Jimmy Seiji Amemiya Siu, bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering. Since childhood, I've been taking part in the Nikkei community via the Peru Yamanashi Shinbokukai [Japanese Peruvian Association]. At age 17, I started a youth group at Peru Yamanashi Shinbokukai. In the last three years, I've participated in the Youth Group of the Okinawan Association of Peru (AOP) and in the Japanese Peruvian Association’s Youth Department. I am a member of the World Youth Uchinaanchu Association and former participant in the INDEX 2013 program, organized by the government of Japan.

Updated November 2014

Tim Asamen is the coordinator of the Japanese American Gallery, a permanent exhibit in the Imperial Valley Pioneers Museum. His grandparents, Zentaro and Eda Asamen, emigrated from Kami Ijuin-mura, Kagoshima Prefecture, in 1919 and settled in Westmorland, California, where Tim resides. He joined the Kagoshima Heritage Club in 1994, serving as president (1999-2002) and as the club's newsletter editor (2001-2011).

Updated August 2013

Santos Ikeda Yoshikawais, a second generation Nikkei, graduated from the National University of San Antonio Abad in Cuzco. He did graduate work at the Catholic University of La Paz in Bolivia.  He works in the Madre de Dios Special Project and has over thirty-five years of experience in the public sector.

Updated April 2015

Troy Ishikawa is an Interculturalist whose process training and consulting practice specializes in problem solving cultural differences in behaviors, norms, and values. His practice concentrates in deconstructing logic sequences for cross-cultural transferability and culture equivalencies. He is also a writer and gives presentations of his family history and stories that pertain to the Nikkei experience. He is a member of the Kagoshima Heritage Club, enjoys global travel, hiking, learning, and cooking ethnic and pan-Asian cuisines.

Updated October 2011

Chanda Ishisaka was born and raised in Monterey Park, California located in Los Angeles County. She is a mixed race Yonsei, fourth generation Japanese and Mexican American. She lived in Seattle, Washington for six years where she happily was involved in the Japanese community and served on the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee to organize the annual pilgrimage to the former WWII incarceration camp Minidoka in Idaho. She currently resides in Orange County, California.

Updated November 2014

Yumi has been a stage, film, and TV actress for many years and has recently branched into voice overs for commercials and video games. She is married to actor Brian Mulligan and has twins, a boy and a girl. They reside in Los Angeles.

Updated November 2014

Lloyd Kajikawa is retired and spends his time between Los Angeles and Kauai. He is an educator and formerly worked at the Japanese American National Museum, Little Tokyo Service Center, and in public education. He has authored numerous children’s leveled reading books and essays about the Japanese American experience. 

August 2014  

Sachi Kaneshiro was born Sachi Tamaki in Covina, a city in Los Angeles County in California. She attended UCLA where she received a B.A. in International Relations. She was incarcerated in the Poston Relocation Center between May 1942 and January 1943, and in Heart Mountain Relocation Center from January through May 1943. She worked for 28 years as a Social Worker for Los Angeles County and the State of Hawaii before retiring in 1984. She took a creative writing class where she wrote this essay to meet an assignment on reaction to a news item.

Updated September 2007

John Katagi is a former staff member of the Japanese American National Museum. He shares memories from almost two decades of travel to South America. His experiences result from study and observation as part of the directorial staff of JEMS, a cross-cultural agency based in Los Angeles.

Updated February 2012

Sakura Kato is the 2014 Nikkei Community Intern for the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) and the Japanese American Bar Association (JABA) primarily working to document the legacy of Japanese American jurists. She is also a proud Trojan studying History and Pre-Law at the University of Southern California.

Updated July 2014

Currently is an associate professor for the department of literature at Rio de Janeiro State University. She is also the head of the Japanese language department, as well as the coordinator of the Japan-Brazil Modern Educational Cultural Exchange Program.

A graduate of Tokyo Foreign Language College with a degree in Portuguese and Brazilian language; completed coursework for Tsukuba University’s Master’s Program in International Area Studies—Latin American Studies Course; Nippon Keidanren Ishizaka Memorial Foundation Scholarship recipient; completed coursework for Brasilia University’s Ph.D. Program for Sociology; Doctor of Sociology.

She is a founding member of the Japanese language department at Rio de Janeiro State University, as well as the Hamamatsu City High School’s international class. She has received grants for Japanese Studies from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. She has lived in Brazil for 21 years.

Updated November 2012 

Eileen Kurahashi lives in Northern California with her family. She is active in Sogetsu ikebana, the Mills College choir, and is studying French.

Updated September 2014

Sharleen Naomi Nakamoto Levine lives in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, with her husband and two daughters. She is an instructor in American Studies, History, and Women's Studies, at Honolulu Community College. As an historian, she not only researches and writes about her family history, but the related history of Japanese and Filipino women on Hawai‘i's sugar plantations in the early to mid-twentieth century.

