Nikkei Chronicles #9—More Than a Game: Nikkei Sports
What makes Nikkei sports more than just a game for you? Perhaps you’d like to write about your Nikkei sports hero or the impact of Japanese athletes on your Nikkei identity. Did your parents meet through a Nikkei basketball or bowling league? Are you intrigued by an important chapter of Nikkei sports history, like the prewar Issei and Nisei baseball teams?
For the ninth edition of Nikkei Chronicles, Discover Nikkei solicited stories related to Nikkei sports from June to October of 2020. Voting closed on November 30, 2020. We received 31 stories (19 English; 6 Japanese; 7 Spanish; and 1 Portuguese), with a few submitted in multiple languages. We asked an editorial committee to pick their favorites and our Nima-kai community to vote for their favorite stories. Here are the selected favorite stories.
Editorial Committee’s Favorites
- ENGLISH:
Why Coach Sports? Bob Kodama’s Legacy Coaching Youth Sports
By Michael Kodama - JAPANESE:
Family History of Kenichi Doi, Vancouver Asahi pitcher in 1926
By Yobun Shima - SPANISH:
60th Anniversary: Close to the Heart
By Luis Iguchi Iguchi - PORTUGUESE:
Our Daily Radio Taiso Workouts
By Edna Hiromi Ogihara Cardoso
Nima-kai Favorite:
- 33 Stars
My Love and Life in Sports
By Robert “Lefty” Kikkawa, Ken Kikkawa
<<Community Partner: Terasaki Budokan - Little Tokyo Service Center>>
Stories from this series
Sports and Schools
Nov. 6, 2020 • Fernanda Yumi Taira
My name is Taira Fernanda Yumi. I am 14 years old. Nice to meet you. I have loved swimming since I was little. I started taking swimming lessons at the Ibirapuera Olympic Center when I was about seven years old. Until the fifth grade, I went swimming every morning and went to school in the afternoon. Starting in the sixth grade, school started in the mornings, so I thought I would no longer be able to swim, but fortunately I …
Not Your Average Basketball Camp
Nov. 5, 2020 • Lynne Higashigawa
Playing basketball has always been more than just a game for me. It’s about the relationships you make on and off the court. Growing up in the Japanese American (JA) basketball community, I not only learned the fundamentals of basketball, but also established lifelong relationships. I’m sure many of us can relate – whether it’s basketball, baseball, volleyball, etc. – sports are an important vehicle that teaches us many life lessons. Through the connections and friendships I made growing up …
Virtual Walk Around The World – 40,075 km
Nov. 3, 2020 • George Doi
I have often being asked, “Why do you walk so much?” “Don’t you get tired?” and my reply would invariably be that I love brisk walks and I hardly ever get tired. But now I too have pondered those same questions. I believe my passion for walking started at a very young age. Being uprooted and incarcerated in internment camps during WWII and struggling for bare necessities to survive led me to recognize the values of health and money. While …
Memories: AELU tennis
Nov. 2, 2020 • Luis Iguchi Iguchi
Every morning, from my balcony, the AELU postcard gives me hope. The bright green of its fields, the tone of its stands, the rehearsal of its cars in the parking lot, the silence of its classrooms at school and the permanent memory of its members who have left. Far away, I can still see the reddish tennis courts, their long entrance bordered by the cool October grass. That historic path of so many traces of tennis player friends, who made …
Our Daily Radio Taiso Workouts
Oct. 28, 2020 • Edna Hiromi Ogihara Cardoso
Every morning, rain or shine, they're there for the Radio Taiso practice. The site is a sports court located in the Chácara Inglesa neighborhood, in the capital city of São Paulo. A small staff takes turns opening the entrance gate and setting up the place with a table and stereo. As a large number of Nikkei live in the neighborhood, it's hardly surprising that at least 30 percent of the regulars are of Japanese descent. Little by little, they start …
Championship of Destiny: Lodi JACL Templars Win Crown For the First Time
Oct. 27, 2020 • Mike Furutani
As we all go through the pandemic of 2020, we have all suffered and endured great and small – some are mere inconveniences and some are immeasurable losses. For the first time since World War II, the Northern Californian Japanese American Baseball League (Lodi, Florin, San Francisco, and Fresno) had to cancel it’s summer season due to the guidelines put in place by the State, as did our counterparts down in Southern California and leagues all around the United States. …