David Yamaguchi
David Yamaguchi is an editor at The North American Post, Seattle’s Japanese community newspaper. A book David co-authored, The Orphan Tsunami of 1700 (Univ. Washington Press, 2005; second ed., 2015), describes how tsunami records from Edo-era Japanese villages helped define today's Pacific Northwest earthquake hazards. It can be perused full-text on Google Books.
Updated September 2020
Stories from This Author
Kiyoko Terao, Early Shin-Issei
June 6, 2021 • David Yamaguchi
Kiyoko Terao interrupted her career as a Tokyo seamstress to come to Seattle, temporarily in 1959, to help her older sister care for her four children. While here, a Nisei asked her to marry him, and so she ended up staying. Below, Kiyoko shares her life story, beginning with her days as a high school student in Imabari, Ehime-ken, Shikoku, during World War II, continuing with her Seattle career, and ending with her present-day life. * * * * * …
Katsura Sunshine Rakugo Storytelling
Oct. 19, 2020 • David Yamaguchi
Washin Kai and Town Hall Seattle welcome renowned entertainer Katsura Sunshine for a special performance of unique storytelling called rakugo. Rakugo (from the kanji for Kyoto, the capital, + speech, language) is a 400-year-old tradition of comic storytelling in Japan. Katsura Sunshine starred in the NHK World TV series Dive into Ukiyo-e, emceed the opening reception for the G20 Summit in Osaka in 2019, and has performed in an extended run of shows Off-Broadway. This special, English-language performance will be …
Fujie Yamasaki, Well-Liked War Bride
Sept. 23, 2020 • David Yamaguchi
Fujie Yamasaki is a person who many readers know. For many years, she was a regular presence at the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival. Until recently, she also routinely volunteered at Keiro Northwest. She is just one of those people whom many can mentally picture as the “lady with her hair tied up in a kerchief, wearing an apron,” quietly doing meaningful, kind things. She comes across as an ordinary, nice mom who goes by her first name. Yet, beneath her …
Helmet for My Pillow and With the Old Breed
May 6, 2019 • David Yamaguchi
ENGLISH READERS know much about the experiences of Japanese-American families during World War II. Many can also trace the wartime journey of the famed JA 442nd infantry across Europe. Yet, our knowledge base drops quickly when we pull back the viewpoint to include the settings in which Nisei linguists served in the Pacific, translating captured documents and questioning Japanese prisoners of war. There are several reasons for this. The translators were widely dispersed among many units. There was lingering wartime …
Semi-Immersion
Feb. 7, 2018 • David Yamaguchi
ON THURSDAY NIGHT, Nov. 16, 2017, I had a date with my cousin, Diane, to see Kuniko Fukushima sing and play the piano at the Royal Room, a jazz club in Columbia City near our homes. When I opened the club door and we walked in, the first thing we heard at the reception front desk—without any beating around the bush—was “Nanmei-sama desu ka?” [How many are in your party?] I had to laugh, for the question took me by surprise. …
Reluctant Islander
Jan. 3, 2017 • David Yamaguchi
These days, Sansei are running out of knowledgeable elders who can tell us of the past. Thus, when I had a chance to join Eileen (Sakamoto) Okada, a longtime docent at the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum for lunch on November 6 with her niece—my photographer Gwen Shigihara—I took advantage of the opportunity. In sitting down with Mrs. Okada, it became clear immediately that she is a person whose words are worth writing down. A Seattle native and alumnus of the …
Growing Up at the Kokusai Theater
June 14, 2016 • David Yamaguchi
In mid-May, I reconnected with Elaine Kitamura and her younger brother, Darrell Kitamura, through a friend of a friend. The Kitamuras are the siblings that sat in the ticket window of the Kokusai Theater, on Maynard in the International District, until it closed its doors in the late 1980s. While I overlapped with both at Cleveland High, until our recent meeting we had not previously talked in depth. For in those days, like many Sansei, the three of us were …
The Japanese Face
May 31, 2016 • David Yamaguchi
Recently, I looked up from reading a newspaper in a Rainier Valley shop to see a middle-aged Southeast Asian couple looking at me, pointing and smiling. When I said hello, the woman beamed and explained, “You look just like my brother! My husband thought that you were him.” They were from Burma. In dance class a year ago, I was stopped while chatting before class by a Chinese student I know only as “Winnie.” “Why do you speak Japanese?” Winnie …
Oriental Garden Center
May 25, 2016 • David Yamaguchi
Man working in yard,No woman watching nearby;Is the man still wrong? Following the theme of the haiku, today we visit a specialty gardening store in Federal Way. Having started as a Nisei business in 1960, the Oriental Garden Center came up as a topic for this scribe to check out through the monthly bonsai classes they have listed on the calendar page. The center is on Pacific Highway South (Highway 99), 15 minutes south of SeaTac airport. On meeting current …
