Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1740/

Food preparations for Keirokai

They have months planning of it, and they say to the smallest details who's going to decorate the room, and for example, they serve an ozoni, or some soup. I think maybe it's miso, maybe it's just miso but it has what they call a mitsuba that they put a little leaf that has the three petals, there are three leaves, and they have to be tied in a ribbon. And so before... I think it needs to be planted, or trimmed, I don't know 15 days before so when the leaves are the right size to be harvested, and served in the soup.

So stuff like that logistically, they've been working about who's buying the shiitake that goes in the stew, or the seaweed for the wraps, whatever it is they work months, and they have a spreadsheet already, and the list of tasks, and everything. But that is usually organized, the food is cooked by the fujin-bu, it's a group of females. And that's what they pride themselves that they're serving them food that specially all Japanese, or as Japanese as we can make it with whatever we have available in Colombia.


Colombia communities events food Japanese Colombians Keiro (organization)

Date: September 22, 2019

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Monica Teisher was born in Cali, Colombia in 1974 to an Issei father and Nisei mother. She and her large extended family were active in the Cali Japanese community, the largest in Colombia. She moved to the United States after marrying a U.S. citizen of Eastern European Jewish descent. They and their daughters spend vacation time in Colombia, participating in community events. (May 2020)

Margaret Oda
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Oda,Margaret

Symbolic New Year’s foods prepared from scratch

(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i

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Bill Hashizume
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Hashizume,Bill

Japanese community in Mission

(b. 1922) Canadian Nisei who was unable to return to Canada from Japan until 1952

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Peggie Nishimura Bain
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Bain,Peggie Nishimura

Learning American cooking

(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII

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Reiko T. Sakata
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Sakata,Reiko T.

Parents in Utah

(b. 1939) a businesswoman whose family volunterily moved to Salt Lake City in Utah during the war.

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James Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,James

Not bringing shame to family

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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James Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,James

Role of the Japanese American National Museum

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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Wayne Shigeto Yokoyama
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Yokoyama,Wayne Shigeto

Food growing up

(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.

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Roger Shimomura
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Shimomura,Roger

Japanese American community life

(b. 1939) Japanese American painter, printmaker & professor

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Kimi Wakabayashi
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Wakabayashi,Kimi

Her early life in Canada

(b.1912) Japanese Canadian Issei. Immigrated with husband to Canada in 1931

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PJ Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,PJ

Taiko as self-expression

Co-founder and creative director of San Jose Taiko

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PJ Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,PJ

A “principally-based” taiko group in England creating a global taiko community

Co-founder and creative director of San Jose Taiko

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Vince Ota
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Ota,Vince

Little contact with Asians growing up on the east coast

Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan

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Roberto Hirose
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Hirose,Roberto

The various realities of Nikkei in Latin America (Spanish)

(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman

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Lorraine Bannai
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Bannai,Lorraine

The importance of Japanese American role models in childhood community

(b. 1955) Lawyer

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Lorraine Bannai
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Bannai,Lorraine

Recognizing issues of dual identity in the nisei generation

(b. 1955) Lawyer

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