Jonathan van Harmelen

jonathan

Jonathan van Harmelen is currently a Ph.D student in history at UC Santa Cruz specializing in the history of Japanese-American incarceration. He holds a BA in history and French from Pomona College and an MA from Georgetown University. He can be reached at jvanharm@ucsc.edu.

Updated February 2020

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The legacy of Toyo Takata, Who Captured the Voice of Japanese Canadians

By Jonathan van Harmelen
19 Apr 2023

The book Nikkei Legacy served as an important reminder to Canadians of the suffering that Japanese Canadians endured during the war. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Toyo Takata’s Nikkei Legacy, a book that put the history of Japanese Canadians into sharp focus. For Japanese Canadians across Canada, Takata’s book captured the voice of the immigrant generation and served for decades as a “bible” of Japanese Canadian history, alongside Ken Adachi’s The Enemy that Never Was. Nikkei Legacy served as an important reminder to Canadians of t…

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Making History: Remembering Nikkei Legacy

By Jonathan van Harmelen
12 Apr 2023

Recently, I have been researching the life of Toyo Takata. The late Japanese Canadian journalist and author was a leading voice within the postwar Japanese Canadian community, working as the editor of the community newspaper The New Canadian from 1949 to 1951 and as a columnist from 1949 until his retirement in the 1980s. Originally born in Victoria, BC, Takata and his family were incarcerated by the Canadian government in several camps in 1942, first at Hastings Park and later at the inland camps of Sandon and New Denver. In 1945, the Takata family relocated to the greater Toronto area, w…

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Fresno Stories

Dutch Leonard - The Ballplayer who challenged Fresno's racism

By Jonathan van Harmelen
6 Mar 2023

“Dutch” Leonard is no longer a household name, but he left behind an enduring reputation in baseball history. Originally born in Birmingham, Ohio and raised in Fresno, California, Hubert Benjamin Leonard became one of the greatest pitchers in baseball as a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. In 1914, he achieved the modern-era record for lowest single-season earned run average (ERA) of all time at 0.96 – a record that he still holds to this day. He led the Red Sox to World Series championships twice, first against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1915, and then the fol…

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Our Man on the Hill: Sidney Yates — Part 2

By Jonathan van Harmelen
21 Feb 2023

Read Part 1 >> In January 1952, Masaoka again approached Yates for a private bill. Unlike the other cases, here Masaoka pleaded Yates to help a war husband. The case involved Yoshiko Joy Okamoto, a translator working for the U.S. Air Force in Japan. Okamoto, born in New York City, had been stranded in Japan during World War II, during which time she met Toshio Tsuzuki. Although Okamoto was initially stripped of her U.S citizenship because she had lived in Japan during the war, following a lengthy investigation the United States reinstated her citizenship in 1946. After the war, O…

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Our Man on the Hill: Sidney Yates — Part 1

By Jonathan van Harmelen
20 Feb 2023

The wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans resulted in thousands of former inmates migrating throughout the United States. Among the cities to welcome resettlers leaving camp, Chicago received the most. By the end of the war, over twenty thousand Japanese Americans called Chicago home, making it the second-largest Japanese American community in the United States. Although the exodus of Japanese Americans to Chicago was significantly smaller than the Great Migrations of African Americans from the South during the early 20th century, both movements shaped the dynamics of the city. Historia…

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Japanese migrants and their descendants

Jonathan van Harmelen

Fresno Stories

Series this author contributes to

Nikkei Chronicles #5—Nikkei-go: The Language of Family, Community, and Culture

The Chuo Gakuen School: The Seeds of Prestige for the Japanese Community in Mexico

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Nikkei Chronicles #3—Nikkei Names: Taro, John, Juan, João?

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The Ironies of the Japanese Canadian Internment History: Part 1—My Family’s Life in Greenwood

Choices for Japanese People Living in America

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10th Annual Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest

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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』

1992年渡米、目標は「アカデミー賞」— 俳優の井上英治さん

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

Tiempos pandémicos: teletrabajo y koden digital

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

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第３部：金子正則知事の南米訪問とその主な見解

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The Ironies of the Japanese Canadian Internment History: Part 1—My Family’s Life in Greenwood

Unlocking Memories

Uka Sake: Closing the Circle on a Trans-Pacific Rice-Growing Legacy

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