I wasn’t surprised that anti-Japanese sentiments were expressed when Takuma Sato, a Japanese driver, won the Indianapolis 500 race -- he is the first driver from Japan to take the flag. But I was shocked, and disappointed that the hateful sentiment was blurted by a journalist. In Denver, where I live. And that it was someone I had worked with. Terri...
Many Japanese Americans I know don’t pay much attention to Japan, which I think is a pity. I believe JAs should keep up with news from Japan, and travel to Japan. A lot. However, most JAs I know closely follow the news of Donald Trump’s presidency, and what he’s doing in the US. A standing-room-only crowd attended this year's Japanese American Day...
NOTE: I just heard today that Mas Nonaka, a member of the local Japanese American community who has cut hair at several iterations of his barbershop, Nonaka's, in and around Sakura Square since before the block was called Sakura Square, passed away. Nonaka's was where I first got my hair cut when my family moved to Denver from northern Virginia in...
I'm the chair of the editorial board of Pacific Citizen, the national newspaper of the JACL. Below is my column in the New Year's issue of the PC. I wanted to post it here and also add even more current concerns given President Trump's rocky first three weeks, his eyebrow-raising relationships with world leaders (including Japan's Shinzo Abe, which merits...
Most books about Japanese Americans focus on the West Coast because that's where Japanese first arrived and settled on the US mainland. So few well-known books tell the stories of Japanese as they crossed the country and decided to live in the mountains, or the midwest, or the northeast or the south. Yet I know of communities of JAs in New...
NOTE: A full version of this post with more from Takei as well as cast members and producer, as well as videos from the musical, was originally published on Dec. 7, 2015. After a November performance at the Longacre Theatre in New York’s fabled Broadway district, George Takei and other cast members answered questions about their powerful musical, “Allegiance.” “I remember we...
The slope just got a little slippery. Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL who’s the spokesman for the Great America PAC supporting Donald Trump, was recently interviewed on Fox News’ “Kelly File.” The president-elect’s transition team is discussing plans for a registry for Muslim immigrants, he said, and there were historical precedents for such a registry including the imprisonment of...
I’ve been watching the Olympics when I get tired of obsessing about the presidential campaigns. I’ve been a fan of the Olympic games since I was just a kid – I remember vividly watching the 1964 games in Tokyo when my family lived in Japan. (Photo courtesy of the Center for Sacramento History Sacramento Bee Archives) I was not quite 7 years...