I've read about, and talked about, and written about the internment of over 110,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II, so much that in a weird way, I've come to think of internment as a clinical, historical event. But once in a while, I'm reminded of the human scale of the tragedy, and feel the pain personally, of...
When journalist Seth Rosenfeld wrote in a San Francisco Chronicle article in August that Richard Aoki, the mysterious Japanese American who was one of the leaders of the radical Black Panther Party, was an FBI informant during the turbulent 1960s, the revelation exploded within the Asian American community. The bombshell brought on a fussilade of defenses of Aoki's place as a...
Filmmaker Linda Hattendorf posted the sad news today on the Facebook page for "The Cats of Mirikitani," the wonderful and powerful documentary she made in 2006: It is with deep deep sorrow that we must share the sad news that our dear friend Jimmy Mirikitani passed away on Sunday October 21. He was 92 years old. Thank you for all...
Over the years, I've been surprised that many Japanese Americans aren't interested in Japan or even visiting Japan, mostly because they’re embarrassed that they don’t speak Japanese, or they feel entirely American. I think it's more important than ever for Japanese Americans to follow events in Japan. The fact is, Japan is on the precipice of some potentially treacherous political turmoil. Most...
Unbelievable. Again and again, I'm reminded how some Americans have a stubborn racist streak that's covered up by a veneer of political correctness, but comes out with just a little bit of provocation. Last year, people expressed ignorant racist hatred against Japanese ...
IN 2001, New York filmmaker Linda Hattendorf began documenting the life of a homeless artist whose work caught her attention. The elderly man, who set up his "shop" outside a corner grocery in SoHo, not far from the Wall Street district, wouldn't take money from passersby, unless it was in payment for one of his drawings or paintings, many of...
Vincent Chin was beaten with a baseball bat 30 years ago on June 19 in a Detroit suburb, and died four days later. At the time, I was three years out of art school, managing a paint store, and was a budding young rock critic writing for a Denver newspaper. I didn’t follow any news coverage about the attack on Vincent...
President Obama never fails to inspire with his speeches, and for me, especially his speeches in support of the Asian American community. The video above is from his speech in Washington DC on May 18 at the 18th Annual Gala of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. And while I'm at it, I'm embedding Obama's historic interview yesterday with...
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