Chris Komai
@ckomaiChris Komai is a freelance writer, who has been involved in Little Tokyo for more than four decades. He was the Public Information Officer of the Japanese American National Museum for over 21 years, where he handled public relations for the organization’s special events, exhibitions and public programs. Prior to that, Komai worked for the Japanese-English newspaper, The Rafu Shimpo, for 18 years as a sports writer, sports editor, and English editor. He still contributes articles to the newspaper and writes for Discover Nikkei on a variety of topics.
Komai was Past Board Chair for the Little Tokyo Community Council and is currently First Vice Chair. He also serves on the Little Tokyo Public Safety Association board. He has been a member of the Southern California Nisei Athletic Union Board of Directors for basketball and baseball for almost 40 years and sits on the Board of the Nikkei Basketball Heritage Association. Komai earned a B.A. degree in English from the University of California at Riverside.
Updated December 2019
Stories from This Author
Howard Kakudo: Disney Animator Shared His Talents While Imprisoned at Poston Camp
Dec. 10, 2019 • Chris Komai
In seeking to preserve and share the Japanese American experience, the Japanese American National Museum maintains the largest collection of its kind in the world. While clearly a serious and scholarly endeavor, the collection also contains items that touch on popular culture and (dare we say) are fun. The holiday card created by Howard Kakudo while at the World War II Poston concentration camp in Arizona, is such an item. Kakudo worked in animation for Walt Disney Productions before the …
The Japanese American Basketball Connection - Part 2
March 17, 2016 • Chris Komai
Read Part 1 >> The establishment in 1947 of a Southern California NAU to oversee a basketball league was a very humble beginning. There were just two divisions: AA and A. Gymnasiums were difficult to obtain. Referees were just as scarce. Often, players from other teams in the league were recruited to officiate. Because job opportunities were so limited, money was in short supply. Honda recalled that most players and teams paid their league fees on a “pay as you …
The Japanese American Basketball Connection - Part 1
March 16, 2016 • Chris Komai
When I was five years old, our family lived in Los Angeles on 12th Avenue, near what was known as the Seinan district. Construction of the Santa Monica Freeway was being planned, and its path went right through our home. Because of this our house was condemned, and our family moved to an unincorporated area of the San Gabriel Valley which became Temple City. At that time there were a lot of dairies and chicken farms there, but few sidewalks. …
The Unseen Price of Redress
Feb. 19, 2016 • Chris Komai
The passage and signing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 remains the most significant event for Japanese Americans since World War II. In an unprecedented act of Congress, the U.S. government apologized for its unlawful forced removal and mass incarceration of thousands of people of Japanese ancestry during the war while providing redress payments of $20,000 to the survivors. While the success of the redress campaign represents a breakthrough in asserting political power for our numerically small Nikkei community, …
Why Hasn’t Ichiro Retired?
July 30, 2015 • Chris Komai
Ichiro Suzuki is easily the most accomplished Japanese baseball player to ever compete in Major League Baseball. The Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year in his first season with the Seattle Mariners in 2001, Ichiro is a 10-time All Star who won two batting titles and earned 10 Gold Gloves as the best right fielder in the American League. Before coming to the United States, he won three Most Valuable Player awards in Japan. Yet today, nearing the …
Too Much Mottainai?
May 26, 2015 • Chris Komai
After our mother passed in 2013, my siblings and I were faced with the daunting task of cleaning out her house. That included her garage and a storage unit she had rented for decades filled with who knows what. While there were lots of personal family items that my brothers, sister, and I were able to divide up, there was also a lot of junk (there, I said it). We eventually engaged an estate sales person, who told us not …
My Japanese American Families
March 3, 2015 • Chris Komai
How well do you know your own family? Specifically, your extended family: uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins, great aunts, etc. Maybe it is because I am older now, but it seems my relationship with my father’s family has only grown stronger. Even my relationship to my wife’s family has developed, although after over 20 years of marriage, I would hope so. But, the strengthening of relations with your extended family is certainly not inevitable, even as we age, and I …
Carrying on Tradition: A visit to Bunkado and the artistic, eclectic heart of Little Tokyo
Jan. 16, 2015 • Chris Komai
Bunkado sits both physically and metaphorically at the crossroads of Little Tokyo. Nestled in the shadow of the Miyako Hotel on one side and guarding the driveway that leads to the Koyasan Buddhist Temple on the other, Bunkado’s front door almost aligns with the crosswalk that splits First Street so a pedestrian could enter by walking a diagonal line from the Suehiro restaurant across the road in the Little Tokyo Historic District. Officially, only the north side of First Street …
Who's More Japanese?
Jan. 8, 2015 • Chris Komai
One strong characteristic that marks the Japanese culture is the constant striving to name and define everything. They have a penchant for labeling ideas, types of food, special occasions, religious ceremonies, the changing seasons, and virtually every aspect of their lives. So it is not surprising that Japanese and Japanese Americans have specific names for the generations of people who came to America and their descendants: Issei, Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei, Gosei, and on and on. Because the initial immigration from …
Guilty Pleasures
Nov. 13, 2014 • Chris Komai
As with most people who subscribe to cable television, I suffer through an endless number of inconveniences, indignities, and monetary insults. When the signal becomes sporadic or even fails, I call and get a recording that tells me to unplug my box and let it reboot, which seems like the kind of tech support that my long-deceased Issei grandparents could have figured out. (My grandmother, for instance, referred to their automobile, in her halting English, as “the machine.”) Cable gets …
