John Sammon

John Sammon is a freelance writer and newspaper reporter, novelist and historical fiction writer, non-fiction book writer, political pundit and column writer, comedy and humor writer, screenplay writer, film narrator and a member of the Screen Actors Guild. He lives with his wife near Pebble Beach.

Updated March 2018

sports en

Bay Area Woman Turns Love of Softball into Coaching Career

  • By John Sammon
  • 14 Apr 2023
Shannon Mortimer has been instrumental in helping to grow women’s softball into the major sport it always had the potential to become. As a player and today a coach of young women of Japanese ancestry, she has seen the sport rise from an obscure past to an internationally recognized event. Women’s softball has come a long way from the formation of its first team in 1895. At the time it was considered merely a diversion….for women. Men often thought of women’s softball as irrelevant, even described it in insulting and sexist terms (deleted here), a game appropriate…

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community en

Bay Area Man Recalls Career Exploring World for Energy in Exotic Places

  • By John Sammon
  • 28 Dec 2022
Doug Uchikura traveled the world through his job with Chevron seeking sources of energy and some of the places where he lived you may never have heard of…for example Ashgabat in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan. “That country was isolated from the world, it was somewhat a closed society,” Uchikura recalled. The sight of an American was so rare in such places. Uchikura agreed that in a way he and his wife Maris became ambassadors of a sort. Locals formed their opinions of America after meeting the couple. “I think my wife was really good at that (shaping po…

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culture en

Sacramento Man Recounts Struggle to Become Internationally Recognized Sculpture Artist

  • By John Sammon
  • 6 Nov 2022
Yoshio Taylor will tell you and he’s told his students that to be a sculpture artist takes a special resolve all its own. “I used to tell my students, ‘yeah it’s great to have artworks all over the place but art is a commitment,’” Taylor said. “You have to have a passion, you have to persevere, you have to sacrifice. Even if you have talent someone might pass you up in your career unless you push it. You have to have determination. I was known as a workaholic and I still am,” Taylor added. “My family thinks I’m crazy. Maybe I am.…

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media en

Film Recounting Japanese Americans who fled imprisonment through banishment

  • By John Sammon
  • 4 Jul 2022
What would be your reaction if this had happened to you? You’re told by the U.S. Government to pack what you can carry in a suitcase and get on a train with your wife and children and your grandparents. You’re under arrest because of your ancestry and you’re going to be imprisoned in a guarded barbed wire-enclosed jail somewhere in the desert of Arizona. They’re doing this to you because you and your family are (they say) a threat to national security. Or, they give you an option. You can avoid imprisonment if you abandon your job, give up your house and property a…

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community en

Sacramento Woman Remembered for Japanese-Style Box Lunches, Giving Heart

  • By John Sammon
  • 27 Mar 2022
Mollie Oto is one of those rare people of whom it could be said was truly irreplaceable. But though her recent passing saddened so many, it remains a consolation she will live on in the hearts and minds of the hundreds of friends and fans whose lives she touched over the years. A diminutive woman physically (she was 5 foot 1 and 90 pounds), Oto left a big legacy in Sacramento. From her 14-hour-a-day work ethic to her extensive work as a community volunteer. Oto became famed in Sacramento for her high quality Japanese-style cooking, particularly her bento box lunch meals made from scratch. …

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