Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | aapi
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May 1, 2009

If you've ever been taunted or attacked by a bully but never fought back, you have to applaud this kid as a hero. A 15-year-old Asian Canadian (the newspaper story by the Globe and Mail never states the kid's or his family's name) fought back at a bully and broke his tormentor's nose, got suspended from school but inspired a walkout of 400 fellow students in support.
The 15-year-old black belt thought he was doing his tormentor a favour when he elected to fight back with his weaker left hand. He had heard his white classmate throw an angry racial slur in his direction after an argument during a gym class game of speedball, and now the student was shoving him backward, refusing to retract the smear. The white student swung first, hitting the 15-year-old with a punch to the mouth. The 15-year-old heard his father's voice running through his head: Fight only as a last resort, only in self-defence, only if given no choice, and only with the left hand. His swing was short and compact, a left-handed dart that hit the white student square on the nose. The nose broke under his fist, igniting a sequence of events - from arrest to suspension to possible expulsion - that has left the Asian student and his family wondering whether they are welcome in this small, rural and mostly white community north of Toronto, one that has been touched by anti-Asian attacks in the past. The 15-year-old, the only person charged in connection with the April 21 school fight, faces one count of assault causing bodily harm.
This week, 400 students at his high school walked out in protest -- even though he is shy and hadn't made a lot of friends, they supported his defiance of bullying and racism.
April 2, 2009

Musical interlude: I saw on Facebook that Kinna Grannis had posted a video of herself with David Choi, sittin' on a couch and humming and strumming the pop standard, "What a Wonderful World." It's a very sweet version, and the two harmonize beautifully together. I blogged about Grannis a few months ago when I stumbled across her version of "Sukiyaki."...

February 3, 2009

I had an interesting thread of conversation the other day on Facebook, after someone sent me a friend request that ended with the person (he's Caucasian) calling me "Gil-san." He wrote this in good cheer and good faith, and as a sign of collegial respect. I know that. But it struck me odd somehow, that non-Japanese people (usually Caucasians) throughout my life have assumed that it's perfectly normal to call me "Gil-san," or to say "konnichiwa" ("hello") or "sayonara," as if I speak Japanese, or better yet, that I appreciate someoe else assuming that I speak Japanese. I do -- a little. But I'm not Japanese, and the only time I try to mumble and stumble my way through a conversation in Japanese is when I'm trying to speak to Japanese people... from Japan. So I posted this on Facebook and Twitter: "Is it culturally sensitive, condescending or just plain goofy for a Euro-American to call me 'Gil-san'? I'm Japanese American, not Japanese." As is often the case, I got a flurry of responses right away on Facebook. Interestingly, Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans, as well as European Americans, had different perspectives on this topic.
January 6, 2009

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been asked by Pres-elect Obama to be the country Big news for Asian Americans (and for the South Asian community): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the affable and seemingly tireless chief medical correspondent for CNN (and a practicing neurosurgeon), is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to serve as Surgeon General of the United States. According to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz:
Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.
It'll be great to have another Asian American high up in the Obama administration, and the pres is smart to hook Gupta, because he's so well-known and well-liked, not to mention trusted, by the general public. But it'll be a loss for journalism, and one less prominent Asian American journalist in the national media.
December 26, 2008

Don Wakamatsu, a yonsei, is the first Asian American manager in Major League Baseball. A New York Times profile of Don Wakamatsu (thanks to reader Juan Lozano for pointing it out), the Japanese American named by the Seattle Mariners to manage the struggling team, reminded me that I'd been meaning to write about him since Wakamatsu's hiring was announced in November. It's an historic signing because for the hype that Japanese (and other Asian) ball players have received from the media since Hideo Nomo arrived as a pitcher for the Dodgers in 1995, there have been few and mostly unheralded Japanese American players in MLB. (By the way, Nomo wasn't the first Japanese player -- Masanori Murakami pitched in 1964 and '65 for the San Francisco Giants.) And, there has never been an Asian American manager of a Major League team. It's nice to read stories about Wakamatsu, who acknowledges his role as a pioneering Asian American. He grew up with an awareness of his heritage -- his father is Sansei and his mother is Irish American, so he's a Yonsei, or fourth-generation, Hapa. He played in Japanese American sports leagues as a kid, and is a member of the Japanese American Citizens League. His grandparents were interned at Tule Lake during World War II, and his father was born in camp. His grandparents even bought pieces of their former barracks and used them to build their home in Hood River, Oregon after the war, and they still live in the house. Wakamatsu was born in Oregon but raised in the Bay Area suburb of Hayward. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1985 as a catcher, and also played for the Chicago White Sox. He's held various coaching positions for the Texas Rangers, Anaheim Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks and others. He was bench coach for the Oakland As last season when he was picked to helm the Mariners.
December 10, 2008

