Mia Nakaji Monnier
@miamMia Nakaji Monnier is a writer in Los Angeles. Her journalism and essays have appeared in BuzzFeed News, Shondaland, The Washington Post, and more. She started her career in Little Tokyo at Discover Nikkei and The Rafu Shimpo. You can find her on Twitter @miagabb and read more of her work at mianakajimonnier.com.
Updated May 2021
Stories from This Author
Hapa-ly Ever After: An Interview with Jeff Chiba Stearns
June 12, 2012 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
Growing up in the predominantly white city of Kelowna, British Columbia, Jeff Chiba Stearns felt very aware of being different from most of the people around him. Born to a Sansei mother and “Euro-mutt” father (of English, Scottish, German, and Russian descent), he was no stranger to the “What are you?” question. Over the years, Stearns continued to reflect on his cultural identity until eventually he began to illustrate his thoughts (using a process he calls “animation meditation”). The result, …
From Crenshaw to Deerhorn: An Interview with Nina Revoyr
Feb. 16, 2012 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
My first introduction to Nina Revoyr’s writing was through her 2003 novel, Southland, a story of love, family, and hopes interrupted by forces of hysteria and racial hatred. Told from multiple perspectives during 1994, WWII, and the Watts Riots, Southland shows readers a Los Angeles of shifting borders and poignant history. All of Revoyr’s four novels share an incorporation of regional history, atmospheric prose, and complicated layers of race and sexuality that the author never treats with a heavy hand. …
Lost and Found: Amy Hill on Adoption and Identity
Sept. 28, 2011 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
In the last two and a half decades, Amy Hill has owned a Hawaiian fruit stand, tried in vain to dissuade her elderly father from becoming a Japanese porn star, and provided scientific aid to a teenage secret agent. Oh, and she’s also an actress. In addition to the above roles in Lilo and Stitch, Paul Kikuchi’s Wrinkles, and the Disney Channel’s Kim Possible, Hill has appeared on Glee, Law and Order, Frasier, Seinfeld, and General Hospital. Her voice graces …
Generation Teas
March 29, 2011 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
In the Japanese American National Museum Store lives a five-generation family of teas, dressed in colorful labels, snuggling tin-to-tin on the shelf they call home. This flavorful family is the realization of Maria Kwong’s more-than-a-decade-long dream to bring custom tea to the National Museum. For Maria, the Museum’s Director of Retail & Visitor Services, it had been a dream delayed by the challenge of finding a tea company willing to produce blends in quantities small enough to suit the Museum’s …
Reflections on Alexandra Wallace and the "Remember Pearl Harbor" Gang
March 18, 2011 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
In one weekend, a video posted by UCLA student Alexandra Wallace exploded all over YouTube, spurring responses in only a matter of hours, ranging from public service announcement-type videos made by concerned fellow students to lighthearted spoofs and angry retorts—even to videos and comments more ignorant and hateful than Wallace’s original. Wallace initially posted the video on her own YouTube channel then removed it, only for it to be replaced soon after by numerous clones. The video is a rant …
Their Struggles Are Our Struggles - Part 2
Jan. 21, 2011 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
>> Part 1Nakamura is a Yonsei with a passion for music, sports, and storytelling. At 30 years old, he has already created a trilogy of documentaries on the Asian American Movement that comprises Yellow Brotherhood (2003), Pilgrimage (2007), and A Song for Ourselves (2009). His current project is a film about rising ukulele superstar Jake Shimabukuro. The son of renowned filmmakers Robert Nakamura and Karen Ishizuka, Nakamura grew up in Culver City where he attended the Senshin Buddhist Temple, played …
Their Struggles Are Our Struggles - Part 1
Jan. 14, 2011 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
Documentary filmmaker Tad Nakamura illustrates parallels between Japanese American history and current American issuesTad Nakamura's Pilgrimage begins with a shot of candles in the darkness. The camera scans over the lowered heads of people gathered together in vigil outside the Japanese American National Museum, as music plays solemn and slow. As if pushed along by the music, the scene changes to black-and-white, grainy footage of a little girl running. All around her are barracks. Nearby, a plainly-dressed family gathers for a photo as an old …
Maya Soetoro-Ng and the Gift of Belonging
Aug. 26, 2010 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
Parents and children slowly began to gather in the upstairs foyer of the Japanese American National Museum on Saturday, June 12 to await the arrival of Maya Soetoro-Ng, scheduled to read from her upcoming children’s book, Ladder to the Moon . Guests streamed in and out of the museum all day for a program full of events sponsored by the Target Family Free Saturday program in conjunction with the Mixed Roots Film Festival. Other events included a demonstration on how …
16 Years Later: The Heart Mountain Barracks Project
Aug. 2, 2010 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
Upstairs in the Japanese American National Museum is a barrack from Heart Mountain Relocation Center. For visitors, the barrack has come to feel like the heart of the museum, a tangible reminder of the unconstitutional incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII in America’s own concentration camps. The story of how the barrack came to the museum began more than fifteen years ago, around the time when staff members began discussing plans to relocate the museum’s collection to a …
Joel Nakamura Mixes the Ancient and the Modern with Compassion... and Spam?
June 22, 2010 • Mia Nakaji Monnier
A giant fly hovers, poised on translucent wings that appear too small to support his weight, his face a bright, whimsical Tiki mask in shades of blue, green, and yellow. Protruding from his body are three pairs of human-like legs in black and gray patterned tights. In the distance, his friends watch, their faces frozen in horror and amusement. The fly’s eyes burn with concentration as his tongue strains toward his prey: a winged, rectangular can of Spam. This is …
