her audience, “Please call me grandma.” Often in conversations ...

community en ja

Voices of the Volunteers: The Building Blocks of the Japanese American National Museum

James Michiya Yoshinaga

James Yoshinaga was born in 1929 in downtown Los Angeles as the eldest son of a mother from Fukuoka and a father from Kagoshima. His ...