Vozes Nanka Nikkei
Nanka Nikkei Voices (NNV) é uma publicação da Sociedade Histórica Nipo-Americana do Sul da Califórnia. Nanka significa “Sul da Califórnia”. Nikkei significa nipo-americano(s). O foco da NNV é registrar as histórias da comunidade nipo-americana no sul da Califórnia por meio das “vozes” dos nipo-americanos comuns e de outras pessoas que têm uma forte conexão com nossa história e herança cultural.
Esta série apresenta várias histórias das últimas 4 edições do Nanka Nikkei Voices.
Stories from this series
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 …
Starting a New Life
2 de Abril de 2014 • Marie Masumoto
My mother, Kinuko Saito, was holding me in her arms as we left Japan. I was six months old when we embarked on a military ship headed for Los Angeles via Seattle. Without knowing any English, my mother left her family and friends to start a new life in the United States. We had arrangements to stay with my father’s relatives whom she had never met before. We patiently stayed and waited for my father to arrive; he was a …
Channeling Grandma: Passing on the Gardening Genes
14 de Março de 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 …
Revival: The Rafu Shimpo
7 de Março de 2014 • Chris Komai
On April 4, 1942, The Rafu Shimpo produced its final edition before everyone of Japanese ancestry was unconstitutionally forced to leave the West Coast by the U.S. government. No one, least of all my uncle Aki Komai, could know with any certainty if this was an interruption in the operation of the family newspaper, or its demise. A Nisei and only 32, Akira Komai was thrust into the role of publisher when the FBI came to the family house on …
My Name is “BAKA”: Issei Discipline & Expectations in a Dr. Spock World
24 de Fevereiro de 2014 • Roy Y. Sakamoto
As a “baby boomer” raised by Issei parents on a farm in San Jose, CA after the war, I’ve often thought about how different it might have been if I had been raised as part of the “Dr. Spock1 generation” of my suburban hakujin (Caucasian) classmates. I often heard my hakujin friends have discussions with their parents about, (1) why they weren’t allowed to do something; (2) making excuses for not getting something done; or (3) denying blame when they …
Recollections of the Hatchimonji Family
11 de Fevereiro de 2014 • Ike Hatchimonji
My father and mother, Kumezo and Nobue (Komuro) Hatchimonji (originally spelled Hachimonji) were, like so many other immigrants from Japan, two Issei individuals who came to America to start a new life, a new family, and to seek new opportunities. Like their fellow Issei, theirs was not an easy life but with characteristic patience and hope, they succeeded with a legacy of achievement and pride. To describe some of the cultural traits that the Issei generation possessed, certain generalizations can …