Tatsuya Sudo
Lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies. Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1959. Graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia University in 1981. Graduated from Temple University Graduate School in 1994. Worked at the International Cooperation Service Center from 1981 to 1984. Lived in the United States from 1984 to 1985, and developed an interest in Japanese-American films and theater. Has been involved in English education since 1985, and currently lectures at Kanda University of International Studies. Since 1999, has presided over the Asian American Studies Group, holding study meetings several times a year in Tokyo. His hobbies are rakugo and ukulele.
(Updated October 2009)
Stories from This Author
Karen Tei Yamashita: A third-generation Japanese-American writer who continues to question her place in the world - Part 3
Oct. 22, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
Part 2 >> Adolescence over a turbulent decade The I Hotel was formerly the International Hotel located in Manila Town, San Francisco, and was an apartment building mainly housing low-income Filipinos. The I Hotel was an essential low-cost hotel for Filipinos who came to America in search of a better life in the 1920s, and by the 1950s, the hotel was home to about 10,000 Filipinos.In December 1968, the hotel's owner, Milton Meyer, notified the residents to vacate the building …
Karen Tei Yamashita: A third-generation Japanese-American writer who continues to question her place in the world – Part 2
Oct. 15, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
Part 1 >> Three perspectives from Japan, Brazil and the United States The following description appears in "Brazil Maru." "Ichiro Terada proudly told us recently that his grandson passed the entrance exam to enter a university's agricultural department. He rejoiced as if it were his own achievement, saying, "The Japanese are originally a people who live with the earth. When you move to virgin lands of primeval forest, you take responsibility for the earth. You have to do your best …
Karen Tei Yamashita: A third-generation Japanese-American writer who continues to question her place in the world – Part 1
Oct. 8, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
This time, I would like to focus on Karen Tei Yamashita, a Japanese-American artist with a particularly unique talent.Karen Tei Yamashita was born in Oakland, California in 1951 as a third generation Japanese. She majored in English and Japanese literature at Carleton College in Minnesota, but in 1971, she studied at Waseda University as an exchange student for a year and a half to study Japanese culture and literature. In 1975, she received a scholarship to travel to São Paulo …
Kenny Endo - Hitting the Japanese drums with a "double" feel - Part 2
Aug. 30, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
>>Part 1 A wish for peace entrusted to a drumstick After returning to Japan, he formed the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble and has been performing throughout the U.S., based in Hawaii, and has also performed overseas, including in Japan, the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, and other European countries, Brazil, Argentina, and other South American countries, as well as India and Hong Kong.His music itself incorporates elements of music from various countries, including Africa, India, Brazil, etc. He studied ethnic …
Kenny Endo - Hitting the Japanese drums with a "double" feel - Part 1
Aug. 23, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
There is a museum called Taikokan (Drum Museum) in Asakusa, Tokyo. While most museums do not allow you to touch the exhibits, here you can play drums from all over the world as you like. This is a rare museum built in 1987 by Miyamoto Uonosuke Shoten, a famous Japanese drum store. Chie Ochi, former head of the Taiko Museum, once participated in the Taiko Conference held in Los Angeles. The Taiko Conference began in 1997 and has grown in …
Japanese Americans Active Between Japan and the U.S.: Japanese American Leadership Symposium
July 16, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
So far, we have looked at Japanese Americans in various fields and explored the two perspectives they hold. This time, we would like to think about Japan and the United States while introducing the Japanese American Leadership Symposium, which was held at the International House of Japan in Roppongi on March 3rd.This symposium is held as part of the Japanese American Leadership Invitation Program, which was launched in 2000 under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The program …
Brenda Wong Aoki - A Sansei Solo Performer Telling the Story of Japan and America - Part 2
July 2, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
>>Part 1 To cope with the death of a family member "Ride the Train" is a story Brenda heard directly from a second-generation Japanese American named Alice Hagio, and is included in "Last Dance" (1998). During World War II, the narrator, who was a nurse on a train being transported to a Japanese American internment camp, was holding a newborn baby. However, as her friend Michi's baby was sickly, she also ended up looking after the baby. For three days, …
Brenda Wong Aoki - A Sansei Solo Performer Telling the Story of Japan and America - Part 1
June 25, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
Brenda Wong Aoki stayed in Japan with her husband, bassist Mark Izu, and her son, percussionist Kai Kane Aoki Izu (aka KK) as part of the US-Japan Creative Artists Exchange Program from 2007 to 2008. To coincide with her visit, a CD with accompanying text, Mermaid Meat and Other Japanese Ghost Stories (2007), was released, and Brenda's one-woman play was performed in several venues.I was able to see her play "Mermaid Meat" and "Uncle Gunjiro's Girlfriend," but I also invited …
Janice Mirikitani - A poet who believes in the power of words and continues to engage in volunteer work - Part 2
June 14, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
>>Part 1 What I want to tell my fourth-generation daughter The closing words of Mirikitani's speech, "Sing the melody of your own life!", remind me of a poem she wrote, "Letter to my daughter." The following is an excerpt. Letter to my daughter The scars from the injury are sure to be remembered. Listen to the story We write the books, we compose the songs. And the protagonist of the testimony they claim to be They save our lives and …
Janice Mirikitani - A poet who believes in the power of words and continues to do volunteer work - Part 1
June 7, 2010 • Tatsuya Sudo
There are quite a few Japanese Americans with unusual surnames. This is probably because many of them are from Hiroshima, Wakayama, Kumamoto, Okinawa, and other areas when tracing their ancestors. I have never met anyone with the surname Gotanda, which I have written about in this column before, or Mirikitani, in Japan.In 2006, the documentary film "Mirikitani's Cat," which depicts the life of the second generation Japanese painter Jimmy Mirikitani, was screened at the Tokyo Film Festival and won the …
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