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
Ishikawa's Moment
Oct. 23, 2014 • Chris Komai
In a previous article, I highlighted the fact that the Dodgers and the Giants had three Japanese Americans on their rosters (Darwin Barney and Brandon League for the Dodgers, Travis Ishikawa for the Giants) and how, to my knowledge, this had never happened before. I also pointed out that Ishikawa had a singular moment in Giants’ play-off history by drawing a walk that spurred a rally against the Atlanta Braves in the 2010. But while a walk is an important …
Japanese American Major Leaguers
Oct. 2, 2014 • Chris Komai
Sitting in the upper deck overlooking right field at AT&T Park in San Francisco for the first game of the Dodgers-Giants series in September, I was feeling pretty low. As part of the biennial Komai Family Reunion this year, our Northern California relatives had arranged to get tickets to this historic rivalry and even chartered a bus for us to attend the game as a group. Not surprisingly, most of the Northern relatives wore Giants’ gear. A few of us …
Don't Forget Pat Suzuki
Sept. 11, 2014 • Chris Komai
Do you know who Pat Suzuki is, and why she is significant to Japanese Americans? I suspect you would have to be at least as old as me (a Sansei born in the early 1950s) to recognize her name and know that she was a popular singer. Any Nisei would know instantly who she was and why she was important. In fact, my sense of Pat Suzuki is based almost entirely on the feeling I got from my aunt when …
Nisei Week 80th Anniversary
Aug. 7, 2014 • Chris Komai
Eighty years ago, the inaugural Nisei Week was organized in Little Tokyo in 1934. A distinctive Nikkei community event that was actually created as a marketing campaign, Nisei Week reflects the bicultural character of its founders. It has a parade that features ondo dancers (which explains why the parade with such a physically short route takes the hours to complete). It has a queen pageant where contestants wear kimono. Like its founders, Nisei Week’s resiliency is notable, having survived the …
Little Tokyo's Revival
June 30, 2014 • Chris Komai
This year, 2014, Little Tokyo is celebrating its 130th anniversary. Which is remarkable, since it has constantly been threatened with abandonment and extinction since World War II. In fact, twenty-two years ago, I thought Little Tokyo was dying. But in each case, a common remedy allowed the historic Nikkei neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles to overcome seemingly overwhelming obstacles: an unwillingness to give up and an ability by community members to work together. It is even feasible that the current …
Understanding My Mother's Life
May 11, 2014 • Chris Komai
My mother passed away last October at the age of 92 and there are so many things about her that I will never know. Mom had a tumultuous early life, but as the youngest of her four children, I was privy to few of her darkest moments. When she and my father would make references to camp when I was a boy, I thought they meant a summer camp and not a concentration camp. So much of what I do …
Revival: The Rafu Shimpo
March 7, 2014 • Chris Komai
On April 4, 1942, The Rafu Shimpo produced its final edition before everyone of Japanese ancestry was unconstitutionally forced to leave the West Coast by the U.S. government. No one, least of all my uncle Aki Komai, could know with any certainty if this was an interruption in the operation of the family newspaper, or its demise. A Nisei and only 32, Akira Komai was thrust into the role of publisher when the FBI came to the family house on …
Norman Mineta: A Lifetime of Public Service - Part 2
May 23, 2012 • Chris Komai
Read Part 1 >>REDRESSFor Norm Mineta, passing redress is still his most satisfying achievement in Congress. The formal push came when the National Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) passed a resolution in 1978 advocating for legislation. Representatives Mineta and Robert Matsui and Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga worked together with community groups to strategize how to get a redress bill passed. After of years of effort, H.R. 442 was finally set to be debated and Rep. Mineta wanted that …
Norman Mineta: A Lifetime of Public Service - Part 1
May 16, 2012 • Chris Komai
When Norman Yoshio Mineta looks back on his life, he shakes his head and wonders how a little kid from San Jose wound up in Washington, D.C., first as a Congressman and then as a member of two Presidents’ Cabinets. Moreover, he has distinguished himself as an advocate for civil liberties and against racial profiling to the point that two Japanese television companies have made documentaries about him recently. “I know I’m very fortunate to have gone to places and …
Jane Aiko Yamano
May 26, 2011 • Chris Komai
Growing up, Jane Aiko Yamano never dreamed that she would be the heir to her remarkable grandmother and the various beauty and health schools she fostered. Nor could she imagine being at the forefront of perpetuating and modernizing the Japanese traditional kimono with an eye at engaging young people in Japan. A Japanese American born in Los Angeles, she was summoned with her family at the age of 12 to Japan. Jane found herself faced with the ultimate challenge when …
