Jenni “Emiko” Kuida

Jenni “Emiko” Kuida co-authored the original “101 Ways to Tell if You Are Japanese American” with Tony Osumi. She is currently Grants Manager at Koreatown Youth and Community Center and board member of Japanese American Community Services and Venice Youth Council. Her hobbies include gardening, going to obons, and playing Pokemon Go.

Updated August 2017

Stories from This Author

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

Encircle, In Dance

Aug. 17, 2017 • Maiya Kuida-Osumi , Jenni “Emiko” Kuida , Tony Osumi , Evelyn Yoshimura , traci kato-kiriyama

For this month’s Nikkei Uncovered, we wave goodbye to the Obon season with special reflections from a family of activist/artists and a local legend & community organizer. Maiya, Jenni, and Tony Kuida-Osumi share with us poems that tie the dance we do in commemoration of ancestors at Obon, with homage in action to community, to our shared struggle, to Los Angeles. Evelyn Yoshimura brings us a brief essay reflecting on the letting go and the images that spring forth through …

Buddhism California communities dance Evelyn Yoshimura Japanese dance Jenni Kuida literature Los Angeles Maiya Kuida-Osumi Obon poetry poets religions Tony Osumi United States

Nanka Nikkei Voices

The Okazaki-Kuida Resettlement

April 20, 2015 • Jenni “Emiko” Kuida

Both of my parents were young children when E.O. 9066 was signed. My mom, Machiko Okazaki, lived in four places from the ages of four to seven years old. Santa Anita Race Track. Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Crystal City, Texas. Seabrook Farms, New Jersey. My grandfather, Masashi Bancho Okazaki, a Tenrikyo minister, had been separated from the family because of his occupation as a minister. He was reunited with my grandma and her five children in Crystal City in 1944. Their …

agriculture Boyle Heights California families gardeners gardening Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California Japanese Americans Jenni Kuida Los Angeles Nanaka Nikkei Voices (series) postwar publications resettlements Shinto sects Southern California Tenrikyo (sect) United States World War II

Nanka Nikkei Voices

Channeling Grandma: Passing on the Gardening Genes

March 14, 2014 • Jenni “Emiko” Kuida

I remember walking through my Grandma Kuida’s garden as a child. She had ten or twelve rows of different vegetables growing, and lots of old rusty cans and tools. Along with a bountiful lemon tree, her small backyard garden near Crenshaw and Jefferson was filled with delicious tomatoes, Japanese cucumbers, and zucchinis. When she hunched over with her apron full of fresh-picked vegetables to send home with us, she was 4½ feet tall. But to me, she was a gardening …

activism agriculture communities Cuba families food gardening generations grandmothers grandparents immigrants immigration Issei Japan Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California migration Nanaka Nikkei Voices (series) parents publications social action vegetables

Kindergactivism, is that a word?

Feb. 29, 2012 • Jenni “Emiko” Kuida

Some people say that if you bring kids to a political rally, that it’s not age appropriate. Well, we’ve been bringing Maiya to community events since she was two weeks old (Day of Remembrance commemorating the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which led to the incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans, including my parents as children and Tony’s grandparents), and her first of 6 annual trips to the Manzanar Pilgrimage was when she was 14 months …

activism families governments politics social action

Seabrook Farms 1945... Thai Garment Workers 1995

Feb. 20, 2012 • Jenni “Emiko” Kuida

Ask any Japanese American enough questions, and you’ll invariably find out that you’re somehow related. You learn that your second cousin went to school with so-and-so’s neighbor, or your friend’s great-uncle used to golf with your dad. It seems like we’re always looking for those ties that bind us together as a community. A common question we JAs often ask is “What Camp were you, your parents, or grandparents in?” In my case, my mom’s family went from Santa Anita …

Crystal City internment camp Department of Justice camps farms New Jersey Seabrook Farms Texas United States World War II World War II camps

My Surreal Life Experience: Stand Up for Justice

Feb. 14, 2012 • Jenni “Emiko” Kuida

Despite how annoying it is, reality TV is here to stay. I admit that I’ve been watching episodes of “The Surreal Life.” It’s the show that joins 6 semi-celebrities in a mansion with lots of alcohol, innuendo and modern furniture. In November 2002, I joined 100 others as extras in the film project “Stand Up for Justice” in our own kind of surreal life experience, Japanese American style. Produced and presented by Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR) and …

documentaries films Ralph Lazo Stand Up For Justice (film) Visual Communications (organization)

Mitsugi's Christmas

Dec. 24, 2011 • Jenni “Emiko” Kuida

This story is dedicated to my Japanese grandfathers. Keiichi Kuida and Yoshio Osumi who I never met, and Masashi Bancho Okazaki, who I wish I could remember. Mitsugi Yamamoto stared out the window on Christmas Day and wished that his daughter Lorraine would come to visit him at the Keiro Retirement Home. It had been years since her last visit. Mitsugi could still remember how excited he and his wife Sumiko were when Lorraine, their only child was born almost …

agriculture Christmas families farms gardeners gardening holidays Keiro (organization) New Jersey Seabrook Farms United States