Naomi Hirahara

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Hirahara is the author of the Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai mystery series, which features a Kibei Nisei gardener and atomic-bomb survivor who solves crimes. Her new mystery series with a female hapa bicycle cop was launched in April 2014 with the publication of Murder on Bamboo Lane. The second in the series, Grave on Grand Avenue, is available now. She authored a 12-part serial for Discover Nikkei titled “The Nihongo Papers” and “Baishakunin, Inc.”

Updated June 2015

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Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

Chapter 4

By Naomi Hirahara
4 Dec 2017

It’s past midnight and someone’s turning the key to my double-lock on my front door. I know who it is and even Shippo doesn’t bother to get out of his doggy bed.

Some women wouldn’t like it if their boyfriends smelled better than them. I’ve never worn perfume and sometimes even the scented pages of fashion magazines cause me to dissolve into a spasm of sneezes. Cortez Williams lays it on thick with ample splashes of cologne on his freshly shaven jaw. By midnight, his afternoon shadow is back and the cologne lingers, but it ...

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Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

Chapter 3

By Naomi Hirahara
4 Nov 2017

My cheeks are still a bit flushed from the beer from the Far Bar, but I make sure that I’m fully sober before getting on my bicycle. I’m Hapa and have inherited the Asian flush from my mother’s side. California Vehicle Code Section 21200.5 pretty much says that you can get a citation for riding a bike under the influence. And since a bike is essentially my work wheels, I have to make sure that I don’t end up like my arch enemy Officer Mac Lambert, who had one too many drinks in a Frogtown ...

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Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

Chapter 2

By Naomi Hirahara
4 Oct 2017

“You’ll have to leave the premises,” I tell my best friend Nay Pram as I direct people away from the dead body covered in a furry blue costume. My voice goes into law enforcement mode, and she’s not having it.

She flashes her press pass at me.

I squint. “You’re not 120 pounds.” And she has never been, as long as I have known her.

“This is what I get for bringing your stuff over from Osaka’s?” She hands me my backpack. I grunt my thanks while taking out my now slightly wrinkled LAPD shirt and ...

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Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

Chapter 1

By Naomi Hirahara
4 Sep 2017

“I just don’t get it,” I say to my partner, Johnny Mayhew, in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center. We are both on our LAPD-issued bikes, watching a line of the most ridiculous cosplayers enter the hall. It’s like my childhood has come to haunt me. An Asian girl is dressed up as Lakitu, the bespectacled turtle who sits on clouds from the videogame Super Mario World. I see Ariel from the animated movie, The Little Mermaid, Star Wars stormtroopers, and at least five Sailor Moons. There’s even a Rilakkuma giant bear who has to be ...

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As You Like It

Chapter Twelve—Get Back in There

By Naomi Hirahara
4 Aug 2017

Six months later

In Japan, it was all about family and your family name. That’s why men were adopted into families that had no sons. So the family name could continue.

For the past six months, I’ve been thinking a lot about family—in general and about my specific one. But the Time Out New York reporter’s question still throws me off.

“So, Kaori, tell me about your family restaurant back in Hiroshima. It’s called Aka Okonomiyaki, right?”

The reporter has done his homework, in spite of him not knowing the Japanese language besides maguro and ...

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Discover Nikkei

Japanese migrants and their descendants

Naomi Hirahara

Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

Trouble on Temple Street: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

As You Like It

Series this author contributes to

Warehouse on the Corner of Gardena and Orchard*

The Hopeful Child

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

Japanese Cuisine in the Nikkei Memory

Japanese Barber Shop in São Paulo

My Name is Neal

Journal Entry #F.F. #1: "The Marvel Age Begins..."

Notes from a Hallway: Learning from the History of the Tacoma Buddhist Temple

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

Honoring

Celebrating 55 Years of Service and Self-Defence

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

The Nikkei of Latin America and Latino Nikkei

ローマ字表記の日本「食と店」

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

Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

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My Name is Neal

Journal Entry #F.F. #1: "The Marvel Age Begins..."

Notes from a Hallway: Learning from the History of the Tacoma Buddhist Temple

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

Honoring

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

My Grandfather and the Cariboo Gold Mine

A Principled Stand: Gordon Hirabayashi V. the United States: A Book Review

Killer Roll

Chapter Two—False Identity

The Irony of Nikkei Citizenship During Mass Incarceration

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

Hometowns

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

From Lung to Ito

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

Natsukashii Moments

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

Of Food and Identity: My Grandmother’s New Years

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

Visiting the Former Family Temple

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

Sharing Heart Beats

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

75th and 76th Anniversary of the Greenwood Nikkei Internment Ceremony

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

My Nikkei Tradition

My Name is Neal

Journal Entry #73 Million More a Year: "Troublesome Trivia..."

A Family Saga: The Remarkable History of the Ito Sisters of Prewar Chicago

Yobun Shima Uncovers a Baseball Legacy

My Name is Neal

Journal Entry #Since the 16th Century: "Devil in a Box..."

On "Giving Back"

The Man Behind the Camera: The story of Yoichi Okamoto, LBJ's Shadow

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Journal Entry #About 460 Years Old: "Notes on Nosferatu..."

Tessaku

Ann Sato - Part 2

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