DiscoverNikkei.org - Identity - Comments

Regarding your first

Victor Nishio Yasuoka — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:55:47 -0700

Regarding your first questions, I think love is not blind, nor the love we feel as living creatures nor the Love in itself... we are the ones who are blinded by many reasons.

About your genes (and everyone´s) in a far place, I think it should be seen as a strong conection (universal energy) not as a child somewhere as the media tells us to think. Is an experience of life -giving life- so is good to strengthen it and see it as part of our "everything happens for a reason" which means "we are all connected" (not destiny or azar or similar stereotipes).

I think races don´t exist but genetical differences. The matter of matching with other like us in appeareance, is just social, so it´s traditions and preconditioned behavior.

About reproduction, what we want for our children is the same the mass media want for them... so is doubtable.

I´m peruvian, both last names Nikkei, living with a no Nikkei woman. I thing is a good way to tell everybody that there are more variables and experiences than those told by grandparents to see and to have, and to learn a lot more than what´s left to us from the inmigrants and their "culture" of Japan.

The culture should be one, and named knowledge, and be free to everyone... but, as the health is a business so is the education; so, every word in education plans (protocolized) around the world is carefully guided to an objective -common to all corporations-: money and power to control. That, between others, is why the world is as we know it, that´s a consecuence of globalization... but we, writing here, is another consecuence of the same fenomenom, but positive. It´s a matter of possitive attitude to change ourselves to, then, see how changes all around us.

Advertiser, Visual Artist, Columnist
WEB www.cajoncreativo.com BLOG victornishioyasuoka.wordpress.com
Lima, Perú

Hi Yoko, I just came across

typsu35 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:46:12 -0700

Hi Yoko,
I just came across your post and really enjoyed reading about your experience in Kashiwa so far. My name is Tyler and my wife and baby are with me in Kashiwa and we are from Pennsylvania. My wife taught elementary school for a few years before she came with me overseas. I play for a basketball team here in the city and we have only been here for 1 month. We will stay until March, 2009 and we were looking to connect with some other english speakers as we haven't met many people here yet that we can communicate well with. If you know of anyone or any english speaking groups in Kashiwa that may be interested in meeting a new family, we'd love the chance to connect with them. Or if we can take you out for a cup of coffee or something, please let us know. I hope we are not bothering you, but you seem like a very nice and interesting person from your article. Thanks Yoko! Have a great week!
All the best,
Tyler
(typsu35@hotmail.com)

hapa actors

vkm — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:20:04 -0700

Thanks for sharing your stories. I found this one really interesting. Kind of disturbing about the way that casting gets done, but sadly not surprising. I hadn't realized that Mark Paul Gosselaar was Hapa.

Check the Nikkei Album collection!

editor — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:16:14 -0700

See a summary of this program in Nikkei Album.

>> Community Forum: Okinawans and Their Global Networks (English)

>> コミュニティフォーラム：　沖縄人とグローバルネットワークの追求　（日本語）

Kip Fulbeck interview

yn — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:40:11 -0700

Watch the Real People interview with Kip Fulbeck:
http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/people/profile.php?id=48

you can use it!

wednesday — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:16:45 -0700

One reason I wrote the article is to help people! You can use it!

From Lima, Perú

Victor Nishio Yasuoka — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:45:42 -0700

I am from Lima, Perú. I read all the posts to learn a little from every nikkei who wants to share a bit of life. I consider yours a nice experience traduced in words, emphasizing in the importance of respectfullness of experience and heritage.
DISEÑADOR PUBLICITARIO, ARTISTA AFICIONADO, COLUMNISTA PRENSA NIKKEI
www.cajoncreativo.com, BLOG victornishioyasuoka.wordpress.com
LIMA, PERÚ

hello

milancom — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:19:56 -0700

Your story is really moving!

I wonder if I may print it and share it with a 17-year boy student who I am helping with English as a foreign language for college in Japan. Finding interesting articles to read is always hard part. He is interested in history, and some of THE ISSEI by YUJI ICHIOKA might be useful right now. He, as most of other high school students in Japan, does not really know about Nikkei. Your story, if you allow me to use, will be a real eye-opener, I hope. He would feel close because of the age, too. It would be a lot defferent from learning something just 'historically important.'

Racism, if this word is OK, exsist even in Japan against Nikkei. Some of my Nikkei friends from California travelled on the trains in this country, they were talking in English, which was very natural thing to do. Some passengers on the train felt uneasy with that. They said among themselves without knowing my friends understand some Japanese, 'Oh, why do they have to speak English like American! They should speak in Japanese. Aren't they Japanese!' That was very sad.

I spent one year in California when I was in college. After that I went back several times. I am understanding more than before. Hope I can help people realize there are different people in this world. Could you help me?

April 12 program with Curtiss Rooks

editor — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:58:00 -0700

Discover Nikkei is presenting a public program with Curtiss Rooks on Saturday, April 12, 2008 at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA: Revelations & Resilience: Exploring the Realities of Hapa-ness - Roundtable Conversation

enjoyed little stories

vkm — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:45:47 -0800

I also really enjoyed reading Keith Uchima's stories of his youth in Chicago. You really get a sense of what it was like from these little vignettes. They paint such a vivid picture which makes it all the more sad that most of that is gone. I forwarded the link to a couple of friends who grew up in Chicago. Both really enjoyed it as well. I hope that it inspires others to write about their own experiences to share through this site.

Growing up Sansei in Chicago

intrepidmouse — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:12:34 -0800

It was great reading Keith's story about growing up in Chicago. If it weren't for the camps and relocation there probably wouldn't have been a Japanese American community here in Chicago. I'm glad he wrote his story now while some of the original settlers can enjoy his reminiscing about the past. I think a lot of kids weren't aware of their parents struggle. The Nisei generation worked hard to give their children an innocent childhood despite their own hardships. It's amazing how quickly they organized activities and built a community out of nothing after the war!

I truly enjoyed reading,

garyono — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:45:46 -0800

I truly enjoyed reading, "Growing Up Sansei in Chicago," by Keith Uchima. I've always wondered how life was like for Japanese Americans growing up in other parts of the USA and especially those families that resettled elsewhere following being evacuated and relocated during WWII. Uchima gave an entertaining insight into his family's successful resettlement. The parallels to some of my Sansei life are shared with his and makes me feel a kinship.

Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang

vkm — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:34:53 -0700

This article reminds me of a play I saw recently, Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang at The Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center in Los Angeles, California.

It was a really interesting and thought-provoking play that raises issues of identity and the authenticity of community voice. Who "qualifies" as an authentic voice for a community? Can someone who is not Asian truly represent that community? It raises some very interesting questions, especially as more and more Nikkei marry out of their race. Is there a percentage of "blood" that qualifies a person? During WWII, the government put people of Japanese descent in camps as long as they were at least 1/16th Japanese. How far back can someone go to "count"?