Erik Matsunaga
@erikmatsuErik Matsunaga’s investigations into the history of Chicago’s Japanese American community have been featured by the Japanese American National Museum, Alphawood Gallery, WBEZ Radio, and the Newberry Library. Born in Chicago, a descendant of WWII-era Nikkei resettlers from California, he curates @windycitynikkei—“Bite-sized Glimpses of Japanese American Chicago”—on Instagram.
Updated November 2020
Stories from This Author
Be Strong
Nov. 7, 2013 • Erik Matsunaga
Be strong, be gentle, be beautiful. In judo you need strength of mind, body, and soul. I don’t mean beauty in the external sense. A compassionate soul is inner beauty. I believe that is true beauty. —Keiko Fukuda Yuriko Gamo Romer’s introduction to Keiko Fukuda came by happenstance. The San Francisco, CA-based filmmaker explains, “In 2006, Oprah’s ‘O’ magazine did a story about her. I was intrigued by this story and realized that her dojo was in my neighborhood. So I …
Farm Food
Aug. 7, 2012 • Erik Matsunaga
I didn’t eat much Japanese food growing up. Born hapa Yonsei of a second generation German American mother and third generation Japanese American father who’d grown up together in the “old neighborhood” of Lakeview, Chicago, circumstances didn’t dictate much knowledge of overt Japanese customs, culinary or otherwise. Our family emigrated from Kyushu in the early 1900s, farmers who plied their trade in California’s Central Valley, culminating in ownership of acreage purchased under the names of their American-born Nisei infants due …
Welcome to the Writers Workshop
Dec. 14, 2011 • Erik Matsunaga
The Undeniables writers workshop was formed in 1999, inspired by a chapter from the novel VALLEY (Bend Press, 1998), by Mike Daily. Edren Sumagaysay and I had met the previous year in a touring theatre troupe based in Los Angeles, and got to talking about a mutual passion for writing while holed up between shows in a Maryland motel. We had both recently read Mike Daily’s then newly released novel, and wanted to host a writers workshop of our own. …
