Mary Sunada

jsunada

Mary has been married for 43 years to John Sunada and they have two sons, James and David. Mary is retired from the Los Angeles Unified School District after 36 years of teaching. She is a member of the Orange County Buddhist Church, the Japanese American National Museum, and the “Go for Broke” National Education Center. Her interests are in fishing, dancing and traveling with family and friends. She has written other stories for Discover Nikkei.

Updated October 2023

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Nikkei Chronicles #12—Growing Up Nikkei: Connecting with Our Heritage

Shared Memories

By Mary Sunada
12 Oct 2023

I can hear the words that Mom would repeat again before she drifted into her moments of Alzheimer. She would tell me to remember and never forget the memories that we shared together. Some of her memories of the past were tragic and sad. Others were happy and hopeful. These memories were told in stories, shown in photos or kept as documents to remember. My life started on New Years Day of 1948 in Asakusa, Japan. Mom, Yaeko Niikura, was born and raised in Gunma, Japan. Dad, Yoneto Nakata, was born in Sanger, California but raised in Hiroshima, Japan. Mom said Dad was an U.S. Army Veteran of t…

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Nikkei Chronicles #10—Nikkei Generations: Connecting Families & Communities

Our Old Family Albums

By Mary Sunada
9 Sep 2021

Since my mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer dementia and her passing, I have been looking through some old family albums with pictures glued onto the pages or fitted inside photo corners. I was amazed to see so many baby photos of myself with Mom, Grandmother, and my cousins, but only a few of Dad. No one ever talked about Dad to me. He was just a ghost in my family album. My eyes happened to focus on a page without pictures, just four black photo corners and other pages with pictures of people that I did not recognize. I wanted to ask Mom questions about these photos but never did. I w…

sports en ja es pt

Nikkei Chronicles #9—More Than a Game: Nikkei Sports

Fishing Four

By Mary Sunada
22 Sep 2020

My last fishing trip to the High Sierras was on Sunday, July 7, 2019. This was our annual family vacation away from our hectic life in the city. We would call ourselves the fishing four. My husband, John, started the fishing family tradition. He grew up fishing in Fresno. He never forgot the joy of fishing with his dad. Once his sons, James and David, were old enough to hold a fishing pole, he taught them how to fish the High Sierras. Now, it has become a Japanese tradition in our family. James and David were automatic members of the fishing four while I became an honorary one. John, James, …

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Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Kizuna 2020: My Birthday Wish

By Mary Sunada
23 Jul 2020

As I celebrated my 72nd birthday on January 1, 2020 with my family, we greeted each other with Shinnen Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu (Happy New Year) and toasted with sparkling apple cider. My family started the day with ozoni (soup with rice cake). Our dining table was full of osechi ryori (Japanese New Year’s Day food) inside two-tier lacquer boxes called jubako. All day long we ate our favorite Japanese foods. My husband would eat his inari sushi, futomaki sushi with renkon (lotus root), gobo (burdock root), and salmon. My oldest son loved sashimi with hot rice and satoimo (taro roo…

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Nikkei Chronicles #8—Nikkei Heroes: Trailblazers, Role Models, and Inspirations

A Moment in Time

By Mary Sunada
13 Sep 2019

As I gazed upon my mom’s old wooden hand mirror, I found that time has not been kind to my face. There were noticeable lines across my forehead, wrinkles around the corners of my mouth and dark spots of old age. Whenever I held my dad’s old broken wrist watch against the windowpane, I noticed that time had stopped at 10:30 a.m. The face on the watch was made of glass which was dome shaped and tinted yellow with age. The numerals on its face were from 1-12, 13-24 by the hour and 5-60 by the seconds. No wrist watch band was found whatsoever. I had always wondered if Dad’s w…

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Discover Nikkei

Japanese migrants and their descendants

Mary Sunada

Nikkei Chronicles #12—Growing Up Nikkei: Connecting with Our Heritage

Nikkei Chronicles #10—Nikkei Generations: Connecting Families & Communities

Nikkei Chronicles #9—More Than a Game: Nikkei Sports

Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nikkei Chronicles #8—Nikkei Heroes: Trailblazers, Role Models, and Inspirations

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Nikkei Chronicles #12

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The Kawamoto-Wipala Farm in Leland, Washington: A Farm for the Ages — Part 5

Journal Entry #Written in '34: "The Bizzaro Version..."

Camp Survivor Recalls Killings at Manzanar

Interpreting Lost in Translation 20 years later

Ayumi Takenaka: “Even though we don’t have an exact definition of Nikkei cuisine, its origins are in Peru”

Dr. Ryuzo Yanagimachi—Heads or Tails?

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The Kawamoto-Wipala Farm in Leland Washington: A Farm for the Ages — Part 4

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Chapter 16 (Part 1) — Activities of Kibei Japanese American Citizens League

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第５回生物農薬で注目を浴びる東洋紡ブラジル社

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