Koji Steven Sakai
@ksakaiKoji Steven Sakai has written four feature films that have been produced, Haunted Highway (2006), The People I’ve Slept With (2009), Monster & Me (2012), and #1 Serial Killer (2012). He also served as a producer on The People I’ve Slept With and #1 Serial Killer. His feature length screenplay, Romeo, Juliet & Rosaline, was optioned by Amazon Studios. Koji’s debut novel, Romeo & Juliet Vs. Zombies, was released by Luthando Coeur, the fantasy imprint of Zharmae Publishing Press in February of 2015.
Updated March 2015
Stories from This Author
“Kuma,” A Short Story, Part 3 of 3
March 20, 2015 • Koji Steven Sakai
Read Part 2 >> Eddy’s life changed right away. He stopped going to school and his family wasn’t allowed to leave the house at night. Eddy spent the first couple of days playing with Kuma and with Julia once she got back from school. Eddy noticed a lot of strangers were going in and out of his front door and how things around the house were slowly disappearing. He found his mom arguing with a man over a brand new …
“Kuma,” A Short Story, Part 2 of 3
March 19, 2015 • Koji Steven Sakai
Read Part 1 >> Eddy was a Nisei, which means second generation Japanese. In other words, his parents were born in Japan, but he was born in America and was therefore a citizen. Because he had never visited his parent’s homeland and since he couldn’t speak a word of their native language, he always felt more American than Japanese. But when others saw Eddy, they saw the enemy. At school, the other kids wouldn’t let him play baseball during recess …
“Kuma,” A Short Story, Part 1 of 3
March 18, 2015 • Koji Steven Sakai
Eddy Murakami’s 10th birthday was on July 4, 1941 and he knew he wanted a dog. He even had a name picked out already. The dog’s name was going to be Kuma, which in Japanese means, “bear.” For the entire month of June, Eddy begged his dad to get him a dog. “Dad, can I have a dog?” Eddy would ask every time he saw him. And every time Mr. Murakami would say, “No.” But Eddy wasn’t the kind of …
Book Review: “How Much Do You Love Me?” by Paul Mark Tag
Feb. 17, 2015 • Koji Steven Sakai
How Much Do You Love Me? by Paul Mark Tag is the kind of novel I usually hate. Here’s the Amazon.com synopsis: It’s December 1941, and the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Politicians fuel anti-Japanese hysteria and campaign to segregate Japanese Americans. During this period of hate and racial frenzy, Keiko and James, a Japanese American and a Caucasian, fall in love and marry. Before long, James goes off to war and Keiko to an internment camp. Sixty years later, …
A Response To Roger Lotchins’ “There Were No Concentration Camps In America” Article
Nov. 9, 2012 • Koji Steven Sakai
The first lesson I want to teach my son is that there are idiots in the world. Lots of them. And just because you teach a class in college or you have a degree does not mean you are not an idiot. Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that ALL professors and people who have degrees are idiots but some of them are. Roger Lotchin, an alleged professor of history at the University of North Carolina, is …
Top 10 Iconic Japanese American Photos
April 18, 2012 • Koji Steven Sakai
Walt Disney once said, “Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.” Pictures tell a story that even the best writer’s words could never fully describe. That’s saying a lot coming from a writer. I wanted to “tell” the story of Japanese Americans. Here are my top 10 iconic pictures that tell my story. #10: Japanese American Baseball African Americans weren’t the only group of people excluded from playing in organized sports. …
Kendee Yamaguchi, Executive Director, Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs
March 27, 2012 • Koji Steven Sakai
Kendee Yamaguchi is the Executive Director of the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. She was a director in the Office of Management and Administration at the White House. Prior to her appointment to the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, she worked in the Office of Public Liaison on the signing of the executive order establishing the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She has experience working as a television executive for one of …
Marilyn Tokuda, Co-Chair, Asian Pacific American Media Coalition
March 21, 2012 • Koji Steven Sakai
Marilyn Tokuda has been working for East West Players (EWP) since 2002 and is the organizations first Arts Education Director. She was one of the founding members of COLD TOFU, the first Asian American comedy group and served as its Artistic Director for six years. Marilyn also works with Oku & Associates in diversity training with Fortune 500 companies as well as representing East West Players on the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC) which meets with television networks on …
Lucy Walker, Director of The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
March 12, 2012 • Koji Steven Sakai
Being that my mother is from Japan, I feel a connection to that country that many Japanese Americans do not. So when the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster hit in March, I felt it in my gut. I was worried not only about my relatives but also friends and strangers alike. At home, I made it point to take another look at my family’s earthquake disaster plan and make sure we all knew what to do. However, after only seven months, life has …
Top Five Japanese American Women Civil Rights Pioneers You Should Know
March 1, 2012 • Koji Steven Sakai
In California, January 30 was officially Fred Korematsu Day. It is important to honor and remember Korematsu but I believe it is also a time to look back at some of the other Japanese Americans (JAs) who also fought for the rights of not just JAs but all Americans. Unfortunately, Japanese American women don’t get enough credit for their contributions to the civil rights movement. I want to change that. So I created a list of five JA women activists …