Updated October 2011

A one-time student of the Watts Towers Arts Center, Oscar has spent a career working in the nonprofit sector, being driven by a desire to help people and serve his community. A graduate of UCLA with a degree in English, Oscar has put his writing talents to use in technical writing, grant reports, and proposals. For the past three years Oscar has been a stay at home father of two boys with Autism, growing and learning about the disorder and how to be a parent to children with autism, discovering how to advocate for them and acquiring the knowledge to navigate the many hurdles and bureaucracies that that befall parents of children with Autism. Oscar is now currently pursuing a career in special education, where he can use his experience as a parent to help more students with compassion, understanding and dedication. Oscar’s writing has been published in literary journals, college newspapers, and technical reports. Oscar lives in South Los Angeles.

Updated July 2014 

Henrique Minatogawa is a freelance journalist and photographer, Brazilian third generation Japanese descendant. His family origins are Okinawa, Nagasaki and Nara prefectures. In 2007, he was granted a scholarship Kenpi Kenshu in Nara prefecture. In Brazil, has been working in the coverage of events related to Japanese culture. (Photo: Henrique Minatogawa)

Updated July 2020

Vicky K. Murakami-Tsuda is the Communications Production Manager at the Japanese American National Museum. She loves working on the Discover Nikkei project, because it gives her the opportunity to learn so many new and interesting stories, and connect with people around the world who share similar interests.

She is a “self-proclaimed” yonsei from Southern California who comes from a large extended family. A long time ago (when she had more free time and energy), she was also an artist who explored Japanese American culture and history through her artwork. When not working, she enjoys eating, cheering on her beloved Dodgers, bowling, reading, playing games on her phone (Wordl anyone?), and binge-watching movies and shows.

Updated May 2022

Mike Murase is an administrator at a community-based nonprofit agency in Los Angeles. He lives in Culver City, California. He considers himself a news junkie and a workaholic, but finds the time to enjoy photography, basketball, the outdoors, and Facebook.

Updated July 2014 

Jorge Nagao was born in Vera Cruz, in the state of São Paulo, in 1952. He lives in São Paulo. In the 1980s, he contributed to Folha de S. Paulo’s humor section and to the popular satirical weekly Pasquim. Since 2010, he has been a columnist for the newspaper Nippak/Brasil, and is part of the crew at www.algoadizer.com.br.

Updated November 2014.

Lorene Oikawa is on the board of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) as past president and is currently working on legacy projects evolving from her initial work with the NAJC to set in motion legacy initiatives to honour Japanese Canadian elders and Japanese Canadian history. She is a fourth generation Japanese Canadian and a human rights activist. She is a descendant of survivors of the forced uprooting, dispossession, incarceration, and exile from 1942 to 1949. Her family came from Japan in the 1800s and 1906.

Updated February 2024

Noemi Onelli was born and raised in southern California to a third generation Japanese American mother and an Italian father. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology.

Updated October 2014

Diana Keiko Ando-Ono,  a sansei born in Los Angeles, lives in Gardena, CA, works in Long Beach, CA. She considers herself  a Japanophile- a person with  an interest in, or love of, Japan and everything Japanese, an eternal optimist and foodie.  In her spare time she enjoys volunteering for various Japanese American organizations, watching NHK World TV, J-Dramas and K-Dramas, travelling, playing basketball, hiking and spending time in Little Tokyo with family & friends.

Updated November 2014

Gary T. Ono, is a Sansei transplant from San Francisco, California who now resides in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles. He is a volunteer photographer for the nearby Japanese American National Museum. In 2001, he was awarded a California Civil Liberties Public Education Program grant to produce a video documentary, Calling Tokyo: Japanese American Radio Broadcasters of World War II. This story about what his father did during the war sparked his interest in his Japanese American and family history, which richly fills his senior moments.

Updated May 2013

Mina Otsuka is a Japanese translator and writer. She earned a BA in Literary Journalism from the University of California, Irvine. Besides work and occasional translation projects, she enjoys listening to music (of any kind) and playing the guitar.

Updated November 2014 

Born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Claudio Sampei is a Chemical Engineer specializing in Business Administration, Business Management, and Environmental Education. In 1994, he held a scholarship from the Chiba Prefecture —in the water treatment field—but currently works as an executive in the travel industry. He holds posts in various community-oriented organizations, such as the JCI (Junior Chamber International), where he was President of the São Paulo Chapter and National Executive Vice President; he is Chairman of the Board of the ASEBEX (the Brazilian Association of Former Scholarship Holders in Japan), Vice President of the IPK (the Paulo Kobayashi Institute), Financial Advisor of the Pan-American Nikkei Association of Brazil (APNB), Second Secretary of the Chiba Kenjin Association of Brazil, and member of the Communications and Marketing Commission of Bunkyo (the Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture and Social Assistance).

