Frank Abe is producer/director of the award-winning PBS documentary, CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION. He helped produce the two original “Day of Remembrance” media events in Seattle and Portland that publicly dramatized the campaign for redress. He was a founding member of the Asian American Theater Workshop in San Francisco and of the Asian American Journalists Association in Seattle, and was featured as a JACL-like camp leader in the NBC/Universal movie, FAREWELL TO MANZANAR. He was an award-winning reporter for KIRO Newsradio, the CBS Radio affiliate in Seattle, and is currently Director of Communications for the King County Executive in Seattle. 

Updated April 2015

Sara Kumiko Koike Abiusi grew up in Winter Haven, Florida. She completed her Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and two children. Sara is a Managing Director at Accenture and is an active member of Ascend, the largest Pan-Asian professional development nonprofit organization in the United States.

Updated October 2015

Regina Arakaki, born in Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos, Argentina in 1942. Daughter of immigrants from Okinawa. Graduate in Pharmacy and Biochemistry. Mother of four children. He currently lives in Buenos Aires.

Last updated October 2015

Maia Hito is a high school student who has been in love with Japanese culture since she was young. She is a Japanese Peruvian with European roots. She participated in a contest known as A Letter To My Parents in 2014, winning second place. She believes the contest opened her eyes to who she was and helped her indulge herself in the diversity of culture present in her own home. “I began to appreciate my heritage more and currently I am continuing to learn more about my roots by learning Japanese and expanding on my Spanish as well.”

Updated October 2015

Chanda Ishisaka was born and raised in Monterey Park, California located in Los Angeles County. She is a mixed race Yonsei, fourth generation Japanese and Mexican American. She lived in Seattle, Washington for six years where she happily was involved in the Japanese community and served on the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee to organize the annual pilgrimage to the former WWII incarceration camp Minidoka in Idaho. She currently resides in Orange County, California.

Updated November 2014

Born in Tochigi Prefecture in November 1995. Lived in Sacramento, California, and attended Matsuyama Elementary School from 2002 to 2003. Currently in his second year at International Christian University.

(Updated September 2015)

Laura Kina is Vincent de Paul Professor of Art, Media, & Design at DePaul University, co-editor of War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art (University of Washington Press, 2013), co-founder of the biennial Critical Mixed Studies conference, and a reviews editor for the Asian Diasporic Visual Culture in the Americas. Her exhibition Sugar/Islands: Finding Okinawa in Hawaiʻi – the Art of Laura Kina and Emily Hanako Momohara was recently on view at the Japanese American National Museum with an exhibition catalog published by Bear River Press.

Kina has exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and museums including the Chicago Cultural Center, India Habitat Centre, India International Centre, Nehuru Art Centre, Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, Rose Art Museum, Spertus Museum, and the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. She is currently editing an anthology, Queering Contemporary Asian American Art, and illustrating a children’s book, Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos, written by Lee A. Tonouchi.

Updated September 2015

Retired LAUSD educator. Community volunteer. Iku does various presentations and programs. (Photo courtesy of Densho)

Updated January 2015  

Michael Takeo Koike grew up in Winter Haven, Florida. He completed his Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Princeton University. He lives in Scarsdale, New York, with his wife and two children. Michael is a private equity investor. He is also a founder and director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program, an all-expense-paid seminar that brings low-income high school students to Princeton for a 10-day course on journalism and college admissions.

Updated October 2015

He was born in Jauja - Peru, fourth generation Nikkei. From the age of 9, he grew up in Japan, attending Japanese school, finishing his Peruvian studies by correspondence. She received a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the International University of the Pacific in New Zealand and currently works in Mexico for a Japanese company, growing and adapting new fusions of cultures.

Last updated August 2015

Marta Marenco was born the youngest of eight children in 1945 to Tatsuzo and Esther Tomihisa. Her father died when she was about to turn nine years old. Her mother was a descendant of the Genoese. They lived in northern Argentina, eventually emigrating to Buenos Aires with her brothers and sisters to find jobs and raise families. Her husband is Argentine, a veterinarian. They have two children living in Mexico and are now enjoying retirement.

Updated September 2015

Matayoshi Maximiliano, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1979, into a Nikkei family. Writer and photographer. Author of the novel Gaijin (Alfaguara 2003). He currently lives in Buenos Aires.

Last updated October 2015

Kimiko Medlock is an occasional freelance writer currently living in the Bay area. She holds an MA in modern Japanese history.

Updated January 2022

Mia Nakaji Monnier is a writer in Los Angeles. Her journalism and essays have appeared in BuzzFeed News, Shondaland, The Washington Post, and more. She started her career in Little Tokyo at Discover Nikkei and The Rafu Shimpo. You can find her on Twitter @miagabb and read more of her work at mianakajimonnier.com.

Updated May 2021

Raymond Nakamura lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. When he is not personal assistant to his daughter, he writes Vogon poetry, draws cartoons rejected by the New Yorker and gives tours of Powell Street, the Japanese community where his mother grew up before World War II. He has a poem about being an ice hockey goalie in a children’s sport poetry anthology called And the Crowd Goes Wild. www.raymondsbrain.com.

