Sharon Yamato
@Sharony360Sharon Yamato es una escritora y cineasta de Los Ángeles que ha producido y dirigido varias películas sobre el encarcelamiento de los japoneses estadounidenses, entre ellas Out of Infamy , A Flicker in Eternity y Moving Walls , para la que escribió un libro con el mismo título. Se desempeñó como consultora creativa en A Life in Pieces , un proyecto de realidad virtual galardonado, y actualmente está trabajando en un documental sobre el abogado y líder de derechos civiles Wayne M. Collins. Como escritora, coescribió Jive Bomber: A Sentimental Journey , una memoria del fundador del Museo Nacional Japonés Americano, Bruce T. Kaji, ha escrito artículos para Los Angeles Times y actualmente es columnista de The Rafu Shimpo . Se ha desempeñado como consultora para el Museo Nacional Japonés Americano, el Centro Nacional de Educación Go For Broke y ha realizado entrevistas de historia oral para Densho en Seattle. Se graduó de UCLA con una licenciatura y una maestría en inglés.
Actualizado en marzo de 2023
Historias de Este Autor
Emergiendo de la sombra de un héroe: el hijo de un veterano habla sobre su propia experiencia en la guerra
11 de noviembre de 2014 • Sharon Yamato
Mientras el sol asomaba en un día de verano ligeramente nublado, algunos veteranos de la Segunda Guerra Mundial se reunieron con una multitud de amigos y familiares con motivo del 15º aniversario del Monumento Go For Broke en el corazón de Little Tokyo. Los hombres de pelo blanco, en su mayoría de unos 90 años, llevaban bastones y caminaban lentamente. Pareciendo un poco cansados por la atención que habían estado recibiendo por la Medalla de Oro del Congreso, siempre los …
Llevando la antorcha: Wayne Collins Jr. sobre la defensa de los renunciantes por parte de su padre
21 de octubre de 2014 • Sharon Yamato
La inscripción en la portada del libro emblemático de Michi Nishiura Weglyn, Años de infamia: la historia no contada de los campos de concentración de Estados Unidos , dice: “Dedicado a Wayne M. Collins, quien hizo más para corregir el error de una democracia que cualquier otra persona”. En un momento en que la gente apenas conocía el nombre de Colllins, el historiador nisei Weglyn llamó la atención sobre el abogado responsable de luchar casi sin ayuda contra la deportación …
El feliz poder de Obon
21 de agosto de 2014 • Sharon Yamato
La temporada de Obon es un momento en el que las comunidades se reúnen para celebrar la vida y la muerte a través de la comida y la danza. Al igual que el ritmo del tambor taiko, los Obons acumulan energía a través del movimiento y se mueven con ritmos alegres propios. Los cálidos días y noches de verano dan paso a uno o dos festivales Obon cada fin de semana desde julio hasta mediados de agosto, y la lista …
What It Means to Go On a Camp Pilgrimage
28 de julio de 2014 • Sharon Yamato
pil•grim•age noun: pilgrimage; plural noun: pilgrimages 1. a pilgrim’s journey. 2. Synonyms: religious journey, religious expedition, haji, crusade, mission, “an annual pilgrimage to the Holy City” 3. a journey to a place associated with someone or something well known or respected “making a pilgrimage to the famous racing circuit” 4. life viewed as a journey “life’s pilgrimage” The dictionary definition of pilgrimage refers to a journey taken for religious purpose, or at the very least to some place “respected.” Perhaps literature’s …
Stranger in a Strange Land: A Sansei’s First Trip to Japan
17 de junio de 2014 • Sharon Yamato
I’d never felt a passionate connection to the country of my ancestors. I blamed it on the war: postwar America saw Issei and Nisei trying to get over being labeled the “enemy,” and we Sansei children were faced with a curious dilemma in many ways initiated by our parents—how much did we identify with our grandparents’ Japanese culture and how much did we mold ourselves into assimilated Americans? With Japan still reeling from its stereotypical image as an “inscrutable” and …
Kawana’s Kamaboko Kingdom
29 de abril de 2014 • Sharon Yamato
One thing was clear to businessman Frank Kawana when he took over his father’s Little Tokyo kamaboko business in 1955: people were not clamoring for fishcake. Quite the opposite—once a Japanese American staple, kamaboko sales were declining in the U.S. Like his father Otoichi Kawana, Frank somehow could not abandon what he secretly hated as a “smelly business.” At his mother Kume’s pleading, he reluctantly joined the family enterprise. While working to keep the company alive, he did something few …
Through the Fire: One Soldier’s Story
9 de noviembre de 2011 • Sharon Yamato
With the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony held last week honoring the 100th Infantry, 442nd RCT and MIS in Washington, D.C., it seems appropriate to take a moment to pause and remember all those who are not here to share in the celebration. Besides the many that have died in the years since the war, I am specifically referring to those killed in action. It has been rightly said that those brave men who risked their lives fighting for the country …
A Historic Time for Our Community: Celebrating The Congressional Gold Medal
2 de noviembre de 2011 • Sharon Yamato
On a rainy Washington DC day in July 1946, President Harry S. Truman presented the Presidential Unit Citation to members of the segregated 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team with the words, “You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice, and you have won.” Now more than 65 years later, in a ceremony on November 2, 2011, Congress will award its highest civilian honor to these same brave men by granting the Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the …
Getting to Know Michi Nishiura Weglyn
18 de octubre de 2010 • Sharon Yamato
Like it was yesterday, I remember the first time I picked up and started to read Michi Nishiura Weglyn’s Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps. My now-faded, coffee-stained, first-edition William Morrow copy is dated 1976, so I must have gotten it shortly after it came out. After reading the first several chapters that gave a moment-by-moment description of the events leading up to the decision to incarcerate and Roosevelt’s EO 9066, I was dumbfounded. Never before …
Through the Fire: Sharing Redress Stories
1 de abril de 2008 • Sharon Yamato
The following article was written in response to The Community Day of Remembrance, an annual public program held at the Japanese American National Museum on February 16, 2008 to mark President Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, that authorized the unconstitutional forced removal of 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast and Hawai`i during World War II. This year's program recognized the grassroots activism starting with Japanese Americans testifying at government-sanctioned hearings in 1981, through letter …
