Harry K. Honda

The dictionary in question is the New Kenkyusha Japanese-English Dictionary, published in Tokyo in 1931. This was a gift from Masaru Miyauchi, my cousin, in Fukuoka Prefecture on my mother’s side, when I graduated from Maryknoll School as an eighth grader in 1932. The dictionary, its binding scotch-taped around the spine now, remains in good use and standing to this day.

During my high school days, Mom kept encouraging me to write letters to my cousin in Nihongo and Masaru-san responded in English. Our letters were truly simple. We were writing about the weather, our high school, and weekend ...

Almost twenty years ago, on January 15, 1985, a steel container, 4 feet high and 18 inches in diameter, was buried beneath a tree fronting the George and Sakaye Aratani Japan America Theater at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. The tiny plaque marking the spot where this Little Tokyo Centennial Time Capsule is today is no longer there, having been removed for safekeeping. Some have noticed bronze plates were pulled off the other sites within J-town.

Perhaps, as each decade looms, the Nikkei community should be reminded that there is a time capsule containing a variety of memorabilia ...

The first Japanese to arrive in 1869 were two servants, T. Kamo and I. Nosaka, of the Kewen family living in El Molino Viejo, the Old Mill, previously owned by Mission San Gabriel in San Marino today. Their names are recorded in the 1870 Census. The late senior curator William Mason of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History believed they were members of the ill-fated Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony near Sacramento.

By 1884, there were fewer than fifty Japanese in town, one of whom, Hamanosuke Shigeta, opened a restaurant at 340 East First Street, in a ...

ONE AUGUST MORNING, time allowed for me to view Killer Subs at Pearl Harbor, a DVD about the five Japanese mini-submarines, called “tubes” while being produced at Kure Naval Base in Hiroshima. To remain submerged for a long time, air conditioners were installed for the two-man minisubs. Torpedoes were trimmed to fit. Gyrocompass provided direction while undersea.
 
By late November, 1941, minisubs were transported by a mother sub for Hawaii. Their mission was not to fire until after the air attack. That their orders were personally handed from the Japanese Sixth Fleet admiral only heighten the glory to come.

The ...

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Overall over 500 participated in the joint convention of the Association of Nikkei and Japanese Abroad (48th annual Kaigai Nikkeijin Taikai-KNT) and Asociación Panamericana Nikkei (14th Convention of Panamerican Nikkei-COPANI) from July 18-21, 2007. There were 245 Brazilians, 156 from the Spanish-speaking countries such as Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, etc., and 66 from English speaking countries, the United States, Canada and Australia.

For the first time, delegates from Indonesia, Venezuela and New Caledonia participated. Uruguay will host COPANI in 2009 with Argentina and Paraguay Nikkei assisting the Japanese colony there comprised of around ...