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Cupertino holds two bell ringing events for peace
FOR PEACE — Organizers displayed a senbazuru, 1,000 paper cranes, that was dedicated during the ceremony. An old Japanese legend says anyone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted a wish. The...
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The Census is about our past and future
Yumi Sera. photo courtesy of California Complete Count – Census 2020 Office Many have come to understand that by participating in the Census, you are shaping the future — ensuring your community has...
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A life lesson from John Lennon, in Japantown
SLAIN BEATLE REMEMBERED — Flowers are left at John Lennon’s memorial, Strawberry Fields, in New York’s Central Park on Dec. 8, the 40th anniversary of the legendary musician’s death. Kyodo News photo...
View ArticleThe virtual Nikkei
To call this past year “unprecedented” is the understatement of all understatements. But as we noted in the commentary at the onset of the pandemic — “Navigating the new normal” (March 26, 2020) — “we...
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My tsuru
photo courtesy of Akemi Yamane Ina I am a member of Tsuru for Solidarity. I am not an activist, nor am I a trained artist, but I have painted 12 large tsuru (paper cranes) of various sizes. I paint...
View ArticleTips for navigating Japanese learning online
Learning Japanese is hard. Unlike English there are multiple alphabets plus character sets. Online learning can make what would normally be challenging seem overwhelming. Don’t despair, a few tips...
View ArticleFolding the origami crane
It is belie(ved) that if you fold 1,000 origami cranes one’s wish will come true. It takes hours to fold that many and string them on a streamer. The crane is also considered to live 1,000 years. It...
View ArticleWhy Tule Lake matters
In this post-Trump, post-Stephen Miller era where social media has brought to the fore the systemic racism that permeates U.S. society, it is time to see Tule Lake for what it was. Tule Lake had...
View ArticleA declaration for peace
The atomic bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, were small and rudimentary nuclear weapons, only 10 and 12 kilotons respectively. Yet they reduced these once beautiful...
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Tribute to Jan Mirikitani
Janice Mirikitani passed away on July 29. photo by Alain McLaughlin Jan died on my birthday. She called me while I was still in the hospital. “How ya doing?” I poured my heart out. (I’d been there...
View ArticleWakasa Memorial Committee ‘stunned’ by Topaz Museum Board’s ‘crude and...
Sept. 7, 2021 Dear Topaz Museum Board President Jane Beckwith and Board Members Lance Atkinson, Scott Bassett, Lorelei Draper, Rick Okabe, Hisashi Bill Sugaya, and Teresa Thompson: The U.S. Department...
View ArticleWakasa monument unearthing a ‘slap in the face’
To All Concerned, Despite the personal request of a decades long financial supporter of the Topaz Museum to fund a ceremonious, archivally professional excavation of the long buried stone monument,...
View ArticlePublic statement by the Japantown community regarding the proposed purchase...
This statement is a demand that the Hotel Buchanan be removed from further consideration of City acquisition. Many have tried to paint this as a Japantown vs. the unhoused issue, or just another...
View ArticleJACS grant update and request for help
The Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program (Public Law 109-441) was established to preserve and interpret the United States confinement sites where Japanese Americans were...
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Statement from the Topaz Museum Board
September 17, 2021 The photo of a Japanese American Citizens League monument that is located at the site was taken in the summer of 2020, Topaz Museum Board President Jane Beckwith said. The sign is...
View ArticleStatement from former CANE members on the sale of the Buchanan Hotel in S.F....
The Committee Against Nihonmachi Eviction (CANE) 50th Anniversary Committee formed ten months ago to commemorate CANE’s fight to preserve San Francisco’s Japantown and to share this history with future...
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Grandma’s gift
(From left to right): Shinichi Mori (grandfather), Kuni Mori (great grandmother), Shinayo Mori (grandma). photo courtesy of Mori Family Shinayo Mori, my grandma, was born in 1899, outside the city of...
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Remembering Wilma Chan
FILE – Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan speaks at Asian Health Services in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Chan died Wednesday, Nov. 3 after being hit by a car while walking her dog, her...
View ArticleLove and compassion
As I read about the circumstances about the unearthing of the Wakasa monument, I am saddened by some of the inflammatory language of the past four months surrounding the event and the innuendo...
View ArticleReport from Topaz
On November 30 and December 1, 2021, an expert National Park Service team was in Delta, Utah at the invitation of the Topaz Museum to conduct a condition evaluation of the Wakasa monument and site....
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