Linda Cooper is a communications consultant and freelance writer with more than 30 years of experience as a public relations practitioner, U.S. Senate press aide and journalist. She holds a BA in journalism and political science from Mississippi University for Women. Cooper lives in Tennessee. Her best friend Brenda is a registered nurse at a medical research facility and lives nearby with her family.

Updated September 2019

Born on November 22, 1965, in Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In 1992, he went to Brazil for the first time and worked as an intern at Paulista Shimbun (Japanese newspaper in Brazil). In 1995, he went back to Japan and worked with Brazilians at a factory in Oizumi-machi, Gunma Prefecture. He wrote a book, Parallel World (Ushio Publishing) about his experiences there and received Ushio Nonfiction Award in 1999. He returned to Brazil in 1999. Beginning in 2001, he worked at Nikkey Shimbun and became the editor-in-chief in 2004. He has been an editor-in-chief of Diário Brasil Nippou since 2022. 

Updated January 2022

A Nisei native of Tupã, São Paulo State, he holds a Law degree, specializing in Labor Relations. Over the course of 50 years, he worked as an executive and entrepreneur​​ in the Human Resources field. A Business Consultant, he’s also a columnist for the newspaper Nippo Brasil.

Updated June 2017

A native of Paraná, with a History degree from the State University at Londrina (UEL) and an Education degree from the Center for Higher Studies of Londrina (CESULON), she’s a retired teacher from the city and state school system. Thanks to a grant from the Japanese government and the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Culture, she attended Hiroshima University from 1987–1989. She belongs to the staff of the Hikari Group of Londrina, whose mission is to keep Japanese culture alive; she works as the photo editor on their website.

Updated September 2016

Edna Horiuchi is a retired Los Angeles teacher. She volunteers at Florence Nishida’s teaching garden in South LA and is active at Senshin Buddhist Temple. She enjoys reading, tai chi, and going to opera.

Updated June 2023

Mari L’Esperance was born in Kobe, Japan to a Japanese mother and a French Canadian-New Englander father and raised in Southern California, Guam, and Japan. Her full-length poetry collection The Darkened Temple was awarded a Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and published by the University of Nebraska Press. An earlier collection Begin Here was awarded a Sarasota Poetry Theatre Press Chapbook Prize. With Tomás Q. Morín, she has co-edited Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine, published by Prairie Lights Books and distributed by the University of Iowa Press. You can find Mari online at www.marilesperance.com.

Updated September 2017

Iraci Megumi Nagoshi was born in São Paulo in 1952. She is the youngest daughter of Masaru and Miyoko Fujisaka. Although her father died while she was still a baby—1 year and 8 months old—she had a very happy childhood and adolescence. In addition to her brother Luiz, she has two sisters, Amália and Noemia, and many Oni-chans and One-chans—i.e., Dona Miyoko’s boarders.

Updated September 2017

Kohei Ohsawa was born on May 3, 1990, in Toshima Ward, Tokyo. In 2013, he graduated from the Sophia University with a degree from the department of Portuguese Studies in the Faculty of Foreign Studies. In 2016, he went to Brazil for the first time and is currently on training at Nikkey Shimbun.

Updated December 2017

Udê, a.k.a. Hudson Okada, was born in the city of Matão, São Paulo, on Aug. 2, 1979. Since 2005, he lives in the city of São Paulo’s Liberdade district. He is part of the Jornal Nippak team of collaborators. As a writer, he has won several literary contests – including an honorable second place in Brazil’s Sesc-DF Prize for Literature, in the short stories category.

Updated July 2016

A native of Arapongas, Paraná, she has a Business Administration degree from the State University of Londrina (UEL). She is responsible for the administration of the website and fanpage of a wholesale jewelry and costume jewelry company in Londrina, taking photographs and producing videos to be posted on these sites. She participates in coordination of the Ishindaiko Group of Londrina (taiko). She is a staff member at the Hikari Group of Londrina, whose aim is to keep Japanese culture alive. She is responsible for the filming, production, and video editing on their site.

Updated June 2018

Roberto Oshiro Teruya is a 53-year-old Peruvian of the third generation (Sansei); his parents, Seijo Oshiro and Shizue Teruya, both came from Okinawa (Tomigusuku and Yonabaru, respectively). He lives in Lima, the capital of Peru, where he works in the retail clothing business in the city's downtown. He is married to Jenny Nakasone and they have two children Mayumi (23) and Akio (14). He has a deep interest in continuing to preserve the customs inculcated by his grandparents, including cuisine and the butsudan, and hopes his children will do the same.

Updated June 2017

Chico Pascoal is from the town of Cratéus, in the Northeastern state of Ceará. He was a finalist chronicler in the 1st Bunkyo Story Contest and in the 1st Script Road Literary Contest in Macau, China. In 2015, he was one of the qualified contestants in the SESC-DF Monteiro Lobato Story Contest. He also contributed to the short story collection Two Scenes, a Wall? and other stories.

Updated September 2017

Tamio Spiegel is a bi-racial Japanese American native New Yorker. He is an independent consultant who has advised businesses in Asia and the US on manufacturing, product development, and cross-Pacific trading. He is a past Executive Director of The Gohan Society, a New York City-based non-profit organization that promotes Japanese food and food culture. He has written on arts and current affairs for NY Nichibei, AsianWeek, and Nikkei Heritage.

Updated October 2017

Heriete Setsuko Shimabukuro Takeda, 61, a descendant of Okinawans, was born and lives in the city of São Paulo. She is married and is the mother of two children. Now retired, she uses her writing to rescue memories and reach horizons.

Updated October 2018

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

Don Tanaka is a retired air-conditioning service tech of 38 years, during which he distinguished himself as a union officer and the Director of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration for Southern Calif., with 2000 service members in Southern Calif. He became a member of APALA (Asian Pacific American labor Alliance) protecting immigrant workers rights. He volunteers at the Japanese American National Museum and Keiro. He also volunteers on a committee called WHPA, (Western HVAC Performance Alliance). They are the eyes and ears for the CPUC and CEC to help provide input on energy efficiency air conditioning equipment. 

Updated August 2017

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

Sansei whose paternal and maternal grandparents were from the town of Yonabaru, Okinawa. She now works as a freelance translator (English/Spanish) and blogger at Jiritsu, where she shares personal stories and research on Japanese immigration to Peru and related topics.

Updated December 2017

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

Susan Yamamura was born in Seattle, WA in 1940. She and her family were sent to Camp Harmony, WA and Camp Minidoka, ID. She graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1962. She first worked as a computer programmer at Space Technology Labs in Redondo Beach, CA and later at the Boeing Co in Seattle. Susan retired from managing a computer and graphics lab in the Chemistry Department at the University of Arizona in 1997.

She had a son with Hank Yamamura; Hank passed away in 2008. She currently lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Updated April 2020

Danielle Yuki Yang is an LA native currently living in the Bay Area studying English at UC Berkeley. She enjoys reading, writing, painting, hiking, baking, and travelling, and of course participating in Japanese American programs and working with Asian American organizations. In the past she has taken part in the Yonsei Basketball Association, Japanese American Optimist Club, and the Rising Stars Program, and has worked with the Go For Broke National Education Center, as well as the Japanese American National Museum. She hopes to continue her writing recreationally or as a contributor to Discover Nikkei as she pursues a possible career in healthcare.

Updated July 2017