Since 2019, I have had the pleasure of writing for Discover Nikkei, and my time with them over these 5 years has been greatly rewarding. This month’s contribution marks my 100th article that I have written for the site. As I look forward to many more years of sharing stories here, I thought it would be nice to offer some reflections about the work of writing a column, and how my time with Discover Nikkei has shaped my journey as a writer. I have asked Greg Robinson to weigh in separately, and he has agreed to offer his own perspective on our collaboration.
Long before I started writing for Discover Nikkei, I was already familiar with the website. When I wrote my college thesis at Pomona College on the Manzanar guayule project and sugar beet farming in 2016-2017, I perused the site for articles, and found them a great introduction to deeper histories about camp (I later wrote an entry about the guayule farm for the Densho Encyclopedia based on my thesis).
My undergraduate mentor, Samuel Yamashita, encouraged my interest in Japanese American history and suggested I continue my studies into Asian American history in graduate school. I grew accustomed to using various posts as a resource for researching Japanese American history. A year later, when I worked as a contractor for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, I used the articles on Discover Nikkei, along with those in the Densho Encyclopedia, as a go-to reference for writing about Japanese American history and culture.
My connection with Discover Nikkei as a writer came thanks to historian Greg Robinson, then already a Discover Nikkei columnist. In the summer of 2018, when I was working on a master’s degree in history at Georgetown University, I spent as much time as I could at the National Archives collecting documents for my master’s thesis and finding others to save for future use. One day, as I went to the reading room to retrieve a box from the War Relocation Authority records, I happened to run across a man with a vaguely familiar face. I realized it was Greg, whom I recognized from a CSPAN video I had watched of a talk he had given at JANM several years before.
I knew Greg’s work well. When I first started my research into the history of Japanese Americans, I did a deep dive into the works of all the leading scholars, such as Roger Daniels, Eric Muller, Michi Weglyn, Peter Irons, Valerie Matsumoto, David Yoo, Lon Kurashige, Yuji Ichioka, Eiichiro Azuma, Art Hansen, and Alice Yang. One thing that particularly impressed me about Greg’s work was not only the wide range of subjects in the books he published on Japanese Americans, but the depth of his research, so it seemed altogether fitting to see him at the archives. On a whim, I decided to introduce myself, and to ask his advice on future PhD programs. He went out to the hall outside to speak with me about it, and we chatted for some time.
I got more than I bargained for from greeting Greg. Instead of just getting advice on graduate school, I ended up exchanging contact information with him, which led to a correspondence, and out of that a long friendship that developed between us.
Our friendship gained an extra dimension some months later, in March 2019, when Greg invited me to co-author an article for his Discover Nikkei column. At that time, I had just unearthed a set of letters that belonged to a Nisei woman, Mary Theresa Oishi. While imprisoned at Heart Mountain concentration camp, she had corresponded with a Catholic clergyman, Brother Theophane Walsh. Mary Theresa shared several memories with Brother Walsh about her prewar years at the Los Angeles Maryknoll parish. At one point, Brother Walsh wrote to Mary Theresa about ways to contact the Los Angeles Police Department about retrieving her confiscated camera.
When I came across this letter, I alerted Greg, thinking it would make a great potential story. Unbeknownst to me, Greg had been researching Brother Walsh’s career for some time, and had in fact just coauthored an article with his student Matthieu Langlois on Catholic leader Dorothy Day’s support for Japanese Americans in the camps. Greg graciously proposed that we collaborate on a biographical article about Walsh and his support for the Japanese American community. In line with the theme of Catholicism and Japanese Americans, we produced a piece that spotlighted the work of the Maryknoll Order in Los Angeles.
From then on, Discover Nikkei became a training ground for me as a writer. Working with Greg on the Walsh article inspired me to write more on my own, and later that summer I authored several articles, including one on newspaper reactions in the Netherlands to the redress movement, as well as an interview with Dutch Japanese American artist Giotta Tajiri.
