Junzo Arai
Born in Kawasaki city in Japan, Junzo Arai came to the United States in 2000 and studied Cinema and TV production at Los Angeles City College. He joined Japan America Television in 2003. As a TV director, he received broadcasting awards twice from the Association of Nikkei & Japanese abroad. He joined Soto Group International in 2009 and produced a weekly Japanese Local news program called NTB. In 2015, he started his own production company called Sorack Media Productions and produced online commercial videos and documentaries. One of his documentaries called Dream Blossoms was selected for the Japan Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2019.
Updated July 2020
Stories from This Author
The Last Visit
July 31, 2020 • Junzo Arai
It was in mid-August 1969 in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Tokuji Yoshida, a first-generation Japanese American, was reading that day’s Rafu Shimpo while smoking a cigarette at the dining table. “The 28th Nisei Week Festival Grand Parade will be held tomorrow.” He crushed his cigarette stub in an ashtray and called out to his wife Hisae in the living room, “Hey, we should be going soon.” They were both in their late 60s. Hisae served a bowl of tea to …
