Pioneering Anthropologist of Japanese and Japanese American Culture: Iwao Ishino (1921–2012)
In 2002, my Nisei father started organizing his memoir. Later in 2012, while we were clearing out his study, our family discovered shelves of binders filled with correspondence, photographs, timelines, and documents arranged chronologically according to the various projects he had worked on throughout his nearly 60-year anthropological career.1
He never got around to writing his memoir. So, in the coming months, this series offers a glimpse into my father's life story through reconstructions based on what he left behind—his binder notebooks, academic texts, published articles, letters, and interviews. This effort aims to reveal his role in the collective history of U.S. Nikkei from 1942 to 2010, as he held a unique position within the Japanese American community and Japan’s post-World War II culture.
Note:
1. Iwao Ishino’s work was ascended to the Michigan State University Archives, where he worked from 1956-1991, by his daughters in 2012.
Stories from this series
Beginnings: One Nisei’s Journey (1921–1944)
April 2, 2025 • Catherine Jo Ishino
“A leading scholar in the ethnography of contemporary Japanese and Japanese American culture and the impact of globalization… a pioneer in the ethnographic study of [these] communities…” —Joseph L. Chartkoff, American Anthropologist, 20131 An Immigrant Son’s American Melting Pot (1921–1942) My father’s life began like many Nisei of his generation in the early decades of the twentieth century. Iwao Ishino was born on March 10, 1921, to immigrant parents who had crossed the Pacific Ocean seeking a better future in …
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