Edna Hiromi Ogihara Cardoso was born in the interior of the State of São Paulo. She is married and has one daughter. A graduate of FAUUSP [School of Architecture and Urban Planning of the University of São Paulo], she is a volunteer handicraft teacher. Watercolor is her hobby and she writes whenever inspiration strikes.

Updated October 2020

Edna Horiuchi is a retired Los Angeles teacher. She volunteers at Florence Nishida’s teaching garden in South LA and is active at Senshin Buddhist Temple. She enjoys reading, tai chi, and going to opera.

Updated June 2023

Amelia Ino is a PhD student at UCLA, where she studies Comparative Literature. Her focus is on the field of Memory Studies, specializing in immigrant and migrant stories and storytelling. In her free time she loves exploring Los Angeles, learning Japanese, and hanging out with her cat, Yoji.

Updated August 2023

Kayla Kamei is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in English. As a Sansei, she is interested in exploring how she can use her writing to communicate the different stories and lives of others in her community. She not only hopes to understand more about her Japanese culture from their perspectives but also hopes to bring greater awareness to their experiences.

Updated August 2024

Gaby Kutzuma Sameshima was born in Huancayo, Junín, she did her primary and secondary studies in this city, and moved to Lima to study Economics at the University of Lima. He traveled to Japan as an international student ( ryugakusei ) from Okayama Prefecture (1988 – 1989), where he studied Japanese economics.

Later, he returned to Japan as a dekasegi and after a year he began working as an interpreter. In 1998 she began as a facilitating consultant for foreigners at the Aichi Japan International Association, where she remained for 10 years. He returned to Peru in 2008 where he has been teaching the Japanese language and culture. She was trained as a Facilitator by IIFAC and the ILO. He is currently working on the Sakura Wanka Japanese Language and Culture Center project in Huancayo.

Last updated November 2023

Isabella Ikeda Leite is a Portuguese Literature student at UFSC and a fourth-generation Nikkei on her mother's side. Born in Minas Gerais and raised in the interior of São Paulo, she currently resides in Florianópolis/SC, where she works in the activities of the Associação Nipo-Catarinense. In his free time, he likes reading, cooking and playing RPGs.

Updated November 2023

Lauren Rise Masuda is a young writer currently in her senior year at South High School in Torrance, California. As a 2nd and 4th generation Japanese American, she hopes to offer a unique cultural perspective in her writing. Using personal experiences, she aims to showcase the complexities of cultural identity as well as the beauty that surrounds it, which often go unheard. Beyond just writing, she holds an interest in the creative arts, and will often spend her time sewing, sketching, or reading.

Updated October 2023

Graciela Nakachi Morimoto was born in Huancayo, Peru. At the age of four, her parents decided to live in Lima. She studied at the Jishuryo Japanese Primary School and at the “María Alvarado” secondary school. With a scholarship from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia (USA), she obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with a major in Biology. She studied Human Medicine and Pediatrics at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) and completed a Master's degree at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Fellow in Pediatrics at the University of Kobe, Japan, she worked as a pediatrician at the Policlinico and the Centenario Peruano Japonesa Clinic. She was an intensivist pediatrician in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and head of the Emergency and Critical Areas Department at the National Institute of Children's Health (INSN) in Lima. She is a Senior Professor at the UNMSM Faculty of Medicine. Fond of reading, music and painting.

Last updated December 2023

Liana Nakamura was born in “persimmons land,” Mogi das Cruzes (Sao Paulo, Brazil), in 1994. Between Japan and Brazil, she became a librarian specialist in Diversity and Inclusion. She is the author of the book amarela-manga: a Japanese-Poetic Anthology (Corsália.estúdio, 2023).

Winner of the Nikkei Literary Award (Manga) from the Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture and Social Assistance - Bunkyo (2021), the ARA Cultural Korean Literature Video-Review Competition (2022), and the 37th edition of the Yoshio Takemoto Award (Poetry) from Nikkei Bungaku Literary Magazine (2023). She is also part of the poetry collection Literature’s Off-FLIP (2024).

Updated October 2023

Thais Okubaro was born in Brazil in 1990. Graduated in Literature, she published her first short story in the anthology Reino dos Defesas by Editora Lura in 2023 and promotes discussions about yellow authors on the internet in her joint reading group called Dokushoka .

Updated November 2023

Roberto Oshiro Teruya is a 53-year-old Peruvian of the third generation (Sansei); his parents, Seijo Oshiro and Shizue Teruya, both came from Okinawa (Tomigusuku and Yonabaru, respectively). He lives in Lima, the capital of Peru, where he works in the retail clothing business in the city's downtown. He is married to Jenny Nakasone and they have two children Mayumi (23) and Akio (14). He has a deep interest in continuing to preserve the customs inculcated by his grandparents, including cuisine and the butsudan, and hopes his children will do the same.

Updated June 2017

Mary has been married to John Sunada for 44 years. They have two sons, James and David. Mary retired from the Los Angeles United School District after 36 years of teaching. She is a member of the Orange County Buddhist Church, Japanese American National Museum and the “Go for Broke” National Education Cent1er. Her interests are getting together with family and friends to fish, to dance, to travel and to dine. She has written many stories at DiscoverNikkei.org

Updated October 2024

Drew Yamamura is a rising junior studying political science at California State University Fullerton. He is originally from Fresno, California and is currently serving as the Japanese American National Museum and Japanese American Bar Association Intern as part of the Nikkei Community Internship program. He enjoys learning and writing about his own personal Asian-American experience as well as other community members. Drew hopes to continue in his passion and gain new perspectives within the Nikkei Community.

Updated July 2023

Tereza Yamashita is a graphic designer, illustrator and writer, graduated in Communication and Arts/Mackenzie, with an extension in creative writing from PUC-SP. Participated in the anthology of the 1st Café Poetry Prize, 2023. Published MundOmissíssimo in 2022. Debuted in 2007 with the anthology 15 cuentos brasileros , published in Argentina. Next came Retratos Japoneses no Brasil – Literatura Mestiça, 2010; Hocus Pocus High Tech and Hyperconnections – Blood and Titanium, 2017; Volatile realities & radical vertigo, 2019; Ruins , 2020; Mundo-Vertigem and Kriptokriaturas, 2021; The day the universe closed its eyes, 2022, by the KriptoKaipora collective.

There are several children's books, such as Mãos Mágicas, by SESI-SP Editora, second place in Jabuti 2016, in the Digital Children's Literature category, and Troca de pele , Editora Hedra (2009), awarded the PROAC 2007 by the State Secretariat for Culture. He has short stories and illustrations published in Folhinha - SP, Continente magazine, Et Cetera magazine, Gueto magazine, Germina magazine, Urutau magazine, Helena magazine, Brasil Nikkei Bungaku magazine, Rascunho newspaper and Cândido newspaper.

Updated November 2023