Mary Sunada

@jsunada

Mary has been married to John Sunada for 44 years. They have two sons, James and David. Mary retired from the Los Angeles United School District after 36 years of teaching. She is a member of the Orange County Buddhist Church, Japanese American National Museum and the “Go for Broke” National Education Cent1er. Her interests are getting together with family and friends to fish, to dance, to travel and to dine. She has written many stories at DiscoverNikkei.org

Updated October 2024

Stories from This Author

Nikkei Chronicles #3—Nikkei Names: Taro, John, Juan, João?

The Chosen Names

Nov. 10, 2014 • Mary Sunada

Who is Mary Mieko Sunada? It begins with my birth certificate. A baby girl is born Mary Mieko Nakata on January 1, 1948 at 1 a.m. at 1-4 Tanaka-machi Askusa Daito-ku, Tokyo, Japan. My parents are Yoneto Nakata from Sanger, California, U.S.A. and Yaeko Niikura from Gumna-ken, Japan. My father, Yoneto, became the last of the Nakata family. He had no brothers or sisters. His mother got sick after giving birth to him and the family moved back to Japan. …