Mary Sunada

jsunada

Mary Sunada ha estado casada con John Sunada durante 40 años y tiene dos hijos, James y David. Es una profesora de escuela elemental jubilada que ha trabajado para el Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ángeles (LAUSD, por sus siglas en inglés) durante 36 años. Asimismo, es miembro de la Iglesia Budista del Condado de Orange (OCBC, por sus siglas en inglés), del Museo Nacional Americano Japonés y del Centro Nacional de Educación “Go for Broke.” Sus intereses son la pesca, el baile y el viajar con su familia y amigos.

Última actualización en septiembre de 2020

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Crónicas Nikkei #12—Creciendo como Nikkei: Conectando con Nuestra Herencia

Shared Memories

Por Mary Sunada
12 Oct 2023

I can hear the words that Mom would repeat again before she drifted into her moments of Alzheimer. She would tell me to remember and never forget the memories that we shared together. Some of her memories of the past were tragic and sad. Others were happy and hopeful. These memories were told in stories, shown in photos or kept as documents to remember. My life started on New Years Day of 1948 in Asakusa, Japan. Mom, Yaeko Niikura, was born and raised in Gunma, Japan. Dad, Yoneto Nakata, was born in Sanger, California but raised in Hiroshima, Japan. Mom said Dad was an U.S. Army Veteran of t…

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Crónicas Nikkei #10—Generaciones Nikkei: Conectando a Familias y Comunidades

Our Old Family Albums

Por Mary Sunada
9 Sep 2021

Since my mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer dementia and her passing, I have been looking through some old family albums with pictures glued onto the pages or fitted inside photo corners. I was amazed to see so many baby photos of myself with Mom, Grandmother, and my cousins, but only a few of Dad. No one ever talked about Dad to me. He was just a ghost in my family album. My eyes happened to focus on a page without pictures, just four black photo corners and other pages with pictures of people that I did not recognize. I wanted to ask Mom questions about these photos but never did. I w…

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Crónicas Nikkei #9—Más Que un Juego: Deportes Nikkei

Los cuatro pescadores

Por Mary Sunada
22 Sep 2020

Mi última excursión de pesca a High Sierras fue el domingo, 7 de julio de 2019. Esta era nuestra vacación familiar anual alejados de nuestra agitada vida en la ciudad. Nos hacíamos llamar los fishing four (los cuatro pescadores). Mi esposo, John empezó con la tradición de pesca en familia. Él creció pescando en Fresno. Él nunca olvidó la alegría de pescar con su papá. Una vez que sus hijos, James y David, fueron lo suficientemente grandes como para poder agarrar una caña de pescar, él les ense&nt…

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Kizuna 2020: Bondad y solidaridad nikkei durante la pandemia de COVID-19

Kizuna 2020: My Birthday Wish

Por Mary Sunada
23 Jul 2020

As I celebrated my 72nd birthday on January 1, 2020 with my family, we greeted each other with Shinnen Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu (Happy New Year) and toasted with sparkling apple cider. My family started the day with ozoni (soup with rice cake). Our dining table was full of osechi ryori (Japanese New Year’s Day food) inside two-tier lacquer boxes called jubako. All day long we ate our favorite Japanese foods. My husband would eat his inari sushi, futomaki sushi with renkon (lotus root), gobo (burdock root), and salmon. My oldest son loved sashimi with hot rice and satoimo (taro roo…

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Crónicas Nikkei #8—Héroes Nikkei: Pioneros, Modelos a Seguir e Inspiraciones

A Moment in Time

Por Mary Sunada
13 Sep 2019

As I gazed upon my mom’s old wooden hand mirror, I found that time has not been kind to my face. There were noticeable lines across my forehead, wrinkles around the corners of my mouth and dark spots of old age. Whenever I held my dad’s old broken wrist watch against the windowpane, I noticed that time had stopped at 10:30 a.m. The face on the watch was made of glass which was dome shaped and tinted yellow with age. The numerals on its face were from 1-12, 13-24 by the hour and 5-60 by the seconds. No wrist watch band was found whatsoever. I had always wondered if Dad’s w…