グウェン・ムラナカ

"I don’t like the word H-A-T-E. I don’t use it,” says Norman Mineta.

Even if it’s a matter of a dislike for carrots, the former transportation secretary says “hate” isn’t a part of his vocabulary, and that informs who he is and the issues he has championed.

“I’ve always been a half-full kind of person, more optimistic about things and how they happen, but you know I was only 10 years old at the time of the evacuation, so it wasn’t real hard impact on me. But I saw the impact on people like ...

There are some annoyances to spending most days in Little Tokyo: the traffic, the constant construction, the overflow of hipsters and homeless. But one reason I’m grateful to work here in J-Town is definitely the food.

Most days, since we’re busy on deadline, we eat in our office, but once a week we treat ourselves to a lunch at a local restaurant. There are so many great choices. Old favorites like Suehiro, TOT and Kouraku or newer places like Chinchikurin Okonomiyaki or Jist (the former Tokyo Café) — there’s a lot to choose from.

If you want Hawaiian ...

“Part of our mission is to spread the idea that mental health is something applicable to everybody,” says Ty Tanioka of Changing Tides, a new organization now hosting an art exhibition at 341 FSN in Little Tokyo.

“Mental health is something that everyone can practice. Everyone deals with stress in their everyday life on an everyday scale.”

At the opening on Feb. 9, the small space on First Street was packed with people who came to see the works of art. The artists are multigenerational, with Sansei like Nancy Uyemura and Mike Murase contributing works, alongside young Nikkei like Moet ...

In the first moment of Tales of Clamor, Kennedy Kabasares, dressed as a Japanese immigrant, clambers up two cloth silks. Suspended in air, he rises and falls, over and over, as government agents try to pull him down.

There are moments of grace and peril, noise and quiet, and catharsis in the production at the Aratani Black Box, the inaugural show for this intimate setting.

Just walking through the backstage area to the seating is a new experience. The audience, limited to 80 per performance, is onstage with the performers, who play multiple roles. A trapeze, aerial silks, as well ...

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Joy and sorrow as a son reunites with his biological mother after more than six decades.

To my family both new and old …

Last summer, Terry Weber sat down at the computer in his North Torrance home to write a letter to the family of Kimiko, his birth mother, who gave him up for adoption in Japan when he was two months old.

He writes:

“Now that I know the circumstances of my being adopted, I have no bad feelings for my mother, Kimiko. I only wonder if she is okay.

I would also like her to ...