Darryl Mori
@DMoDarryl Mori is a writer based in Los Angeles, specializing in the arts and the nonprofit sector. A Sansei and a native of Southern California, he has written for UCLA and the Japanese American National Museum, where he serves as a volunteer. He currently works in fundraising and external relations for Art Center College of Design.
Updated December 2012
Stories from This Author
When Heroes Weren’t Welcomed Home: Author Linda Tamura on Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence
Oct. 31, 2012 • Darryl Mori
“I can still recall the pit in my stomach as I read full-page ads urging Japanese American residents not to return to their community from the camps where they had been exiled,” scholar and author Linda Tamura says. Tamura had been researching her grandmother’s story, which led to Tamura’s previous book, The Hood River Issei: An Oral History of Japanese Settlers in Oregon’s Hood River Valley. “I recall sitting in the basement of the Hood River County Library surveying wartime …
Giant Robot Biennale 3: Behind the Scenes with GR’s Eric Nakamura
Sept. 11, 2012 • Darryl Mori
“This isn’t just a kid putting in a random group of young artists and ‘taking’ or ‘borrowing’ a great space,” Eric Nakamura says. “It’s much more to me than that. I can do that elsewhere.” Nakamura, the editor and publisher of the Asian American pop culture magazine, Giant Robot, is organizing his third art exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum: Giant Robot Biennale 3. The show will feature the work of eight emerging artists along with a customized vinyl …
An Interview with G.W. Kimura, Ph.D. -- New President/CEO of the Japanese American National Museum
May 4, 2012 • Darryl Mori
“Although from far away, I have always felt close to the museum,” says Dr. G.W. (Greg) Kimura, the Japanese American National Museum’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. “I have been a member and supporter for years. My family makes a point of coming here whenever we are in the area, which has been at least once a year. A visit to the Museum is special. It is like a pilgrimage. I feel restored seeing the story of the community …
Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami—An Interview with Curator Meher McArthur
March 2, 2012 • Darryl Mori
“When I was a child growing up in Scotland, I was first introduced to origami by two Japanese students of my father’s who gave me a little origami doll,” Meher McArthur recalls. “The doll was very delicate and I had no idea how it was made. Later my parents bought me a book by Robert Harbin, a British magician who taught origami, and I caught the bug.” “I lost interest as I grew up, and was only able to fold …
Seeing Beauty Through a Magic Lens: Patrick Nagatani and 35 Years of Art
Nov. 6, 2011 • Darryl Mori
“I used to profess to my students that all photographs lie,” says Patrick Nagatani. The longtime artist and art professor is then quick to express a “wiser attitude” toward photography. “The statement is a bit anthropomorphic as photographs are but inanimate objects left to interpretation by the artist and viewer.” “My approach today dwells in an ironic state of middle ground,” he says. “Possibly one negative in our culture today is the attitude that things must be fact or fiction, good …
Behind the Scenes of “Old Man River” (DVD)
Aug. 25, 2010 • Darryl Mori
Throughout his life, the late actor Jerry Fujikawa (Chinatown, M*A*S*H,Taxi) harbored a secret that even his children didn’t know about. As one of Hollywood’s busiest Asian-American performers, he spent over three decades in the public eye. But privately, few were able to penetrate his characteristic silence about his past. Hidden in the shadows of his young adulthood during World War II was a surprise that would leave his daughter stunned and questioning everything she thought she knew about him—and about herself. …
Hopes, Dreams, and Courage Under Fire: Stanley Hayami, Nisei Son
Aug. 5, 2010 • Darryl Mori
Author Joanne Oppenheim never met Stanley Hayami, but after reading the young man’s wartime diary, she has never forgotten him. In many respects, the 16-year-old Hayami was a typical American teenager, beginning a diary about his struggles to get good grades in school and to decide what he wanted to be when he grew up. His aspirations for the future echoed that of so many young people who were coming of age in America in the 1940s. But in Hayami’s …
Gil Asakawa’s Guide to Japanese America
July 5, 2010 • Darryl Mori
“Do you have to go benjo?” If you know what this phrase means, there’s a high probability that you’re Japanese American. And there’s also a high probability that you’ll love Gil Asakawa’s book, Being Japanese American. But even if you don’t know that benjo means “bathroom,” you may still be entertained by this lighthearted view into the unique lingo, idiosyncrasies and nuances of Japanese American life. “Stone Bridge Press initially approached me to write the book because they were interested …
David Mura: Power, Passion & Poetry
June 1, 2010 • Darryl Mori
David Mura’s sister once said to him, “You talk about things I would rather sweep under the rug.” In much of his work, award-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, critic, playwright and performance artist Mura (Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei, Angels for the Burning) shares deeply personal experiences. Facing racism. Family conflicts. His self-image. Desire and relationships. Sexual awakening. But in publicly baring his soul, Mura also aims to reveal truths about Asian American men that too often remain hidden. “If …
June Kuramoto: Life and All That Jazz
May 11, 2010 • Darryl Mori
“There are times I would doubt what I am doing, or if what I’m doing has any value,” June Kuramoto confides. “When I am recognized by the community, I feel so small compared to others who devote their lives to saving lives—firefighters, nurses, doctors, soldiers and those who commit to community services.”“Then we get fan mail telling us our music has helped them get through a tough period of their life and actually has saved some lives.” Throughout her remarkable …
