Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In Japanese, kizuna means strong emotional bonds. In 2011, we invited our global Nikkei community to contribute to a special series about how Nikkei communities reacted to and supported Japan following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Now, we would like to bring together stories about how Nikkei families and communities are being impacted by, and responding and adjusting to this world crisis.
If you would like to participate, please see our submission guidelines. We welcome submissions in English, Japanese, Spanish, and/or Portuguese, and are seeking diverse stories from around the world. We hope that these stories will help to connect us, creating a time capsule of responses and perspectives from our global Nima-kai community for the future.
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Although many events around the world have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have noticed that many new online only events are being organized. Since they are online, anyone can participate from anywhere in the world. If your Nikkei organization is planning a virtual event, please post it on Discover Nikkei’s Events section! We will also share the events via Twitter @discovernikkei. Hopefully, it will help to connect us in new ways, even as we are all isolated in our homes.
Stories from this series
Doris Moromisato and her pandemic year: an intense present
April 26, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
The coronavirus pandemic is a watershed in the history of humanity. When we get older, hopefully, we will remember 2020-21 as the years when our lives changed forever. Although we are not yet free from the pandemic and, therefore, we lack the perspective to fully measure the impact of the virus, it is possible to make assessments or judgments about what has been experienced (and suffered). The renowned Nikkei writer Doris Moromisato shares her experience during this anomalous year: “Like …
Japanese Canadian Art in the Time of Covid-19 - Part 6: Let’s Dance!
April 8, 2021 • Norm Masaji Ibuki
Read Part 5 >> So far, dancing is not on the list of prohibited activities under the current Ontario Emergency Lockdown. In Part 6, we’re featuring three JC dancers who make their living as dancers: Vancouver Budoh dancer Jay Hirabayashi, son of Gordon Hirabayashi, and his partner Barb Bourget are the founders and teachers at Kokoro Dance. Denise Fujiwara operates the Fujiwara Dance Inventions in Toronto and Hiroe Hoshi (aka “Nema”) is a well known Victoria, BC belly dancer, performer …
Pepe Cabana Kojachi: from paper to screen
March 29, 2021 • Javier García Wong-Kit
His stage was theaters, children's libraries and cultural centers, where he took his bicycle with the Kamishibai, the traveling paper theater with which Pepe Cabana Kojachi became known as Mukashi Mukashi. Now the stage is on the second floor of his house, where he has set up a set to record his digital presentations that not only reach Peru, but also many countries where this form of Japanese art has been spreading. “It is curious that at this juncture many …
A Different Perspective: A Nikkeijin's Questions on Humanity's Responses to Economic Uncertainty
March 25, 2021 • Tuney-Tosheia P. McDaniels
Is ignorance really bliss? What does it mean when people say, “I can’t wait for things to go back to normal”? What is defined as “normal”? Is “going back to normal” achievable after over 2.6 million deaths worldwide due to the Coronavirus—with over 530,000 Coronavirus-related deaths in the US alone? Also, what does it mean to be Economically stable at this point in time? In this article, I want to reflect from an Economic Anthropological perspective. This means I intend …
“We should not be left with this feeling of horror because Peru is a great country”
March 19, 2021 • Enrique Higa Sakuda
A year ago, one of the most rigorous quarantines in the world was imposed in Peru to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. It has been a painful and terrible year for a country decimated by the pandemic and morally devastated by a scandal that involved a former president and two former ministers who abused their positions of power to get vaccinated clandestinely while thousands of people died. Throughout the year, one of the specialists most consulted by the …
Azay is Leading The Way
March 19, 2021 • Mieko Beyer
Philip Hirose, co-owner of Azay — a Japanese fusion restaurant in Little Tokyo, which he runs with his mother Jo Ann and father, Akira — faced not just the challenge of opening a new restaurant, but also coping with pandemic shutdowns just six months after opening. “Lunch was our busiest time due to the city government workers,” he explained. “Now with them not in their offices — it was a huge blow.” Azay opened on Sept. 14, 2019 and is …