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Powerful Storytelling
I came across an interview with Leslie Ishii, a Sansei actor seen on TV in the series Lost and Desperate Housewives, and soon to be seen in the movie Fame….
Hero on the 4th of July
Over the 4th of July holiday, I remembered a news item from the last days of June. Seattle’s historic federal courthouse was rededicated after a three-year renovation. In 2001 the…
Exhibition of Note
An art show we wish we could see in Seattle is a retrospective of work by Densho’s friend Roger Shimomura, master of skewering racist stereotypes. The Return of the Yellow…
Interviews in Minneapolis by Tom
The Twin Cities Chapter of the JACL welcomed us last week with a Monday potluck dinner. This was a fun evening of eating homemade Japanese food, talking with the Chapter…
Minneapolis interviews
Tom, Dana, and I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul. The 10 interviews we conducted offered great insight into this significant, though lesser-known, community in the Midwest….
And now…Minnesota
The Densho interview team is on the move again. This week they headed for the Midwest to collect life stories of Nisei who chose to make Minnesota their home after…
Beginning our Summer Interview Trips
We’ve started our summer interview trips which means I will be on the road more than I am in the office. Last week a Densho team (Dana Hoshide, Megan Asaka,…
Nisei Students Help Others
We’re pleased to share a positive news story today. Teresa Watanabe’s June 6 article in the Los Angeles Times serves as antidote to sad reports of college students having to…
Nikkei of the Future
The question of racial, cultural, and generational identity has been a constant at Densho. The makeup of our staff over the years has consisted of Sansei and Yonsei from Seattle’s…
Q&A with a Law Professor
A lawyer friend of Densho, Eric Muller, answered online questions from Washington Post readers about Ashcroft v. Iqbal, a case the Supreme Court declined to hear on May 18. The…
New Content in the Densho Archive
We recently added 33 visual history interviews and 4 photo and document collections to the Densho Digital Archive. The archive now contains over 700 hours of video and over 10,000…
Asian names are so difficult!
A recent news item from Texas is getting lots of attention from Asian Americans. In a hearing on voter registration legislation, Republican state representative Betty Brown asked Ramey Ko of…
Summer Interview Trips
I am excited about the interview trips we have planned for this summer. We are going to at least five areas where we haven’t yet done any interviews. Whenever we…
Aloha, Densho
Densho is supporting a bill submitted by Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii to have the Secretary of the Interior conduct a study of internment camp sites in Hawaii. The idea…
Back to School!
This week for the first time, I got to see how Densho’s teaching materials are used in the classroom. It was an eye-opening experience. Our education consultant, Sarah Loudon, and…
Fred Korematsu Center for Law and Equality
Yesterday, on a sunny spring day in Seattle I attended the launch event for the new Seattle University Law School’s Fred Korematsu Center for Law and Equality. I have very…
Separated by Generations, United in History
I have mixed reactions to this week’s Seattle Times article about our Nisei vets. Densho admires their phenomenal courage, as documented in many interviews in our Digital Archive. Also documented…
One Step Forward…
Just when we are starting to feel optimistic about race relations in this country (who in Densho’s extended family isn’t thrilled with the diversity of the Obama cabinet?), we hear…
Raising Awareness
The front page article of yesterday’s Seattle Times about Don Wakamatsu, the Mariner’s new head coach and first Asian American major league baseball coach, was both remarkable and inspirational for…
A New Resource
A few months ago the creator of a personal website asked for permission to use excerpts from the Camp Newspaper Collections. The camp papers have been a popular item ever…
Information for Freedom
Among the first executive orders signed by Barack Obama were two that require greater compliance with Freedom of Information Act requests. Now, there’s an executive order Densho likes. We are…
Happy Spring from Densho
The cold and wet weather is still lingering in the Seattle area, but Densho got to celebrate the beginning of the spring by hosting an “ike-bana” (flower arrangement) class last…
Tribal Grant
Yesterday I went with Densho board members Tomio Moriguchi and Mari Horita to the Muckleshoot Casino to accept a check for the very nice sum of $10,000. (Mari is pictured…
It “Was” in the P-I
St. Patrick’s Day 2009 turned out to be unlucky for Seattle, this being the last day of business for the local Post-Intelligencer newspaper that started in 1863. There’ll be no…