What do you like most about volunteering for Discover Nikkei?

Volunteering for Discover Nikkei has allowed me to get in touch with my Japanese heritage. Specifically, it has allowed me to better understand and appreciate the hardships, achievements, and contributions of Nikkei, both past and present. Through Discover Nikkei, I have been able to see the growth of the Nikkei community through the site’s numerous shared stories and by assisting with the site’s data analytics. Lastly, volunteering for Discover Nikkei has allowed me to connect with like-minded Nikkei who also enjoy learning about and preserving Nikkei history.

How do you connect to your Nikkei identity?

My first true connection to my Nikkei identity occurred when my grandmother, Rose Watanabe, and mother, Diane Kato, took me to the Japanese American National Museum in the 1990s. At the time, I was still in elementary school and relatively unaware of the incarceration of 120,000-plus people of Japanese ancestry during World War 2. However, when my elementary school assigned us a history project around the topic “Conflict and Compromise,” it was an easy decision to focus my project on the “conflict” of the Japanese concentration camps and the paltry “compromise” of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Through that project, I had many discussions with my grandparents and other family of that generation who also provided me with numerous family heirlooms related to their experience in camp. The combination of their stories and family heirlooms allowed me to create a project that I presented at Los Angeles County’s “History Day L.A.” competition. Medaling at that competition provided me the opportunity to showcase the project at the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s 33rd annual dinner.

In more recent years, I have connected to my Nikkei identity by working with organizations including Discover Nikkei to ensure that the stories of previous generations are never forgotten. In 2019, I loaned the hand carved and painted animal pins created by my great uncle, Lui Kodama, and great aunt, Aki Narahara, to Anaheim’s Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center for their I Am an American: Japanese Incarceration in a Time of Fear exhibition.

Lastly, moving to Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district has allowed me to connect with my Nikkei identity as I get to regularly enjoy the numerous cultural events and dine at the many delicious restaurants. Living so close to the Japanese American National Museum led me to volunteer for both the museum and Discover Nikkei, and has allowed me to find and be proud of my Nikkei identity.