Kimiko Medlock
@chikkishimanjuKimiko Medlock is an occasional freelance writer currently living in the Bay area. She holds an MA in modern Japanese history.
Updated January 2022
Stories from This Author
Politics, Taiko, and Nikkei Activism with Kota Mizutani
Sept. 30, 2022 • Kimiko Medlock
Introduction Kota Mizutani grew up in rural Sonoma County, California, where he gradually became aware of Japanese American traditions that surrounded him as a child; teriyaki festivals, obons, taiko performances. He began playing taiko himself at the age of six, he told Discover Nikkei in a recent interview, and it was history and community surrounding Japanese drumming that grounded him in his Nikkei identity. These days, he is 26 years old and continues playing with Mark H Taiko in the …
Emily Teraoka: Inspiring Conversations through public service at Minidoka National Historic Site
May 26, 2022 • Kimiko Medlock
Emily Teraoka grew up around both the Japanese and Mexican cultures that are part of her heritage, but they were sprinkled into a mix of quintessentially American things—country music, pickup trucks, weekend sports, and big Halloween parties around her family’s home in Fresno, California. It wasn’t until college that she began exploring her yonsei Nikkei identity. Today, she is Lead Park Ranger for Minidoka National Historic Site, where she has the opportunity to build relationships and inspire conversations about the legacy …
Oshōgatsu in the Pandemic…Again
Feb. 3, 2022 • Kimiko Medlock
Nima-kai Traditions: Oshogatsu Foods 2022 After another long, trying year, Nikkei around the world celebrated Oshōgatsu 2022 with just as much joy as ever. They gathered when it was safe, met virtually when it was not, cooked up delicious osechi foods they normally buy or eat at parties, and toasted to a better new year. In our January e-newsletter, Discover Nikkei put out a call for photos sharing the foods Nikkei were eating to celebrate the new year around the …
New Film Paper Chase Tells the Story of Japanese American Media
Oct. 12, 2021 • Kimiko Medlock
Japanese and Japanese American newspapers have been faithfully chronicling the history of the Japanese immigrant community since the late 1800s in the United States and Canada. Organizations such as The Rafu Shimpo (founded in Los Angeles, in 1903), among many others, have gathered Japanese American stories and used them to create a sense of connection and to celebrate a shared heritage. Paper Chase (2021), a new full-length documentary by the Zentoku Foundation, tells the story of how these vital, local news …
The Incarceration in Context: New book paints the story of JA oppression, incarceration, and resilience
Sept. 23, 2021 • Kimiko Medlock
“Why should we care today about events that happened nearly eighty years ago? We should care because there are those today who cite the Japanese American incarceration as ‘precedent’ for “rounding up” others on the basis of race, national origin, and religion, for no justifiable reason. We should care when our government acts in unconstitutional ways.” — When Can We Go Back to America?, p.xxii Professor Susan H. Kamei first began pulling together materials for a course called “War, Race, …
JANM’s Media Arts Center Spotlight
July 17, 2020 • Kimiko Medlock
“There are so many wonderful stories waiting to be told. Just like the ‘junk’ in your parent’s garage that might really be an artifact that could be at home in JANM’s collection, families don’t always realize how valuable and interesting their own stories are. For MAC, we try to capture and preserve these stories to share with new audiences.” — Evan Kodani, MAC team member The Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) has …
Reading Night in the American Village
Jan. 23, 2020 • Kimiko Medlock
Author Akemi Johnson is no stranger to the American military presence in Okinawa and its deep impact on Okinawan culture. In her new book, Night in the American Village: Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa, the author travels through the prefecture in narrative form, conversing with locals and uncovering the nuances and tragedies that abound around the bases that cover over 14% of Okinawa’s main island. Her book is a rare view into the everyday …
No-No Boy Author John Okada, Rediscovered
Jan. 21, 2019 • Kimiko Medlock
I Must be Strong I know now for what war I was born. Every child is born to see some struggle, But this conflict is yet the worst. For my dark features are those of the enemy, And my heart is buried deep in occidental soil. People will say things, and people will do things, I know they will, and I must be strong. —John Okada, University of Washington Daily, Dec 11, 1941 John Okada, author of the classic Nisei …
New Memoir Celebrates the Life of Nisei Resister Jimmie Omura
Aug. 10, 2018 • Kimiko Medlock
“The most heroic figures in U.S. history, although not always fully appreciated or roundly honored in their lifetime, are those who, like James Matsumoto Omura, were courageous enough to speak and act in an exceedingly moral manner during a time of dire crisis, when it was not popular or even acceptable for them to do so, irrespective of the price that they had to pay.” —Art Hansen, editor of Nisei Naysayer In the long line of historians, journalists, and biographers …
Mas Arai’s Last Mystery: Interview with Naomi Hirahara
March 13, 2018 • Kimiko Medlock
“I [accepted a] writing fellowship in Kansas to focus on the novel that I had been working on for years. When I returned to LA, I again needed work and began writing biographies for the Japanese American National Museum. And then my novel began to morph into a mystery, which turned out to the perfect container for my story and protagonist, Mas Arai.” —Naomi Hirahara, author of Hiroshima Boy Acclaimed author of the Mas Arai mysteries Naomi Hirahara is coming …
