Tamiko Nimura
@tnimuraTamiko Nimura is an Asian American writer living in Tacoma, Washington. Her training in literature and American ethnic studies (MA, PhD, University of Washington) prepared her to research, document, and tell the stories of people of color. She has been writing for Discover Nikkei since 2008.
Tamiko just published her first book, Rosa Franklin: A Life in Health Care, Public Service, and Social Justice (Washington State Legislature Oral History Program, 2020). Her second book is a co-written graphic novel, titled We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration (Chin Music Press/Wing Luke Asian Museum). She is working on a memoir called PILGRIMAGE.
Updated November 2020
Stories from This Author
Reframing Japanese American Bitterness: A Partial Chronology
March 7, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
It is February 2022, and the 80th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 has just passed with a groundswell of events commemorating a National Japanese American Day of Remembrance. I am grateful to have participated in a few, and proud of the Japanese American community for all of its efforts to keep camp history alive. I live in the wake of remembrance and resistance and resilience, and I am grateful for all of these. As a Sansei daughter, …
Tracing the Past With The Present: Yonsei Artist Lauren Iida
Dec. 21, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
Yonsei artist Lauren Iida and I first met online years ago when I interviewed her from Cambodia. Since that conversation her arts practice has expanded and deepened, as has her entrepreneurship and mentorship—all of these factors making her career an exciting one to watch. Her beautifully evocative paper cutting artworks include Memory Net, the series 100 Aspects of the Moon, and the series 32 Aspects of Daily Life. Many of them draw on her Japanese American heritage and historical research, and …
“War Did Not Break This Family”: Nancy Kyoko Oda and the Tule Lake Stockade Diary
Nov. 29, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
In 2014, I was training to be a discussion leader for the intergenerational dialogues that are an integral part of the Tule Lake pilgrimage. In the training session with 20+ participants, we were given three minutes to introduce ourselves to each other, in pairs. I was sitting next to a Sansei woman with kind brown eyes and a warm smile. As my partner introduced herself, I started nodding with excitement—we were supposed to listen, not speak, for those three minutes. …
On Topaz Stories and “Authentic Voice”: A Conversation With Writer And Editor Ruth Sasaki - Part 2
Oct. 15, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
Read Part 1 >> Tamiko Nimura: As editor/curator, are there any particular segments in Topaz Stories that resonate for you? Ruth Sasaki: There are stories that are a miracle for the recall of specific details by someone who was a young child in camp, like Jon Yatabe’s “Toy Story.” Another story, “Father and Son” by Dan Hirano, who was actually born in Topaz, grabbed me for its distinctive voice and the image that came to mind as I read it …
On Topaz Stories and “Authentic Voice”: A Conversation With Writer And Editor Ruth Sasaki - Part 1
Oct. 14, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
As a college student at UC Berkeley in the 1990s, I was searching for Sansei writers who wrote about the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. I was delighted to find the work of Janice Mirikitani and Ruth Sasaki. Sasaki’s book, The Loom and Other Stories, is one that I’ve kept close to my heart and on my shelf for decades now. So it was a delight to see that she had started a blog in 2015, and to see that …
The Redress Origins of the Hidden Histories of San Jose Japantown: A Conversation with Susan Hayase and Tom Izu
Aug. 20, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
Carp flags (koinobori) are floating in front of me, their mouths open. Tanzaku are fluttering in a virtual wind. Fragments of the “Instructions to Persons of Japanese Ancestry” poster are floating around an empty lot. Black-and-white photos of a Japanese American doctor float by the Issei Memorial Building. In one space I hear strains of “We are the Children” by Chris Iijima and Nobuko Miyamoto; in another space I hear the thunder of taiko drums and watch community dancers celebrating …
A Sister Artist Interview: Teruko Nimura And the Eloquence of Handmade Objects
July 14, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
Strings of origami cranes, circles of wish lanterns, maneki nekos and daruma figures—for decades I’ve watched my sister Teruko grow as an artist. I remember Teruko’s pencil sketches and charcoal drawings that our mother framed in our hallway to Teruko’s first solo show in Sacramento to public art installations in Texas, Mexico, and New York City. Though I’m four years older, I’ve always been in awe of her as an artist. She takes risks and confronts difficult themes, experiments with …
An Interview With City of Ghosts Yonsei Creator Elizabeth Ito
June 8, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
A maneki neko statue keeps moving mysteriously around a “sort of” Japanese restaurant in Boyle Heights. A music teacher keeps hearing some drumming in Leimert Park, with no visible drummer. A team of kid detectives roams Los Angeles, looking for ghosts—not to vaporize or “bust” them, but to listen to their stories. The ghosts are friendly, funny, talkative, near cuddly, some with rainbow auras. The Los Angeles of Elizabeth Ito’s City of Ghosts Netflix series is not what you might …
“Be Bold”: The Artistry of 99-Year Old Kibei Nisei Artist Koho Yamamoto
May 11, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
Was I looking at a pile of charred kindling, a set of raven’s wings or feathers? “I’m interviewing this 99-year old Kibei Nisei artist, Koho Yamamoto,” I wrote on my social media page, with a link to her 2021 exhibit. “Anyone heard of her?” I’d been sent a press kit to Yamamoto’s show, Under A Dark Moon at New York City’s Noguchi Museum, and was immediately struck by her powerfully evocative sumi-e paintings. Her life story and artistic path reminded …
On Nikkei and Cross-Racial Solidarity: Three Seattle-Area Artist/Activist Perspectives
April 22, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
In a heightened wave of anti-Asian racism, including attacks on Asian elders and the murders of 8 Asian women in Atlanta, I have felt the need to reach out—to family, to friends, to community. (For more about what’s been happening in the Seattle area, including a response from Yonsei professor Vince Schleitwiler, click here.) I wanted to find out more about how we can learn from each other through working together, particularly in crossracial solidarity. As always, I found inspiration, …
