Jeri Okamoto Tanaka

Jeri Okamoto Tanaka is a third-generation Japanese American whose parents were born and raised in rural Wyoming. Her writing is inspired by family history, her childhood in Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Oregon, and California, and her experiences as an adoptive mother and community volunteer. She serves on the Little Tokyo Service Center board and is the Advisor & Parent Coordinator for the China Care Bruins Youth Mentorship Program at UCLA. She resides in Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in Adoptive Families magazine, Guidepost's Joys of Christmas, The Sun, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Journal of Families with Children from China, OCA Image, UCLA Chinese Cultural Dance Dragonfly Quarterly, China Care Foundation's Care Package, and the book Kicking in the Wall: A Year of Writing Exercises, Prompts & Quotes to Help You Break Through Your Blocks and Reach Your Writing Goals.

Updated September 2015

identity en ja es pt

Nikkei Chronicles #4 — Nikkei Family: Memories, Traditions, and Values

Walk It Off: True Grit & Gaman

By Jeri Okamoto Tanaka
9 Oct 2015

“Walk it off.” When I was growing up, that was my father’s solution for almost every problem: A fight with my younger brother? Go outside. Walk it off. Got a headache or a stomach ache? Walk it off. Nervous about starting a new school? Can’t figure out your homework? Walk it off. Although I didn’t understand it then, this mantra had propelled my father through life and would one day save him and become a life lesson for me.

My Japanese American father, who once stood tall at a stocky 5'8" with broad shoulders and thick ...

food en ja es pt

Nikkei Chronicles #2 — Nikkei+ ~ Stories of Mixed Language, Traditions, Generations & Race ~

Gohan & Good Fortune -- Adopting a New Year and New Traditions

By Jeri Okamoto Tanaka
26 Nov 2013

Akemashita Omedetou.
Xin Nian Kuai Le.
Happy New Year & Auld Lang Syne.

This is how we welcome the new year in our Japanese, Chinese, and Irish American family. I am a third-generation Japanese American Sansei with roots in the Rocky Mountains. My husband’s Irish American forebears journeyed to the Pacific Northwest across the Oregon Trail and he grew up in the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley. Our two daughters are first generation Chinese Americans, who joined our family through international adoption, traveling from China to Southern California cradled in our arms. Over the years, we’ve personalized our Nikkei-plus ...

food en

Nikkei Chronicles #1 — ITADAKIMASU! A Taste of Nikkei Culture

Grandpa Tanaka's Pilgrim Stuffing

By Jeri Okamoto Tanaka
22 Nov 2012

Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, but, as a young Sansei, I didn’t believe there was any connection between my Japanese family and the Mayflower pilgrims who colonized New England.

I grew up in the West in the 1960s and ’70s, often in towns without much diversity, where I didn’t feel very pilgrim-like or “American,” that is, Caucasian. I secretly longed to wear the pilgrim’s black dress and white apron with ringlets under my bonnet. Instead, looking more like Squanto and Pocahontas, I was cast as the noble “Indian” in school pageants—wearing my long hair in ...

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Japanese migrants and their descendants

Jeri Okamoto Tanaka

Nikkei Chronicles #4 — Nikkei Family: Memories, Traditions, and Values

Nikkei Chronicles #2 — Nikkei+ ~ Stories of Mixed Language, Traditions, Generations & Race ~

Nikkei Chronicles #1 — ITADAKIMASU! A Taste of Nikkei Culture

Series this author contributes to

Warehouse on the Corner of Gardena and Orchard*

Japanese Barber Shop in São Paulo

The Hopeful Child

Nikkei Chronicles #1 — ITADAKIMASU! A Taste of Nikkei Culture

Japanese Cuisine in the Nikkei Memory

Celebrating 55 Years of Service and Self-Defence

They’ve come a Long Way: Chinese American Support for Japanese Americans in World War II

Heart and Courage: A Nisei Veteran’s Story

My Name is Neal

Journal Entry #Reed's IQ is 267: "We're Just Clever Apes..."

On a Soul-Searching Journey with Kishi Bashi

特別座談会: 四世ビザはどうあるべきか？＝日伯交流の将来担う人材育成の枠組みとして＝

第９回 増え続ける外国人労働者

El haiku que habita entre los peruanos

SHINDO RENMEI, uma página sombria da imigração japonesa no Brasil

特別座談会: 四世ビザはどうあるべきか？＝日伯交流の将来担う人材育成の枠組みとして＝

第８回 日本に帰化するメリット、デメリット

Kendo Koi y Junsaku Mizusawa: médicos japoneses en Veracruz y Oaxaca

Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

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Celebrating 55 Years of Service and Self-Defence

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Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

Pictures and Poetry: Deepening the Connection to my Japanese Roots

Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

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Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

From Lung to Ito

Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

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Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

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Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

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Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

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Clifford Uyeda and Ben Kuroki: Nisei Conservatives in the 1960s

第９回増え続ける外国人労働者

第８回日本に帰化するメリット、デメリット