In December of that year, I wrote an article on dentistry in camp, inspired in part by my father’s career as a dentist. In the process, I realized that Discover Nikkei was the perfect forum for publishing articles based on my research, and to share with the public and receive feedback.
I experienced a major shift in my writing career in early 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like most people in lockdown, I searched for new ways to stay occupied, without leaving home. I decided to split my time between working with Greg on a series of music articles for Nichi Bei and Discover Nikkei, and meanwhile producing my own articles for Discover Nikkei and Nikkei West. The two tasks complemented each other.
Drafting solo articles gave me a chance to develop my own style, and learn how to form conclusions from my research. Coauthoring with Greg meant that I could draw on his research as well as my own, and closely study his approach. Each article provided me valuable training and honed my skills in descriptive writing. He read my articles, and offered valuable criticism. Through our discussions about form and meaning, I learned better how to structure an article and avoid “burying the lede.”
In October 2020 my supportive editor, Yoko Nishimura, offered me the opportunity to write for Discover Nikkei as a regular columnist. I was honored by the invitation, as it not only gave me an opportunity to advance my writing career by having a steady outlet for my production, but signaled to me that my work was appreciated.
Keeping a column with Discover Nikkei has taught me to appreciate the power of the online stories as a tool to share my work with the public. Once I started writing columns for Discover Nikkei, I began received notes from readers who reached out to tell me how my stories affected them. The comments ranged from simple praise of my columns to detailed responses as to how a particular story related to their family. Perhaps the most rewarding stories were those that centered on the biographies of individuals. As attentive readers will have seen, many of my columns have examined cultural figures, religious leaders, and politicians who were affected by (or were involved in) the incarceration.
In many cases, I reached out to family members to fact-check a story or make sure they were comfortable with me sharing details about their ancestors. Conversely, after publication I often hear from relatives of other individuals I wrote about, reaching out to thank me– sometimes informing me that they knew very little about their relative until reading the article.
Occasionally I am asked how I gain inspiration for articles as a columnist. I do not find it to be hard. I have online access to the archives of the Rafu Shimpo, Nichi Bei Shinbun, International Examiner, and Pacific Citizen, among other publications, and I often skim the pages of old issues looking for stories. Sometime a story comes to me spontaneously.
Once, while working in the National Archives, I came across a clueless letter that the utility company PG&E sent to an Issei man who had been interned by the FBI at Fort Missoula, Montana, reminding him that he was late on his January 1942 bill for his San Francisco apartment. Other times my articles came out of broader questions. Once I asked myself how non-Japanese intellectuals reacted to the incarceration, which led me to write a multi-part series about how periodicals such as The New Republic and The New Yorker covered removal and incarceration. Lastly, looking to the present has always been a source of inspiration. Many times, I have written stories that have referenced current-day social and political questions, such as my story on quarantine orders within the camps, which came about during the pandemic.
As William Zinsser always reminds us, “writing is hard.” Expressing oneself on paper is always fraught, and learning to appreciate the process makes it a joy rather than an obstacle. When I was starting out, I struggled to write, both because my ideas were not always clear or because I failed to articulate my message in the best way possible. Even after several years of writing papers for college and graduate courses, I found the process of writing felt very much mechanical.
With time, however, and learning from other writers, I found methods of constructing drafts that made the writing process less intimidating and more organic. Based on my experience over these last five years, my best advice to any new writers -and even experienced ones - is that finding your writing voice comes with practice, so the only way to learn to write is to keep writing.
Perhaps the greatest help in learning to write is having a friend or colleague who can review your work. I am fortunate to have a friend like Greg Robinson, who generously takes the time to offer feedback on my articles. Although I share my articles with several friends to get a variety of opinions on a story, Greg always remains a supportive mentor and exacting editor that I rely on. As Ringo Starr once sang, “I Get By With A Little Help With My Friends.”
© 2024 Jonathan van Harmelen
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