My favorite thing about Discover Nikkei is the shared community and the fact that I can communicate and network with nikkeis from around the world. I’m interested in hearing how they and their experiences are similar to mine and how they are different and I’d like to share my Japanese American experiences with them. I believe Discover Nikkei is the first step in creating a truly pan-world Nikkei identity!

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The Discover Nikkei site provides access to a large, diverse network of people. The internment of the Japanese Americans was a historic event and changed so many families forever. I felt it was important to share the photos as it documents a slice of history from my family’s point of view. In return, I have received so many grateful emails from people who have found their relatives and friends, even some friends who never saw each other again after the assembly centers.

I was brought up with many Asian American classmates, Christian church friends, and sports teams. I thought this was the life of most Southern California Asian American kids. The Discover Nikkei site has been fascinating in helping me learn about the other Nikkei stories.

Check out his Nikkei Albums >>

I’m so glad to be part of the online community of Discover Nikkei. I spend the most time in the "Stories" section. Not only have I read fascinating stories but it’s been a place to share my research on my family’s history and contribute articles relating to the Japanese American experience. My family has roots in the United States, Japan, Peru and Panama, among others! Through Discover Nikkei, I can stay connected and find new connections all over the world.

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I think DN is an incredibly important resource because it connects and waves together the many threads of stories that make up the Japanese emigrant experience into one rich, colorful global tapestry. My contributions to this fabric is just one strand, of a Japanese-born American who loves my roots in Japan and my identity as an Asian American.

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[JA] 私とDNを結びつけてくれたのは「沖縄」でした。『US Frontline』という日本語雑誌に自分で企画して執筆した「アメリカの中の沖縄」という特集記事がDN担当者の目に止まり、連絡をいただいたのです。その時まで恥ずかしながら、私はDNの存在を知りませんでした。しかし、自分の原稿が取り上げられたのをきっかけに、自分もDNの読者となり、さらに寄稿を続けることで、私とDNの距離はどんどんと狭まっていき、今に至ります。

私は過去に、自然災害の難民として渡米し定着した日本人、第二次大戦時に南米からアメリカの強制収容所に連行され戦後もアメリカに留まった日系ペルー人、広島で被曝しながらもアメリカ人のスポンサーを得て渡米した日本人女性など、さまざまな方の記事をDNに執筆してきました。私のライフワークは、日系人や新一世をインタビューして記録に残すことだと捉えています。そのライフワークにぴったりと合致しているのがDNというメディアなのです。

彼女の記事を読む [JA, 一部 EN]>>

[EN] What connected Discover Nikkei and I was “Okinawa.” I planned and wrote a featured series for the Japanese language magazine US Frontline, titled “Okinawa within the United States.” Discover Nikkei staff, who saw the series, got in touch with me. It is embarrassing, but up until that time I did not know of Discover Nikkei’s existence. However, beginning with my manuscript being picked up, I became a reader of Discover Nikkei, and continued to contribute to the site. In this way, the distance between Discover Nikkei and I grew smaller and smaller until things became as they are now.

Over the past, I have interviewed many different people for Discover Nikkei: Japanese who traveled to and settled in the U.S. as refugees from natural disasters; Peruvian Nikkei taken from South America to U.S. concentration camps during World War II and stayed in the U.S. after the war; Japanese women who, while having suffered the effects of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, secured American sponsors and traveled to the U.S.; among others. I see my life work as interviewing Nikkei and Shin Issei and leaving them in the records. The media called Discover Nikkei matches my life work perfectly.

Read her articles [JA, partially EN]>>

There are lots of reason to like Discover Nikkei, but as an organization that runs a museum (Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center), Discover Nikkei provides an easy and accessible way for us to share our materials online and to a wider audience. We've submitted articles and also used the Nikkei Album to share information and photographs from previous exhibits, and we are currently preparing another Nikkei Album for our most recent exhibit, Taken: FBI. And, of course, we also enjoy reading what others have submitted, too!

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View their Nikkei Albums >>

Like a lot of artists, a good deal of my work-time is spent in isolation (pity me). Because of that, the internet is an essential part of my daily routine, both for research and entertainment, and Discover Nikkei is one of those sites that fulfills both roles. It provides me with access to the worldwide Nikkei community and their experiences (I hang around mostly in the “Journal” section); everything from life in the camps to the history of plate lunch is there, to inform and entertain my stimulus-starved brain (and I still want to know who first started including macaroni salad in the plate lunch).

I also kinda’ like the weekly cartoon they post.

Check out his comics >>

[ES] ¿Qué nos gusta de Discover Nikkei? La posibilidad de compartir con una gran comunidad global historias que nos muestran la riqueza multicultural de nuestros países, y de enterarnos de tradiciones, experiencias y la propia vida cotidiana de muchas personas y comunidades alrededor del mundo. ¡Las imágenes del Álbum Nikkei son tan reveladoras!

Para la Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ) DN es una gran ventana que nos permite no solo conocer las distintas perspectivas de lo que significa vivir la experiencia nikkei a través de nuestras coincidencias y diferencias, sino también entender que la historia la seguimos escribiendo día a día.

- Lea sus artículos >>
- Vea sus albums >>
- Vea sus entrevistas >>

[EN] What do we like about Discover Nikkei? The possibility of sharing with a great global community stories that show us the multicultural richness of our countries, in addition to learning about traditions, experiences, and even the daily lives of numerous people and communities around the world. The images in the Nikkei Album are so revealing!

For the Japanese Peruvian Association (APJ), DN is a great window that allows us not only to get to know different perspectives about the meaning of the Nikkei experience through both our common and distinct traits, but also to understand that we continue to write history each day.

- Read their articles >>
- View their albums >>
- View their interviews >>

Discover Nikkei is a great way to connect with the greater Nikkei community and with people who are interested in Nikkei culture and arts, especially taiko. We regularly use the calendar to share our upcoming performances and the taiko database to stay current with the taiko community. They are both great tools!

[EN] My favorite thing about Discover Nikkei is the fact that it exists for Nikkei like me to speak to fellow Nikkei from around the world. Over the years, I’ve written about a wide variety of topics—Hiroshima and my hope for the end of nuclear weapons, the Tule Lake concentration camp and the No-No Boys, Japanese Americans and how we help each other, and mochitsuki, to name a few. To know that it’s reaching Nikkei outside of the U.S.—with some of my articles translated into Japanese and Portugese—really shows how small the world has become, and even though we live miles apart, our shared Nikkei heritage brings us closer together.

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[EN] Discover Nikkei is a fascinating website, not just in ambition, but also in execution. Throughout my life I’ve been moving not just North and South across the state of California, but also West and East across the Pacific Ocean. In this regard, I’ve always struggled with declaring where exactly is “home.” The more time I spend on DN learning about my Nikkei sistren and brethren, the more I come to think of DN as a virtual home for folks just like me. The Japanese diaspora is so diverse that at times it can be a daunting proposition to find a single starting point to learn about stories outside of my local bubble. DN has played an instrumental role in opening my eyes to just how dynamic our community has become. In this day and age of transnational lifestyles and instant worldwide communication, I look forward to seeing how much more our DN network will grow and contribute to our global society.

[[EN] Although I’ve long been a fan of Discover Nikkei, I recently discovered how to post an event, and now I’m hooked. I love being able to connect to the greater Nikkei world out there with such ease and also to have all that information right at my fingertips. And it’s a great feeling to know that you don’t have to rely on Facebook friends to get your messages out to all the people who you may not know but would like to meet. It’s a great resource for artists, filmmakers, and Japanese American culture addicts to find out what’s going on around town and around the world.

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