Updated October 2012 

Barbara Nishimoto was born in Chicago. She is a Sansei who now lives in Nashville, TN.

Updated July 2015 

Born in Mexico, he is a second-generation Japanese-Mexican. After graduating from the University of Tsukuba, he went on to graduate school at Boston University, where he received a master's degree in international relations. He currently works as the Executive Director of Reiyukai America in Los Angeles.

(Updated October 2015)

Born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Claudio Sampei is a Chemical Engineer specializing in Business Administration, Business Management, and Environmental Education. In 1994, he held a scholarship from the Chiba Prefecture —in the water treatment field—but currently works as an executive in the travel industry. He holds posts in various community-oriented organizations, such as the JCI (Junior Chamber International), where he was President of the São Paulo Chapter and National Executive Vice President; he is Chairman of the Board of the ASEBEX (the Brazilian Association of Former Scholarship Holders in Japan), Vice President of the IPK (the Paulo Kobayashi Institute), Financial Advisor of the Pan-American Nikkei Association of Brazil (APNB), Second Secretary of the Chiba Kenjin Association of Brazil, and member of the Communications and Marketing Commission of Bunkyo (the Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture and Social Assistance).

Updated November 2014

Brandon Shindo is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a Psychology major and Asian American Studies minor.

Updated December 2007

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

Marsha Takeda-Morrison is a writer and art director living in Los Angeles who drinks way too much coffee. Her writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Parents, Genlux, Niche, Mom.com, and other lifestyle, education, and parenting publications. She also covers pop culture and has interviewed the likes of Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba, and Kim Kardashian. While she spends a lot of time in Hollywood she has never had plastic surgery, given birth to an actor’s child, or been on a reality show. Yet.

Updated May 2023

Jeri Okamoto Tanaka is a third-generation Japanese American whose parents were born and raised in rural Wyoming.  Her writing is inspired by family history, her childhood in Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Oregon, and California, and her experiences as an adoptive mother and community volunteer.  She serves on the Little Tokyo Service Center board and is the Advisor & Parent Coordinator for the China Care Bruins Youth Mentorship Program at UCLA.  She resides in Los Angeles.  Her writing has appeared in Adoptive Families magazine, Guidepost's Joys of Christmas, The Sun, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Journal of Families with Children from China, OCA Image, UCLA Chinese Cultural Dance Dragonfly Quarterly, China Care Foundation's Care Package, and the book Kicking in the Wall:  A Year of Writing Exercises, Prompts & Quotes to Help You Break Through Your Blocks and Reach Your Writing Goals.

Updated September 2015 

Chuck Tasaka was born in Midway, B.C., but he spent most of his life growing up in Greenwood, B.C., the first Japanese Canadian Internment site. Grandfather Isaburo lived in Sashima, Ehime-ken, immigrated to Portland, Oregon in 1893, then to Steveston and came with his wife Yorie to settle on Salt Spring Island in 1905.  They decided to return to Sashima permanently in 1935. Chuck’s father Arizo was born on Salt Spring Island but lived in Sashima during his youth. His mother was born in Nanaimo, B.C., but was raised in Mio-mura, Wakayama-ken. Chuck attended University of B.C. and became an elementary teacher on Vancouver Island. After retiring in 2002, Chuck has spent most of his time researching Japanese Canadian history and he is presently working on the Nikkei Legacy Park project in Greenwood.

Updated September 2024

Cathy Uechi is a volunteer at the Japanese American National Museum and a contributing writer for Discover Nikkei. She is a Nisei, born in Boyle Heights and raised in the Valley, to parents who hailed from Okinawa. She enjoys exploring LA’s food scene whether it be the latest hotspot or a “mom and pop” establishment off the beaten path. Cathy is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine.

Updated September 2014

Born in Bebedouro, in São Paulo, Brazil, she has a Nursing degree from the University of São Paulo (USP). She worked as a professor at the State University of Londrina (UEL) until her retirement in 2010. She currently belongs to the staff of UEL’s FM Radio program “Tecer Idades” for this age group. She works as a volunteer in projects related to the field of aging, and she is a member of the board of directors of the "House of Support to the Family of Elderly Bedridden" in Londrina. She is a staff member at the Hikari Group of Londrina, whose aim is to keep Japanese culture alive. She is responsible for both the production and the written content of their site.

Updated June 2018

Lynn Yamasaki works as a School Programs Developer in the Education unit at the Japanese American National Museum, where she is responsible for developing and implementing school visits to the Museum and is involved with one of its core educational programs, the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. She is also responsible for developing educational activities for special exhibitions and family programming. She received her BA from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, majoring in Art History and Studio Art.

Updated July 2015

He was born in Chiclayo, Peru. He is a fourth-generation Nikkei. Graduate in Tourism and Hospitality and advertising design student. He is part of the Magis Volunteers and belongs to the Nikkei youth of Chiclayo. She enjoys writing, loves Japanese food, and loves to read. His dream is to visit Japan.

Last updated October 2015