Minami Hasegawa
Intern reporter for North American News Agency (as of 2018). Currently studying journalism at Sophia University's Faculty of Letters, Department of Journalism. She is studying journalism at Seattle University as an exchange student for one year. During her time abroad, she became interested in the history of Japanese immigrants, and is in charge of the serialization of "Nikkei Family History" in North American News Agency commemorating the 150th anniversary of Japanese immigration. She aims to conduct reporting that will reach a wide audience of both Japanese Americans and Japanese people. She is originally from Nerima Ward, Tokyo.
(Updated May 2018)
Stories from This Author
Toshi Tokunaga, a second-generation Japanese-American veteran: My wartime experience fighting in the U.S. military
Dec. 26, 2018 • Minami Hasegawa
"Are you guys listening to something from 70 years ago?" Toshi's first response was with a laugh. Could this really be the man who fought in the fierce battles of Europe as a US soldier 70 years ago? It was hard to imagine, judging from his smile. Toshi Tokunaga (93), who lived in the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho during World War II and later enlisted in the U.S. Army and went to the European front, now lives quietly with …
Tales of life in wartime internment camps passed down
June 27, 2018 • Minami Hasegawa
At the theater of the Wing Luke Museum, which preserves the history of Asian immigrants, Irene Mano talks about her family's immigration history and life in a wartime internment camp. About 30 students from a Jewish school listened intently to her story, which also appears in Ken Mochizuki's book "Minidoka Memoirs: The Untold Story from the Yoshito Fujii Files," a record of Irene's family's wartime life in an internment camp. The elementary school students asked endless questions, such as "What …
Learning about wartime experiences across the ocean in Seattle - The Fujii Family
June 15, 2018 • Minami Hasegawa
Aiko Fujii was born in Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and experienced the war from age 6 to 10 before moving to Seattle when she got married. A member of the Seattle branch of the American Calligraphy Study Group and the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Church, she has been active in the Japanese community in Seattle through calligraphy, flower arrangement, and tea ceremony. We spoke to her about her life in Japan from the war until she moved to the United States, …
Learning about Japanese immigration history for the first time: The Ideguchi family
May 28, 2018 • Minami Hasegawa
In September 2017, I came to Seattle for a one-year exchange program. Having been born in Tokyo and living with my family for 21 years, I was more anxious than excited about living abroad for a long time. I was depressed every day because I couldn't understand the content of my university classes or speak up in discussions. I felt that all Americans were friendly, but it took me a while to make friends who I could casually go out …
