Laura Honda-Hasegawa
@laurahhBorn in São Paulo, Brazil in 1947. Worked in the field of education until 2009. Since then, she has dedicated herself exclusively to literature, writing essays, short stories and novels, all from a Nikkei point of view.
She grew up listening to Japanese children's stories told by her mother. As a teenager, she read the monthly issue of Shojo Kurabu, a youth magazine for girls imported from Japan. She watched almost all of Ozu's films, developing a great admiration for Japanese culture all her life.
Updated May 2023
Stories from This Author
Episode 39 (Part 2) What Japan Gave Me
Jan. 17, 2022 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Read the first part >> Around 6pm that day, Sumie's mother returned home from work. "I'm back! Hey, what did you buy? Aren't the baby clothes cute?" she said, as she hurried off to put her grocery shopping in the kitchen. But there was no reply. When he went upstairs, he found Sumie unconscious in bed. The next day, Sumie woke up in her hospital room. When she saw her mother's face, she asked anxiously, "Where am I? What happened?" …
Episode 39 (Part 1) What Japan Gave Me
Sept. 20, 2021 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
After his beloved wife died of illness, Marco's father left his only son with his parents and went to Sao Paulo to work. After three years, he finally found a stable job and a place to live, so he called his son Marco over. Marco is 11 years old and his dream is to live with his beloved Daddy 1 ! Every morning they would get up early, and Marco would go to school and his father would go to …
Episode 38: My Favorite Family
July 30, 2021 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
My name is Mitsuno, I'm an 11 year old girl. My dad is Japanese Peruvian and my mom is Japanese Brazilian. I was born in Japan and my mom gave me the name "Mitsuno" from my beloved grandmother. When Mama was 21, she left her 2-year-old sister Monica in the care of her grandmother Mitsuno in Brazil and came to Japan with her sister's father Ricardo. However, Ricardo was unable to get used to life in Japan and returned to …
Episode 37 We won't let Corona defeat us!
April 1, 2021 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
In 1998, when I was five years old, my parents took me to Japan. Until then, my father worked at a pharmacy and my mother worked at a supermarket. However, we were barely making ends meet, so we decided to go to Japan to earn money and live a more stable life. At first, they both worked in the same factory, but my father, who was of Japanese descent and could speak Japanese, was transferred to the main office, and …
Episode 36: Masatoshi's New Departure
Feb. 22, 2021 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Masatoshi and Rosana were childhood friends. They were always together, doing their homework and playing. However, after graduating from junior high school, Rosana went to São Paulo to work at her aunt's beauty salon. After that, they lost contact. Seven years later, Masatoshi went on to college, but was unable to pay the tuition fees, so he went to work in Japan. One day, he was eating feijoada and a huge bowl of farofa at a Brazilian restaurant. "By any …
Episode 35: Finally, Japan!
Dec. 18, 2020 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
My parents met 24 years ago. My mother, who had been living in Japan with her family since she was nine years old, had returned to Brazil to attend a relative's wedding. My father, who was a close friend of the groom, attended the ceremony in a suit that he rarely wears. Neither of them is sure if it was love at first sight. "I had a really good impression of him at first sight," my mother said bashfully, while …
Episode 34: Sudden return to Japan due to COVID-19
Sept. 4, 2020 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
We came to Japan in 1997. My sister was 26 and I was 18. Her husband, Masao, had been working at a factory in Toyohashi for six months, so we looked for jobs in the same town so we wouldn't be separated. Finally, my sister got a job at a bakery and I got a job at a store selling Brazilian products. Time passed, and in 2008, my sister and her husband returned to Brazil with their two children. At …
Community Bonding During the Pandemic – Part 2
July 22, 2020 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Read Part 1 >> Reuniting with nostalgic Japanese songs During the stay-at-home period, I started to exchange more videos of Japanese TV programs and Japanese pop songs with my friends. The first video that arrived on my smartphone was "Ue o Muite Arukou." I felt very nostalgic when I heard Kyu Sakamoto's voice singing it. This is because this song was the theme song of the radio program I hosted from 2001 to 2007. Every morning, with that beautiful melody …
Community Bonding During the Pandemic – Part 1
July 21, 2020 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
A new life in Londrina It was exactly one year ago that I decided to leave my hometown of São Paulo and move to Londrina, Paraná. I had been retired for 19 years and was already 73 years old. This was the result of a lot of thought. The reason I decided to move to Londrina is because it is a place where I can trace my roots. The farm that my maternal grandfather built up with hard work remains …
Episode 33 "Karen won't come back to Japan"
Aug. 30, 2019 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Toshie, a high school student, married her classmate Ivan and gave birth to twins five months later. Ivan, who was 19 at the time, gave up on going to college and changed jobs several times, including as a supermarket cashier, an auto parts store clerk, and a taxi driver. However, the family's finances were tight, so he left his family behind and went to Japan to earn money. The twins Karen and Karina are growing up and are now three …
