Emiko Tsuchida

emikotsuchida

Emiko Tsuchida is freelance writer and digital marketer living in San Francisco. She has written on the representations of mixed race Asian American women and conducted interviews with some of the top Asian American women chefs. Her work has appeared in the Village Voice, the Center for Asian American Media, and the forthcoming Beiging of America series. She is the creator of Tessaku, a project that collects stories from Japanese Americans who experienced the concentration camps.

Updated December 2016

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Tessaku

Digger Sasaki - Part 2

Por Emiko Tsuchida
2 Fev 2017

Read Part 1 >> [To Digger] I think it’d be interesting to talk about your first impression of Tule Lake and arriving. Digger Sasaki (DS): Being in Pinedale for three months, it gave me a little awareness of barracks and stuff. But Pinedale was so small in comparison. And the reason they sent us to Pinedale is Tule Lake wasn’t finished as far as building all the barracks. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t remember how we got to Tule Lake from Pinedale. I haven’t even thought about that, because that’s a long distance. I was really impressed with s…

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Tessaku

Digger Sasaki - Part 1

Por Emiko Tsuchida
1 Fev 2017

“They had soldiers and jeeps with machine guns, you know, patrolling the camps. It was kind of exciting in a way.” -- Digger Sasaki Digger Sasaki has a peculiar moniker, one that has fully replaced his given name and dates back to high school. “In high school, I played football. And you know when you practice, you have to push a sled to strengthen your legs. When people push, everybody says, “dig, dig, dig,” you know. And then one day the coach said to everybody, “Dick here is the smallest fella on the team but I think he’s the b…

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Tessaku

Howard Yamamoto - Part 2

Por Emiko Tsuchida
27 Jan 2017

Read Part 1 >> Do you remember if there was any convincing that Mr. Wada needed to do with your family? No, that I have no idea. I just imagine what happened was he says, “Take me, too.” To get back to the history, they were allowed to voluntarily leave California. And I think there something like 10,000 permits given out. Out of that 10,000 only few made it. Not many. Some of what I read is that they were turned away at the border. Some others put in for a permit with the intention of leaving but changed their minds. Because where you going to go? Unless you have…

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Tessaku

Howard Yamamoto - Part 1

Por Emiko Tsuchida
26 Jan 2017

“It was hard, it was hard on the parents. Was it hard on me? I don’t know, I don’t remember that much, the hardship. But the parents, my god. Could I do it? No. I couldn’t do it. I can’t imagine myself doing it.” —Howard Yamamoto Out of the 110,000 Japanese Americans who were thrown in the internment camps, 130 escaped the stark reality of mess hall food, barbed wire, and guard towers. Four-year-old Howard Yamamoto was one of them. And though he was lucky to stay out of camp, the experience of fleeing internment was not without its own hardshi…

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Tessaku

Bob Kaneko - Part 2

Por Emiko Tsuchida
13 Jan 2017

Read Part 1 >> So what happened in the camps? Your family voluntarily went. Bob Kaneko (BK): Well they voluntarily went to Auburn. And they got rounded up. Actually my mother said that the area they were in called Ophir. In fact my sister’s birth certificate says “rural California.” Cathy Kaneko (CK): His mom said the doctor didn’t make the birth so their friend’s wife delivered the baby and the doctor got their shortly afterward. What were your parents doing before, when the war broke out? BK: They were working at the North Bay Cleaners on Vine…