Dean Okamura
Dean Okamura graduated from UCLA in Psychobiology before we had personal computers. Then that all changed resulting in a career reboot Masters from CSUN in Computer Science. I shared Facebook posts about traveling in Japan.
Updated October 2018
Stories from This Author
Search World Story
Feb. 5, 2019 • Dean Okamura
My Palos Verdes Writing Month experience composed of three parts. I call the first part “The Search.” I explored sources of public information for my grandfather. You learn enough to build a family tree. But there are not enough details to reconstruct their lives. I call the second part “The World.” Research can find people with similar experiences. Now you’re looking for a family memory gem. But you won’t find it because you are looking at other people’s lives. You …
Hometowns
Oct. 22, 2018 • Dean Okamura
I wanted to walk where my grandparents, Hikosaburo Okamura and Tsuru Uyeta, walked. In the early 1900s, they left Japan and came to America. I did not speak Japanese. My grandparents did not speak English. I remembered no stories about their lives in Japan. There is a Japanese song, Furusato by Angela Aki, which says: “Home is always calling out my name.” If I visited their Hometowns, would they call out my name? The unprepared visitor One month before my Japan …
