Gary T. Ono

Lágrimas umedecem meus olhos enquanto assisto e ouço a cobertura de notícias 24/7 sobre a aplicação da Tolerância Zero da política de imigração do Presidente Trump. Frequentemente referida como "sem compaixão", a política de Trump, mal planejada para dissuadir asilos em busca de imigrantes da América Central, os ‘pune’, separando-os de seus filhos! A percepção de que algumas dessas crianças nunca mais poderão ver seus pais é emocionalmente desgastante e irritante! Mesmo que sejam eventualmente reunidos, o impacto emocional negativo imediato prejudicará sua confiança e auto-estima ...

I have never attended a Tule Lake Pilgrimage, however, I was incarcerated at Amache, one of the other ten U.S. concentration camps of WWII. So, Amache was my primary focus of interest. As early as 1994, I attended an Amache Reunion in Las Vegas. Since 2008, I have volunteered with the Denver University Anthropology Department's Summer graduates study and Archaeological Field Survey of the Amache site, led by Dr. Bonnie Clark. She accepted volunteers inviting former internees and family members. My grandson Dante Hilton-Ono and I volunteered in 2008 and in 2014, my grandson Chava Valdez-Ono I volunteered ...

The Samurai Spirit

In my 2015 Discover Nikkei essay, “Samurai Spirit in WWII Camps,” I put forth my belief that gaman—a Japanese term of Zen Buddhist origin that means “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”—surely must have burned especially bright in the hearts and minds of the Issei. Gaman was also characteristic of the temperament of the samurai, whose spirit I believe led to the making of swords in camp. My earlier essay discussed two handcrafted swords. Now, more swords are being discovered.

In facing American racism, gaman was necessary for self-preservation. The Issei were denied ...

As a volunteer at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), recent developments there revealed that hidden Samurai spirits nestled in the minds and bodies of some of those imprisoned in the US concentration camps that held America’s Japanese prisoners for the duration of World War II. As you will shortly see, that speaks for Tokuichi Muro, a concentration camp inmate shown with his wife, Koito (Funai) Muro, interned in Amache, the War Relocation Authority Center (camp) near Granada, Colorado.

I think, like the Samurai described in Stephen Turnbull’s, The Book of the Samurai: The Warrior Class of Japan ...

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet) William pretty much sums it up for me as far as names go, but it is interesting to learn about how names are determined by different times and cultures.

In Japan, middle names were not used, but in the turn-of-the-century America, Japanese pioneer immigrants, Issei, in most cases gave their Nisei children, second generation Japanese in America, Japanese middle names as well as American names. American names were given in order to ease assimilation into the American ...