Gary T. Ono

garyono

Gary T. Ono, is a Sansei transplant from San Francisco, California who now resides in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles. He is a volunteer photographer for the nearby Japanese American National Museum. In 2001, he was awarded a California Civil Liberties Public Education Program grant to produce a video documentary, Calling Tokyo: Japanese American Radio Broadcasters of World War II. This story about what his father did during the war sparked his interest in his Japanese American and family history, which richly fills his senior moments.

Updated May 2013

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The 2018 Tule Lake Pilgrimage: Connecting Across Generations

Perspective and Thoughts on the 2018 Tule Lake Pilgrimage

By Gary T. Ono
25 Sep 2018

I have never attended a Tule Lake Pilgrimage, however, I was incarcerated at Amache, one of the other ten U.S. concentration camps of WWII. So, Amache was my primary focus of interest. As early as 1994, I attended an Amache Reunion in Las Vegas. Since 2008, I have volunteered with the Denver University Anthropology Department's Summer graduates study and Archaeological Field Survey of the Amache site, led by Dr. Bonnie Clark. She accepted volunteers inviting former internees and family members. My grandson Dante Hilton-Ono and I volunteered in 2008 and in 2014, my grandson Chava Valdez-Ono I …

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Separation Anxiety: Former and Current Events Parallel

By Gary T. Ono
11 Jul 2018

Tears moisten my eyes as I watch and listen to the 24/7 news coverage of the Zero Tolerance enforcement of President Trump's immigration policy. Frequently referred to as “compassionless,” Trump’s policy, ill-designed to deter asylum seeking immigrants from Central America, ‘punishes’ them by separating them from their children! The realization that some of these children might not ever see their parents again is emotionally draining and galling! Even if they are eventually reunited, the immediate negative emotional impact will handicap their confidence and self-…

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More “Made in Camp” Samurai Swords Discovered

By Gary T. Ono
16 Feb 2018

The Samurai Spirit In my 2015 Discover Nikkei essay, “Samurai Spirit in WWII Camps,” I put forth my belief that gaman—a Japanese term of Zen Buddhist origin that means “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”—surely must have burned especially bright in the hearts and minds of the Issei. Gaman was also characteristic of the temperament of the samurai, whose spirit I believe led to the making of swords in camp. My earlier essay discussed two handcrafted swords. Now, more swords are being discovered. In facing American racism, gaman was…

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Samurai Spirit In WWII Camps

By Gary T. Ono
20 Aug 2015

As a volunteer at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), recent developments there revealed that hidden Samurai spirits nestled in the minds and bodies of some of those imprisoned in the US concentration camps that held America’s Japanese prisoners for the duration of World War II. As you will shortly see, that speaks for Tokuichi Muro, a concentration camp inmate shown with his wife, Koito (Funai) Muro, interned in Amache, the War Relocation Authority Center (camp) near Granada, Colorado. I think, like the Samurai described in Stephen Turnbull’s, The Book of the Samurai: …

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

You Can Call Me Ben

By Gary T. Ono
8 Aug 2014

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet) William pretty much sums it up for me as far as names go, but it is interesting to learn about how names are determined by different times and cultures. In Japan, middle names were not used, but in the turn-of-the-century America, Japanese pioneer immigrants, Issei, in most cases gave their Nisei children, second generation Japanese in America, Japanese middle names as well as American names. American names were given in order to ease assimilation into the A…

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Discover Nikkei

Japanese migrants and their descendants

Gary T. Ono

The 2018 Tule Lake Pilgrimage: Connecting Across Generations

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

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Tad Nakamura’s Art and Activism

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

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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

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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

Nikkei Chronicles #12

Growing Up Nikkei: Connecting with Our Heritage

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An Unsent Letter to My Nisei Grandpa–Part 2 of 3

Losing a True and Trusted Friend

Dr. Jiro Takai's Journey of Becoming From the Soo to Nagoya University — Part 2

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