culture en

Kikou Yamata: Rediscovering the First Nisei Writer

Throughout the 20th century, Nikkei writers have dreamed of writing “the Great Nisei novel,” a work of literature that would express the Japanese/American experience ...

culture en ja es pt

Nikkei Chronicles #8 — Nikkei Heroes: Trailblazers, Role Models, and Inspirations

Mine Okubo

The artist Mine Okubo is most famous for her book, Citizen 13660, a graphic memoir of the Japanese American concentration camps. She became my hero ...

culture en

The Art of Being Japanese Canadian

Human life – indeed all life – is poetry. It’s we who live it, unconsciously, day by day, like scenes in a play, yet in its ...

culture en

Canadian Nikkei Series

Sally Ito’s Memoir The Emperor’s Orphans: An interview - Part 2

Read Part 1 >> What does being Nikkei mean to you today? Being Nikkei today means being aware of who I am regarding my personal history ...

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Canadian Nikkei Series

Sally Ito’s Memoir The Emperor’s Orphans: An interview - Part 1

Nation of Birds What if our only home were the air And our wings flapping through it? And time the space we lived in And ...

politics en

K.K. Kawakami, Cosmopolitan Issei Writer

One intriguing aspect of Japanese immigrant experience before World War II was the diverse intellectual life of community members. Although most early Issei were farmers ...

community en

Camp Memorials, Silence, and Restlessness: A Dialogue with Brandon Shimoda - Part 2

Read Part 1 >> May 15, 2017 Hi Brandon, I wonder if we both answer questions by adding to them, by writing more into them, by ...

community en

Camp Memorials, Silence, and Restlessness: A Dialogue with Brandon Shimoda - Part 1

2017 has been a Year of Remembrance in the Japanese American community, commemorating 75 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066. Many Days of ...

culture en

Whodunit? Naomi Hirahara Draws Readers Into Japanese American History and Culture

Born and raised in Pasadena, California, Naomi Hirahara is a writer with a love of Japanese American history. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in ...

culture en

Nina Revoyr On Writing About Race and the Mountains - Q&A: Mixed-Race Japanese American Writer Discusses Her Latest Novel, "Lost Canyon"

I’ll always have a special love for Nina Revoyr’s writing. Her 2003 novel, Southland, was the first book I ever encountered by a ...