Mary Sunada

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Mary Sunada está casada com John Sunada há 40 anos e tem dois filhos, James e David. Ela é professora primária aposentada, após trabalhar para o Distrito Escolar de Los Angeles (LAUSD) por 36 anos. Ela é membro da Igreja Budista de Orange County (OCBC), do Museu Nacional Japonês Americano, e do centro educacional Go for Broke. Seus interesses são pescar, dançar e viajar com a família e amigos.

Atualizado em setembro de 2020

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Crônicas Nikkeis #10—Gerações Nikkeis: Conectando Famílias e Comunidades

Our Old Family Albums

Por Mary Sunada
9 Set 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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Crônicas Nikkeis #9—Mais do Que um Jogo: Esporte Nikkei

Os Quatro Pescadores

Por Mary Sunada
22 Set 2020

Minha última viagem de pesca nas High Sierras [cadeia de montanhas nos estados da Califórnia e Nevada] foi no domingo, 7 de julho de 2019. Essas eram as nossas férias anuais em família, longe da nossa vida agitada na cidade. Nós nos chamávamos de “Os Quatro Pescadores”. Foi o meu marido, John, quem deu início a essa tradição de “família de pescadores”. Ele cresceu pescando em Fresno [cidade no centro da Califórnia]. Ele nunca esqueceu a alegria de pescar com o seu pai. Quando os seus filhos, J…

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Kizuna 2020: Bondade e solidariedade nikkeis durante a pandemia da 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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Crônicas Nikkeis #8—Heróis Nikkeis: Pioneiros, Modelos e Inspirações

A Moment in Time

Por Mary Sunada
13 Set 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…

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Crônicas Nikkeis 7—Raízes Nikkeis: Mergulhando no Nosso Patrimônio Cultural

A Promise

Por Mary Sunada
23 Ago 2018

Almost 60 years ago, a promise was made by a girl who was ten years old. I was that little girl and remembered that day very clearly. My best friend, Leslie, came over to play and told me a secret. She said that the man I called “Pop” was not my biological father. I felt hurt and anger towards my mom because I heard it first from a friend. Now, I understood why I had emotions of not belonging, being unhappy, and always feeling lonely. I wanted to know why Mom did not talk about my father. Was he bad, did he hurt or abandon us? With these unanswered questions, I made a promise to…