Kimiko Medlock

chikkishimanju

Kimiko Medlock is an occasional freelance writer currently living in the Bay area. She holds an MA in modern Japanese history.

Updated January 2022

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Inspire Forward: Nikkei Heroes Under 30

Politics, Taiko, and Nikkei Activism with Kota Mizutani

By Kimiko Medlock
30 Sep 2022

Introduction Kota Mizutani grew up in rural Sonoma County, California, where he gradually became aware of Japanese American traditions that surrounded him as a child; teriyaki festivals, obons, taiko performances. He began playing taiko himself at the age of six, he told Discover Nikkei in a recent interview, and it was history and community surrounding Japanese drumming that grounded him in his Nikkei identity. These days, he is 26 years old and continues playing with Mark H Taiko in the Washington DC metro area. He has also become a strong voice for the Japanese American community in po…

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Inspire Forward: Nikkei Heroes Under 30

Emily Teraoka: Inspiring Conversations through public service at Minidoka National Historic Site

By Kimiko Medlock
26 May 2022

Emily Teraoka grew up around both the Japanese and Mexican cultures that are part of her heritage, but they were sprinkled into a mix of quintessentially American things—country music, pickup trucks, weekend sports, and big Halloween parties around her family’s home in Fresno, California. It wasn’t until college that she began exploring her yonsei Nikkei identity. Today, she is Lead Park Ranger for Minidoka National Historic Site, where she has the opportunity to build relationships and inspire conversations about the legacy of the WWII incarceration camps. Discover …

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Oshōgatsu in the Pandemic…Again

By Kimiko Medlock
3 Feb 2022

Nima-kai Traditions: Oshogatsu Foods 2022 After another long, trying year, Nikkei around the world celebrated Oshōgatsu 2022 with just as much joy as ever. They gathered when it was safe, met virtually when it was not, cooked up delicious osechi foods they normally buy or eat at parties, and toasted to a better new year. In our January e-newsletter, Discover Nikkei put out a call for photos sharing the foods Nikkei were eating to celebrate the new year around the world. We received submissions in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. A Discover Nikkei volunteer, Alison Skilbred, has c…

media en

New Film Paper Chase Tells the Story of Japanese American Media

By Kimiko Medlock
12 Oct 2021

Japanese and Japanese American newspapers have been faithfully chronicling the history of the Japanese immigrant community since the late 1800s in the United States and Canada. Organizations such as The Rafu Shimpo (founded in Los Angeles, in 1903), among many others, have gathered Japanese American stories and used them to create a sense of connection and to celebrate a shared heritage. Paper Chase (2021), a new full-length documentary by the Zentoku Foundation, tells the story of how these vital, local news organizations rose and evolved since the late 1800s, and the challenges they fa…

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The Incarceration in Context: New book paints the story of JA oppression, incarceration, and resilience

By Kimiko Medlock
23 Sep 2021

“Why should we care today about events that happened nearly eighty years ago? We should care because there are those today who cite the Japanese American incarceration as ‘precedent’ for “rounding up” others on the basis of race, national origin, and religion, for no justifiable reason. We should care when our government acts in unconstitutional ways.” — When Can We Go Back to America?, p.xxii Professor Susan H. Kamei first began pulling together materials for a course called “War, Race, and the Constitution” incarceration at the …

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Discover Nikkei

Japanese migrants and their descendants

Kimiko Medlock

Inspire Forward: Nikkei Heroes Under 30

Inspire Forward: Nikkei Heroes Under 30

Series this author contributes to

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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』

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