Junko Yoshida
Born and raised in Tokyo, Junko Yoshida studied law at Hosei University and moved to America. After graduating from California State University, Chico, with a degree from the Department of Communication Arts & Science, she started working at the Rafu Shimpo. As an editor, she has been reporting and writing about culture, art, and entertainment within the Nikkei society in Southern California, Japan-U.S. relations, as well as political news in Los Angeles, California.
Updated April 2018
Stories from This Author
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Voices of Japanese-American A-bomb Survivors and Their Emotional Scars [Part 1]: Passing on their experiences and praying for peace
Nov. 13, 2019 • Junko Yoshida
Memorial service for the victims of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki On the 4th, a memorial service for the victims of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was held at Koyasan Betsuin in Little Tokyo. The tragic experiences of the victims and the scars burned into their hearts. At the memorial service, there were people who were actually victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. We listened to their voices as they passed on their experiences to …
"I won't give up until I'm a chef": Kunikko Yagi, owner of fried chicken specialty restaurant "Picnico"
July 22, 2019 • Junko Yoshida
"There's no way you can become a chef at 26." Her ex-husband's words ignited her fighting spirit. And she vowed to herself, "I will never give up until I can call myself a chef." "Pikunico," a fried chicken specialty restaurant, opened in December last year at RAW DTLA, a complex in downtown Los Angeles. Its owner, Hisako Yagi, was a former banker in Japan. Having never cooked before, she was led to a good encounter in America, where she trained …
Ikkyu Strong
July 5, 2019 • Junko Yoshida
After fleeing for their lives in Camp Fire, couple reopens restaurant 60 miles away in Red Bluff. “It was like an ENDLESS TUNNEL. I felt like I was dropped into deep darkness. But looking back, it can’t be helped. I can start over again as long as I am alive.” Tomoyo and Shigeo Kojima lost everything in the Camp Fire on Nov. 8 last year. They had their own house and one rental house, and owned a Japanese restaurant in …
Supplement: The Article that Revealed Okei to the World
May 8, 2019 • Junko Yoshida
The Wakamatsu Colony, born of the dreams and labor of the new immigrants, collapsed in only two years. One of the members of the group – a young woman whose first name was Okei – was taken in by a local farming family named Veerkamp. As described in a previous installment in this series, Okei came from the town of Aizu Wakamatsu at the age of 17. Her life in California was cut short when she fell suddenly ill and …
Part 3: Sharing of Family Stories
May 1, 2019 • Junko Yoshida
Read Part 2 >> Kuni Takes a Local as His Wife Following the collapse of the Wakamatsu Colony, a settler by the name of Kuninosuke Masumizu (1849-1915) opted to remain in the town of Coloma. Known to many simply as Kuni, he worked as a carpenter and helped to build the Coloma Hotel and the Fresno Buddhist Church. Many of the houses built by Kuni in the Coloma and Auburn areas were still standing in May 1930, as they were …
Part 2: Okei's California Home
March 25, 2019 • Junko Yoshida
Read Part 1 >> The story of the first Japanese woman to be buried in American soil emerges from history’s shadows. The Wakamatsu Colony had collapsed and the pioneering dreams of the Japanese immigrants were shattered. The once-hopeful colonists dispersed, some deciding to return to Japan, while others chose to stay in California. A neighboring farming family named Veerkamp purchased the site of the colony in Gold Hill, and hired some members of the former settlement to stay on for …
Part 1: Pioneers Who Brought Their Hopes and Dreams
March 18, 2019 • Junko Yoshida
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese American settlement on the North American frontier If not for the relatively fresh flowers and metal cordon surrounding it, a small gravestone on a quiet hill in the California town of Gold Hill might go largely unnoticed. It is the final resting place of a girl, a member of first group of Japanese colonists to settle in North America – and the first Japanese woman to be buried in American soil. …
"Yes" or "No": Grandchildren share their grandfather's experiences - Part 2
June 6, 2018 • Junko Yoshida
Read Part 1 >> Tsuchida communicates through the project Diana Emiko Tsuchida, a researcher of Japanese-American history, is currently working on a project called " Iron Fence ," in which she listens to the stories of Japanese-Americans who were in internment camps and shares their experiences and life at the time. Unlike the grandfather of Rob Sato, a Japanese-American artist introduced in Part 1 , Tsuchida's grandfather was one of those who did not pledge allegiance to the United States …
"YES" or "NO": Grandchildren share their grandfather's experiences - Part 1
June 5, 2018 • Junko Yoshida
Rob Sato communicates through his paintings Rob Sato, a Japanese-American artist, painted the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a Japanese-American unit deployed to the European front during World War II, and the lives of people in internment camps. Sato's grandfather pledged loyalty to the United States during the war, answering "YES" to the loyalty registration question. Meanwhile, Diana Emiko Tsuchida, who is researching Japanese-American history, had a grandfather who answered "NO." We spoke to the two men, whose grandfathers were polar …
Part 2: A family story between Japan and the US: Finally meeting my biological mother, and then parting ways
April 16, 2018 • Junko Yoshida
Read Part 1 >> Naoko Shimamura, who lives in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, has been searching for her cousin, Terry Weber (Tetsu-san), for 30 years. Terry Weber is the son of her uncle, the late painter Yojiro Shimamura, and was adopted to the United States at the age of three. She has contacted orphanages and child consultation centers in Tokyo, the U.S. Embassy, and even the university that Terry's adoptive parents graduated from, but despite her efforts, she has been …
