Naomi Hirahara
@gasagasagirlNaomi Hirahara is the author of the Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai mystery series, which features a Kibei Nisei gardener and atomic-bomb survivor who solves crimes, Officer Ellie Rush series, and now the new Leilani Santiago mysteries. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo, she has written a number of nonfiction books on the Japanese American experience and several 12-part serials for Discover Nikkei.
Updated October 2019
Stories from This Author
Chapter Six—The Other Woman
Jan. 4, 2016 • Naomi Hirahara
Sachi was always a bit intimidated by beautiful women, especially Asian ones. She herself ranked about a 5 in appearance, maybe a 6 when she was in her late twenties and playing in a volleyball league. She had daikon ashi, white radish-shaped legs that were good for squatting to set a ball, but not so good in jeans—either skinny or bell bottoms. Olivia was definitely in the realm of a 10. Or maybe even more. She must have been in …
Chapter Five—Chicken McNuggets Confidential
Dec. 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
Sachi Yamane didn’t know what it was like to be fired. She had snagged her job at Los Angeles County General Hospital after she had finished nursing school. That had been almost forty years ago and she had stayed in its ER ever since. For Kenji the bodyguard to be fired in front of her was uncomfortable. Disturbing even, because she somehow felt responsible. She got up from one of the penthouse overstuffed chairs and followed him out the double …
Chapter Four—The Inner Circle
Nov. 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
T-Rex, also known as Craig Buck, was dead. Sachi Yamane felt like she was going to collapse right there at the banquet table in front of their Star Wars origami centerpiece. How could that be? She had just spent an hour with the master origamist in his exclusive class in the hotel penthouse that same afternoon. The whole banquet hall was atwitter with the announcement. It wasn’t an official announcement by the Left Coast Origami Convention organizer, Charles, but his …
Chapter Three—Little Black Dress
Oct. 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
“Well, how was T-Rex’s class?” Barbara Lu, Sachi Yamane’s roommate at the convention hotel, asked. Seated at the desk by the window, Barbara was folding one of her trademark origami otters. “Okay,” Sachi said, again trying to stay positive. She placed her convention bag and purse on her double bed which housekeeping had neatly restored to its original immaculate state. “Well, let me see it.” Barbara stood up. “What?” “You know, what T-Rex had you make in his special seminar.” …
Chapter Two—Doctor Death
Sept. 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
“So what we will be folding is…” Sachi felt her heart pound hard. Was her lanyard ID badge over her chest moving up and down, too? What was Craig “T-Rex” Buck, the 21st century master of origami, going to have them fold? The mood around the polished wood table was indeed emotional. They were supposed to be the elite folders at this Left Coast Origami Convention in Anaheim. Holly West, known for her nimble hands, rubbed her fingertips together. Sachi …
Chapter One—Que Sera, Sera
Aug. 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
For the past three days, Sachi Yamane was in heaven. Origami heaven, that is. Not only was she immersed in her most favorite pastime—folding square pieces of paper into three-dimensional sculptures, but she also was away from her everyday life of tending to gunshot wounds, battered women, and sick babies. She loved—well, used to love her work as an emergency room nurse—but lately, especially after the untimely passing of coworkers (from the stress, everyone presumed), she was just counting the …
Chapter Twelve—Keep on Shining
July 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
Read Chapter Eleven >> We talk about bullying as if it’s a 21st century phenomenon. Boys bullying girls and boys who don’t fit in, the mean skinny girls bullying the dorky fat girls, and it goes on and on. But old farts like me know that unfortunately bullying is nothing new. It’s been around since the beginning of time and it was definitely part of my life in the Seventies. In Orange County, I created a persona. I was the …
Chapter Eleven—True Confessions
June 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
Read Chapter Ten >> We’re in my LAPD pal’s black-and-white. Officer Doug Brenner makes me sit in the back seat—it’s protocol—like I’m a common criminal, and unfortunately this isn’t the first time for me. You see, I’ve been under arrest in the past, but now I’m a concerned father. My 14-year-old daughter Maddy is missing and I’m going out of my mind trying to find her. At least Doug has the siren on at full force as we speed down Wilshire …
Chapter Ten—Following the Doc Martens
May 4, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
Read Chapter Nine >> Some people, when faced with a crisis, go ballistic. They run around, their faces red and their voices bellowing. Others get stone cold. I’m in the latter category, which I guess is a good thing because I’m a PI. And right now on one of the hottest days in summer in Los Angeles, I’m freezing as if I was dropped in the middle of Antarctica. My infuriating, Doc Martens-donning goth daughter, fourteen years old, is missing. …
How West L.A. Became a Haven for Japanese-Americans
April 23, 2015 • Naomi Hirahara
Long Before It Was the Westside’s Ramen Epicenter, Sawtelle Boulevard Bustled with Japanese-Owned Nurseries and ‘Gardeners’ Colleges’ My introduction to the West Los Angeles neighborhood my parents called “So-ta-ru” came in the 1970s when we visited relatives there. I still am unclear on exactly how we are related—it was definitely on my mother’s side and it may go back to some village in Hiroshima. But for my immigrant mother, these relatives were her only blood relatives in the United States. …