Ahn Joseph Cao is the new Congressman from LouisianaThe national organization APIA Vote made it abundantly clear during both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention, where they did a lot of recruiting and convened caucuses: Asian American Pacific Islanders are not involved enough in politics. We're not great at getting the vote out, we don't participate as much as we could at the grassroots local level, and not enough Asian Americans run for and serve in elected office. A lot of that is cultural -- many of us are raised with the admonition: Don't bring attention to yourself. Don't make waves. The nail that sticks out gets nailed down (a particularly vivid Japanese saying that my mom has used on me). This logic steers us away from public career fields such as news media (oops, sorry, screwed that one up, mom) and politics. Given the range of offices and opportunities, relatively few AAPI politicians have national profiles. They include former Congressman and Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, Former washington Governor Gary Locke, Congressman Mike Honda of California, current Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Illinois Veterans Affiars Director Tammy Duckworth, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawai'i, Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawai'i... OK, Hawai'i skews the curve. Indian American Bobby Jindal is the governor of LouisianaBut Louisiana, which is probably not on most peoples' list of Asian-rich states, now boasts two AAPIs in nationally notable positions: Bobby Jindal (left) is the country's first-ever Indian American Governor, and as of last weekend, Ahn Joseph Cao (above right) is the country's first Vietnamese American Congressman. The kicker: both are Republicans, which really shouldn't surprise anyone but still has some people pondering the preponderance of party affiliations among the Asian American community. Jindal, for one, was one of John McCain's possible choices for running mate, and he's been touted as a possible presidential candidate for 2012, given his moderate social agenda and conservative fiscal outlook. Cao fled Vietnam during the Saigon with his mother (his father was imprisoned by the Viet Cong for seven years) with the wave of "boat people" refugees, and managed to defeat an incumbent Democrat in a Democratic stronghold district.
December 7, 2008

Retired Army General Eric Shinseki was named by Obama to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs Back on Veterans Day I posted an article about how Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been heroes for generations in the U.S. military, and ended the article with a note about retired Four-Star Gen. Eric Shinseki, former Army Chief of Staff and the highest-ranked AAPI in the military. Today, NBC released an excerpt of an interview with Barack Obama to air on tomorrow's "Meet the Press" program, during which the President-elect tells Tom Brokaw that he's naming Shinseki as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The timing of the announcement isn't coincidental. Tomorrow is Sunday, December 7, the 67th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Shinseki is Japanese American, and he was born in Hawai'i on November, 28, 1942. He and Barack Obama both have childhood roots in Hawai'i. Shinseki is a Vietnam veteran, who lost part of a foot from stepping on a land mine. He was named Army Chief of Staff in 1999 and retired in 2003... many thought, under duress from the Bush administration for his views which contradicted the official one on the war against Iraq. On February 25, 2003, a few months before the end of his appointment and the start of his retirement, Shinseki testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that he thought an occupying force of several hundred thousand men would be needed to stabilize postwar Iraq. His analysis was bluntly dismissed by the Bush administration. Here's part of a transcript of the proceedings:
December 4, 2008

Consul General of Japan in Colorado, Kazuaki Kubo, left, and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, right, congratulate Judge Kerry Hada on his appointment at a ceremony on Dec. 3. When Denver County Court Judge Melvin Okamoto announced earlier this year that he was retiring after two decades on the bench, the legal community offered up a handful of qualified candidates to take...