Tamiko Nimura
@tnimuraTamiko Nimura, PhD, is an award-winning Asian American (Sansei/Pinay) creative nonfiction writer, community journalist, and public historian. She writes from an interdisciplinary space at the intersection of her love of literature, grounding in American ethnic studies, inherited wisdom from teachers and community activists, and storytelling through history. Her work has appeared in a variety of outlets and exhibits including San Francisco Chronicle, Smithsonian Magazine, Off Assignment, Narratively, The Rumpus, and Seattle’s International Examiner. She has written regularly for Discover Nikkei since 2016. She is completing a memoir called A Place For What We Lose: A Daughter’s Return to Tule Lake.
Updated October 2024
Stories from This Author
Love and Reckoning: A Meditation On Family Photos
Dec. 6, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
In my childhood home in Roseville, California, we had a room we called “the den.” It was not the formal living room, where we had two couches, a fireplace, and a glass-topped coffee table. “The den” was a place for watching TV and listening to records from my dad’s impressive record collection; he’d had a tansu built specifically for that collection, with record-size compartments painted black inside and room for speakers at each end. Every day, I would pass by …
Writing on the Wall—Text for Resisters: A Legacy of Movement from the Japanese American Incarceration
Nov. 8, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
It was a warm summer day in August 2022, but I could feel my feet and hands growing colder, a scratch in my throat developing. I was sitting at my youngest daughter’s desk while she was trying to sleep. My husband and oldest daughter had contracted COVID-19 and were isolating in our basement. Some sunlight was reaching into my daughter’s bedroom over my left shoulder while I sat at her white laminate IKEA desk. I could feel myself almost getting …
Sansei Granddaughters’ Journey Exhibit at Tanforan Detention Center Site
Aug. 4, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
In 2018, five Sansei women artists traveled to Manzanar’s annual pilgrimage in order to honor their family histories of wartime incarceration. Each of them had worked with this history in some form in their wide-ranging art careers, but this journey was special. In order to chronicle their experiences, they created a documentary, Sansei Granddaughters’ Journey. Now the five artists (Ellen Bepp, Shari Arai DeBoer, Reiko Fujii, Kathy Fujii-Oka, and NaOmi Judy Shintani) are bringing their art, their documentary, and their …
Karen Maeda Allman's Life in Punk Rock - Part 3
May 29, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
Read Part 2 >> LIFE AFTER PUNK ROCK Tamiko Nimura (TN): So well this is a good chance, I think, to ask about the groups that have come along later like Sleater-Kinney, like Bikini Kill, like the Linda Lindas….I just wanted to know your take on them and just hear how you must feel to see them on the rise. Karen Maeda Allman (KMA): I thought it was really exciting and anyway I guess I should've known it's inevitable…But I …
Karen Maeda Allman's Life in Punk Rock - Part 2
May 22, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
Read Part 1 >> LIFE IN PUNK Tamiko Nimura (TN): It's so fantastic to hear about this I just remember reading [and] doing a little bit of googling on you and of course you know all your bookselling stuff comes up, but it was like yeah there is this picture of you and your “armor” at the Smithsonian, and I thought, “wait a second.” Can you tell me about this, about your armor, and what it was like to put …
Karen Maeda Allman's Life in Punk Rock - Part 1
May 15, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
In the literary world, bookseller Karen Maeda Allman is widely known and respected for the bestselling authors she has brought to the Seattle area, for her advocacy for BIPOC authors, as well as for the literary prizes she has judged. I have known Karen personally for a few years now, and always felt comfortable in her calm and assertive presence. Imagine my delight when I recently found out that Karen had a previous life as the lead singer and lyricist …
“A Deep Collective Feeling”: Emily Akpan, Black-Nikkei Activist Hero
March 29, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
Emily Akpan is a Black-Nikkei activist living in Brooklyn, New York. She has been active in many social justice struggles, including Tsuru for Solidarity and New York Day of Remembrance. In March 2022, she was kind enough to take time to answer some questions for Discover Nikkei’s Inspire Forward: Nikkei Heroes Under 30 series. Her story is inspiring and provides insights and help for aspiring activists. * * * * * Tamiko Nimura (TN): Congratulations on being selected as a …
Reframing Japanese American Bitterness: A Partial Chronology
March 7, 2022 • Tamiko Nimura
It is February 2022, and the 80th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 has just passed with a groundswell of events commemorating a National Japanese American Day of Remembrance. I am grateful to have participated in a few, and proud of the Japanese American community for all of its efforts to keep camp history alive. I live in the wake of remembrance and resistance and resilience, and I am grateful for all of these. As a Sansei daughter, …
Tracing the Past With The Present: Yonsei Artist Lauren Iida
Dec. 21, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
Yonsei artist Lauren Iida and I first met online years ago when I interviewed her from Cambodia. Since that conversation her arts practice has expanded and deepened, as has her entrepreneurship and mentorship—all of these factors making her career an exciting one to watch. Her beautifully evocative paper cutting artworks include Memory Net, the series 100 Aspects of the Moon, and the series 32 Aspects of Daily Life. Many of them draw on her Japanese American heritage and historical research, …
“War Did Not Break This Family”: Nancy Kyoko Oda and the Tule Lake Stockade Diary
Nov. 29, 2021 • Tamiko Nimura
In 2014, I was training to be a discussion leader for the intergenerational dialogues that are an integral part of the Tule Lake pilgrimage. In the training session with 20+ participants, we were given three minutes to introduce ourselves to each other, in pairs. I was sitting next to a Sansei woman with kind brown eyes and a warm smile. As my partner introduced herself, I started nodding with excitement—we were supposed to listen, not speak, for those three minutes. …
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