Nikkei View
This series presents selections from Gil Asakawa’s “Nikkei View: The Asian American Blog,” which presents a Japanese American perspective on pop culture, media, and politics.
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Stories from this series
The World Still Needs Min Yasui
Feb. 11, 2011 • Gil Asakawa
It’s easy to lose sight of someone’s national reputation if that person is a part of the local fabric. I'm reminded of this fact about the late Minoru Yasui, who died in 1986 after a long career as an attorney and community activist. In Denver, he’s best known as the executive director of the Denver Commission on Community Relations from 1967 to 1983. He’s often credited as the man who was so respected within Denver’s ethnic enclaves that he prevented …
Japanese American identity – How do I feel when someone says “Gil-san”?
Feb. 4, 2011 • Gil Asakawa
I had an interesting thread of conversation the other day on Facebook, after someone sent me a friend request that ended with the person (he’s Caucasian) calling me “Gil-san.” He wrote this in good cheer and good faith, and as a sign of collegial respect. I know that. But it struck me odd somehow, that non-Japanese people (usually Caucasians) throughout my life have assumed that it’s perfectly normal to call me “Gil-san,” or to say “konnichiwa” (“hello”) or “sayonara,” as …
Happy New Year, Japanese-style
Jan. 1, 2011 • Gil Asakawa
Unlike other Asian cultures, the Japanese don’t celebrate Lunar New Year. Instead, they celebrate the Western calendar New Year, January 1, and some of the special holiday traditions have been handed down to Japanese Americans over the past century. Japanese New Year’s traditions are different from Western (or at least, American) ones: First of all, New Year’s Eve isn’t the big holiday, and the focus isn’t on partying and waiting until midnight on Dec. 31 to watch the Times Square …
Memorial for Colo. Gov. Ralph Carr dedicated
Dec. 30, 2010 • Gil Asakawa
Ralph Carr, the man who served as governor of Colorado at the start of World War II, had been largely forgotten for decades. But thanks to an effort by the Asian Pacific Bar Association (APABA) and a biography by journalist Adam Schrager, Carr’s making a comeback in Colorado, and his legacy is finally getting its due, with a fine biography, a stretch of Highway 285 named in his honor, and now, a memorial to Carr’s legacy at Kenosha Pass. On …
History in the Northwest
Nov. 23, 2010 • Gil Asakawa
11:00 a.m.Here I sit in my rental car, mere yards from the water. I’m waiting for the Bainbridge Island Ferry in Seattle—I missed the last one by just seconds and the next one leaves in an hour. Bainbridge Island is the place captured poetically in the book and movie, “Snow Falling on Cedars” (which means, come to think of it, that it snows in Seattle, at least sometimes). A generation of Japanese Americans settled there in the early part of …
Reiko Rizzuto’s “Hiroshima in the Morning” is a powerful memoir - Part 2
Oct. 21, 2010 • Gil Asakawa
>> Part 1I emailed Rizzuto, who’s now a teacher at Goddard College in Vermont, where she teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing program, to see if I could ask several questions about her and the book. Here are excerpts from her responses: 1. Are you going by Reiko now instead of Rahna? (I noticed that in some places she’s called “Reiko” where in the past she’d gone by “Rahna”) The name change, though it suits me and I am …
