Emiko Tsuchida
@emikotsuchidaEmiko Tsuchida is freelance writer and digital marketer living in San Francisco. She has written on the representations of mixed race Asian American women and conducted interviews with some of the top Asian American women chefs. Her work has appeared in the Village Voice, the Center for Asian American Media, and the forthcoming Beiging of America series. She is the creator of Tessaku, a project that collects stories from Japanese Americans who experienced the concentration camps.
Updated December 2016
Stories from This Author
Kazuki Hirose - Part 1
May 9, 2019 • Emiko Tsuchida
“There were six to car, that’s including the driver. But you know, the driver himself could’ve been overpowered. But they trusted us that much that they stopped to feed us lunch. We could have run away but they trusted us that much. ” — Kazuki Hirose A first time conversation with Kazuki Hirose has all the familiarity and warmth of talking to an old friend. His fond reflections of growing up in Silicon Valley’s beautiful farm country and the friends …
Aiko Ebihara
April 24, 2019 • Emiko Tsuchida
“During all of those long years of World War II, I took that Evacuation Day very personally. For me, as an eighteen year old, it was an unreasonable action by the U.S. Government that took ‘my Aiko.’” — Velora Williams Morris This story of Aiko Ebihara really begins in the friendship forged between two families living in Salem, Oregon, prior to the start of WWII. Aiko’s parents, Maki and Frank, were restaurant owners and full-time cooks at Tokio Sukiyaki, living …
Lillian Ogata-Bonner
Feb. 26, 2019 • Emiko Tsuchida
Lillian and I met serendipitously coming home from the 2018 Manzanar pilgrimage where, on a long, three and a half hour bus ride from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles, the organizing committee welcomed camp survivors to share their story with the group. Lillian was the first one to volunteer her story, and reveal her special connection to Manzanar: She was a baby in the camp orphanage, formally known as the Children’s Village, which was the only one that operated …
Jack and Grace Fujimoto - Part 2
Dec. 26, 2018 • Emiko Tsuchida
Read Part 1 >> It is because now that so much time has passed I think even. The people I speak with are getting more honest about how or they’re taking guesses with how their parents might have felt. I think as people get older they realize you know, ‘I want to say this truth about my past.’ Jack: Yeah. [To Grace] What do you think? Grace: Being the baby of the family I had way too much fun. Jack: …
Jack and Grace Fujimoto - Part 1
Dec. 25, 2018 • Emiko Tsuchida
“My mom just about died in camp that first year because it was so damn hot. And I remember I used to have to go to the canteen every day. And they kept saying, ‘Hey get your ass out of here. We’re ain’t going to give you anymore ice.’ But everybody suffered if they weren’t used to the heat. So mom just about perished, died.” — Jack Fujimoto When you listen to Jack and Grace Fujimoto talk, you can’t help …
The Songbird of Manzanar: Mary Nomura - Part 2
Nov. 23, 2018 • Emiko Tsuchida
Read Part 1 >> Going back into Manzanar again, was there one person that gave you that nickname “the songbird”? I don’t know who gave me that nickname, but I kind of think it could have been the music director of the camp, Louie Frizzell. He took me under his wing and he used to go out into the camp on the days when he didn’t have to teach and bring brand new sheet music for me to learn; new songs …
The Songbird of Manzanar: Mary Nomura - Part 1
Nov. 22, 2018 • Emiko Tsuchida
“I always thought when I was a little girl, ‘I’m going to be a singer on the radio.’ I thought I would not get in the movies because who’s going to see a Japanese girl perform in the movies? So if they hear me singing on a record, they won’t know it’s my Japanese face singing.” — Mary Nomura Mary Kageyama Nomura was a teenager when the war broke out between the U.S. and Japan. She and her siblings were …
Ann Sato - Part 2
Oct. 2, 2018 • Emiko Tsuchida
Read Part 1 >> And then you as an American, did you experience any backlash? I remember there was an American soldier that was downed, an airplane was downed and naturally I ran with the whole mob of children that went to see them. And he was in a prison. I remember, and these bars were wooden, it was a local jail. And I felt so sorry for him. I remember running home ahead of the group with tears in …
Ann Sato - Part 1
Oct. 1, 2018 • Emiko Tsuchida
"I remember being strafed because I was in the factory. And so I guess they knew which ones to bomb. I remember every time this siren would ring, we reluctantly put our helmets on and run into the forest. And at that time I really prayed to God.” — Ann Sato After taking the last ship back from sunny Southern California to Japan with her parents and sister in 1940, Ann Sato’s life was completely upended with the escalating tensions …
Lily Yuri Tsurumaki - Part 5
July 9, 2018 • Emiko Tsuchida
Read Part 4 >> And then you had another marriage. How did that happen? Oh, with Ted. He was born and raised in Japan but my office Japan Airlines was in downtown L.A., on Sixth street. I needed brochures to put into the rack for the people to pick up to entice them on tours. So I went to Japan Travel Bureau one day, I said I’ll pick it up during my lunch hour. So I went to the office. …
