Grant Din

grantdin

Grant Din is community relations director at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, where his work includes coordination and creation of content for AIISF’s Immigrant Voices website and research into the World War II experiences of internees of Japanese descent on the island. Din has worked in nonprofits in the Asian American community for thirty years and serves on the boards of Mu Films and the Marcus Foster Education Fund. An avid genealogist, he enjoys working with friends to help others explore their Asian American roots. Din has a B.A. in sociology from Yale University and an M.A. in public policy analysis from Claremont Graduate University and lives with his family in Oakland.

Updated February 2015

migration en

The Angel Island Story of Kane Mineta, Norman Mineta’s mother

By Grant Din
13 Apr 2018

Americans know Norman Mineta as the first Asian American in a presidential cabinet, when he was secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton, secretary of transportation under George Bush, where he took decisive action after the attacks of 9/11, and as a U.S. Congressman, councilman, and mayor of San Jose. He also received an Immigrant Heritage Award from the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) in 2015. What they may not know is that his roots go through Angel Island, because his mother Kane (pronounced Kah-neh) was a picture bride who was questioned on the island in 191…

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Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

The Shigenaga Brothers’ Detention on Angel Island and the Continent During World War II

By Grant Din
10 Nov 2015

Kakuro’s life in Hawai`i and arrest Kakuro Shigenaga was born in the Hibagun district of Hiroshima-ken on August 30, 1896, came to Hawai`i in February of 1913, and settled on Maui. He was a salesman at the Kobayashi General Store in Kahului, Maui and married to Yoshie. They had four children. Kakuro was arrested on January 7, 1942, one month after Pearl Harbor was attacked, because his diary was found during a search of his brother Shigeo’s house, and the FBI claimed his writings contained anti-American and pro-Japanese sentiments. Grandson Mark Shigenaga said that Kakuro was …

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Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

Nentaro Ide's Detention at the Age of 75

By Grant Din
10 Sep 2015

Nentaro (also known as Toshitaro or Mantaro) Ide was born in Fukuoka, Japan on October 13, 1867, and according to his internment file, arrived in Hawaii in 1901, where he worked on a dairy farm and lived until 1906, then left for Seattle, where he briefly lived. He then moved to San Francisco and then Concord in 1909. He was foreman of the Shadelands Ranch, owned by the Penniman family, and also started a hotel and grocery store. Sheila Rogstad, historian of the Walnut Creek Historical Society, now housed at the former ranch, says Ide also supplied many Ygnacio Valley farms with temporary he…

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Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

Rev. Asataro Yamada's Detention on Angel Island Due to His Religious Practices

By Grant Din
29 May 2015

Born in Aki-gun, Japan in 1878, Asataro Yamada first came to the United States in 1898 into the port of Seattle at a time when there were few restrictions on Japanese immigration. He then worked as a sailor for many years on ships that sailed all over the Pacific. He worked as a farm laborer, ran his own hardware store in Seattle, sold Chevrolet cars, and taught people from Japan how to drive, according to his grandson Byron Ishiwata. He and his wife Fusa had five children, all born in Seattle in the 1910s (one of them died as an infant). In 1927, he was struck with a near-fatal case of pneum…

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Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

Journalist Yasutaro Soga’s Detention on Angel Island During World War II

By Grant Din
14 May 2015

Japanese immigrants were arrested by the FBI on both the mainland U.S. and the islands of the Territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941 and in the following months. By law they were “enemy aliens” and could be taken away as internees. As mentioned elsewhere on our site, Asians could not become U.S. citizens, by law. One of these immigrants was Yasutaro Soga, editor of a Japanese language newspaper in Honolulu. He and several hundred other prominent Issei (Japanese immigrants) were arrested on the evening of the attack on Pearl Harbor and sent to Sand Island, near Honolulu, for six m…

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Japanese migrants and their descendants

Grant Din

Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

Series this author contributes to

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Part 1—Wakaji’s Beginnings

Narumi Ogusuku—Ubiquitous Nikkei Artist

Japanese Women in Chicago

Part 2: For Women—Nihon Fujinkai

My Name is Neal

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Book review: Beyond the Betrayal, The Memoir of a World War II Japanese American Draft Resister of Conscience

Of Inomatas and Kingis: The Story of a Remarkable Family

書評：和泉真澄『日系カナダ人の移動と運動―知られざる日本人の越境生活史』

1992年渡米、目標は「アカデミー賞」— 俳優の井上英治さん

Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tiempos pandémicos: teletrabajo y koden digital

Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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第３部：金子正則知事の南米訪問とその主な見解

NIMA VOICES

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Part 2: For Women—Nihon Fujinkai

Journal Entry #10, 18, and 1958 are Good: "Best Numbers..."

Book review: Beyond the Betrayal, The Memoir of a World War II Japanese American Draft Resister of Conscience

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第12回全米に行き渡るインターネットラジオ『さくらRADIO』