Updated November 2014

Dr. Eugene Sekiguchi earned his DDS and MSEE from the University of Southern California and his BSEE from the University of California, Berkeley. He was the first minority President of the American Dental Association (ADA), an association with more than 155,000 dental professionals. He was also President of the JA Optimist Club, USC Dental Alumni, the California Dental Association (CDA), and San Gabriel Valley Dental Society (SGVDS). He has had many honors bestowed upon him. He was interned at Heart Mountain, WY.

Updated November 2014

Mary has been married for 43 years to John Sunada and they have two sons, James and David. Mary is retired from the Los Angeles Unified School District after 36 years of teaching. She is a member of the Orange County Buddhist Church, the Japanese American National Museum, and the “Go for Broke” National Education Center. Her interests are in fishing, dancing and traveling with family and friends. She has written other stories for Discover Nikkei.

Updated October 2023

She was born in Bastos, one of the cradles of Japanese immigration. She is the mother of two girls and two boys, and a dedicated grandmother of three. She likes eating better than cooking, though her youngest son’s hobbies are both cooking and eating well. In her garden she has a sakura and each year she waits anxiously for the first buds to blossom. She has been an Evangelical Christian since the age of 18 and her biggest joy is to sing, praising God.

Updated September 2012 

Patricia Takayama is a writer of fiction. Her first short story collection is titled, The Winter of Melancholy. Her second collection, The Currents of War, is due out later 2023. Both are works of historical fiction based on the lives of real people.

Patricia was raised in California. She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Hastings College of the Law. She lived in Tokyo for three years where she taught English at a business college while she studied the Japanese language. After law school she received a fellowship to continue her language studies at the Inter-University Center in Tokyo.

Updated March 2023

June Yoshiko Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue, MPH is a Kumu Hula (master teacher of the hula) and founder of Halau i Ka Pono - The Hula School of Chicago. She is also an ordained Zen priest and Dharma Holder in the White Plum Lineage. She co-founded the Zen Life & Meditation Center of Chicago with her husband, Robert Joshin Althouse Roshi. She has worked in food banking in Portland, Oregon; Big Island of Hawaii, and Chicago, Illinois for nearly 25 years.

Updated September 2014

David Kiyoshi Toyoshima is a 4th generation Japanese American. He is a veteran award-winning advertising creative director, writer, art director and illustrator. He was written and published short essays for KPCC National Public Radio and Discover Nikkei.

Updated November 2014

Jayme Tsutsuse, a recent graduate from the University of Southern California, is finishing her year on the JET Programme in Kyoto Prefecture. She was involved USC’s Hapa Japan Festival in 2013 as a lead volunteer coordinator and is the founder of Cross-Cultural Kansai, a community group based in Kyoto, Japan that brings people from a variety of backgrounds together to discuss and celebrate global identities. In the fall, she is moving to New York City and is seeking new opportunities in writing and journalism.

Updated August 2014

Paulista de Bastos, nascida no final dos anos 30, desde os anos 60 mora no Rio de Janeiro. Formada em Geografia, em 1962, ganhou bolsa de estudos e concluiu o mestrado na Tokyo Kyouiku Daigaku, atual Universidade de Tsukuba. Aposentou-se como geógrafa do IBGE em 1992 e iniciou outras atividades, como professora de Japonês e consultora do CEPEL.

Publicou o livro “Seiji Shimoide Em busca do Eldorado brasileiro” (2008) e “Yumê” (2010). Com contos premiados, participa do Centro de Literatura do Museu Histórico do Exército e Forte de Copacabana e Destaques na Poesia em 2013 e 2014 em Taubaté. 

Atualizado em outubro de 2014

Roy Wesley (né Uyesugi) is a research scientist doing business with his husband, Mark Weber, in their laboratory of 20 years named Fermalogic, Inc.  After doing natural product process improvements, they are now moving into drug discovery. Wesley was formerly at Pfizer and also has a degree in optometry and worked for his family contact lens business, Wesley-Jessen in Chicago until it was sold and then worked as President of the National Eye Research Foundation.

Updated August 2014 

Born in São Paulo, Capital. Graduated in IT Technology. She is part of the Seinen Bunkyo or Young Nikkeys Group of the City of São Paulo, where she has served as a member of the Human Resources (HR) board since 2009, led by her brother who served as president of Seinen in 2011.

He likes reading, researching, traveling, dancing, chatting with friends. Her biggest dream is to go on exchange to learn fluent English and get to know different cultures and people with their life stories and knowledge.

Updated November 2014