About Saren Sakurai

Saren is half Japanese, and half from Ohio. He is the driving force behind this website, but he is very open any and all suggestions or recommendations to improve it over time

Yuri Kochiyama Nikkei Activist
06 Aug
Japanese American

Yuri Kochiyama Quotes

“Consciousness is Power“

“Remember that consciousness is power. Consciousness is education and knowledge. Consciousness is becoming aware. It is the perfect vehicle for students. Consciousness-raising is pertinent for power, and be sure that power will not be abusively used, but used for building trust and goodwill domestically and internationally. Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.”

“Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.”

“When you’re in a black group, you have to keep in mind you’re not black. You just have to be sensitive. We have to be appreciative that the black nationalist struggle is a nationalist struggle.”

“We are all part of one another.”

“Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another.”

“Transform yourself first”

“Transform yourself first…because you are young and have dreams and want to do something meaningful, that in itself, makes you our future and our hope. Keep expanding your horizon, decolonize your mind, and cross borders.”

“The movement is contagious”

“People have a right to violence, to rebel, to fight back.”

Yuri Kochiyama: Nikkei Rebel
06 Aug
Japanese American

Yuri Kochiyama: Nikkei Rebel

Yuri Kochiyama was a Japanese American activist born in California.

Born Mary Yuriko Nakahara on May 19, 1921 in San Pedro, California. Her parents were Japanese immigrants, Seiichi Nakahara, an entrepreuner and fish merchant and Tsuyako Nakahara, a college-educated homemaker and piano teacher.

She went to San Pedro High School and Compton Junior College, where she studied English, journalism and art, graduating in 1941.

Yuri Kochiyama and Japanese Internment in WWII

Shortly after the Pearl Harbor Kochiyama’s father was arrested along with other Japanese American elders and held in federal prison. He was ill at the time and died shortly after being released in January of 1942.

The rest of Kochiyama’s family, her mother and brother, were assigned to Santa Anita Assembly Center and then the Jerome, Arkansas Concentration Camp as part of the Japanese American Internment.

After the war, and her marriage to Bill Kochiyama, she moved to New York City.

Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X

Yuri’s activism started in Harlem in the early 1960’s, where she participated in the Harlem Freedom Schools, and later, the African American, Asian American and Third World movements for civil and human rights and in the opposition against the Vietnam War. She began her association with Malcolm X in 1963, working together on the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Yuri’s activism spanned the later years of Malcolm X’s life—she cradled his head as he died—to the early formation of Tupac Shakur as a 9-year-old.

Yuri Kochiyama and Tupac Shakur

In the 70s Yuri and Bill’s apartment in Harlem was know as “Grand Central Station” or the “Revolutionary Salon”, and it was a hub for activism and community leaders. It was in the Kochiyama apartment where a 9-year-old Tupac Shakur spoke in front of an assembled group about th need to free political prisoners, including members of his own family like stepfather Mutual Shakur and godfather Geronimo Pratt. [Read More]

Excellent Democracy Now interview in 2008

Over her life she advocated for many causes, including Black separatism, the anti-war movement, Maoist revolution, reparations for Japanese-American internees, and the rights of people imprisoned by the U.S. government for violent offenses whom she considered to be “political prisoners”.

Yuri’s Google Doodle

On May 19, 2016, she was featured on the U.S. Google Doodle in honor of what would have been her 95th birthday.

Blue Scholars - Yuri Kochiyama (Live)
06 Aug
Japanese American

Blue Scholars – Yuri Kochiyama (Lyrics)

[Verse 1: Geo]
Oh, yeah!
I got that third world militant, still think it’s relevant
Even if them kids copped the shirts and stopped wearin ’em
Humbled in the presence of the veterans
And not the ones who picked up their guns
But who picked up their brethren and sister and
History in the making I was witnessin’
Listenin’, seein’ this old Japanese lady with a sticker on her walker, said “Free Mumia” and
This was before the Trustafarians were sayin’ it
Taking it for granted that we talk about the 60’s and
Never get to talk to anybody who done live this shit and still exist
Or better yet, shit, she still resist, speaking to a myriad of young, dumb and ignorant kids
I was one of ’em
Stuck around lingering
Said that “It’s a privilege to meet you in person” and
She took my hand, said “It’s good to meet you too”
And when I’m out of school asked me what I’m gonna do
I had to think about it, but truth is I knew
That it was something for the youth and shit
Truly I’d probably be a teacher if the music didn’t make enough
To make me wanna gamble on it’s sustenance
And that’s why I’m writing this, to tell ya’ll
From a scholar

[Hook]
When I grow up I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama
Holla, swear to my kasamas
When I grow up I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama
And if she ever hear this its an honor
Cause when I grow up I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama
Imma, serve the people proper
When I grow up I wanna be like Yuri Kochiyama
When I grow up I wanna be like Yuri Kochiyama
When I grow up I wanna be like Yuri Kochiyama

[Verse 2: Geo]
I see the picture up in Life magazine
You were sittin’ front seat for Malcolm’s last speech
Saw the first man with the shotgun (Boom)
Two more came to get the job done
Now who would’ve thought that it’d be you holding him?
I wonder what you felt when his eyes were going dim
And if he never died, would we know that he exists?
Or would he have been the leader that we always seem to miss?
Now there’s no taking back whatever happens in our midst
You remind me that it’s more than just a martyr and a myth
You could’ve said it quits many times ever since and you find
There will always be a reason for the fist
The last one to hold him could’ve been somebody else
You’d still be remembered for the people that you helped
They said to keep trying but never losing hope
Revolutionaries die, but the revolution don’t
And it won’t and I put that
On my momma

[Hook]
Cause when I grow up I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama
Holla, swear to my kasamas
When I grow up I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama
And if she ever hear this it’s an honor
Cause when I grow up I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama
Imma, serve the people proper
When I grow up I wanna be like Yuri Kochiyama
When I grow up I wanna be like Yuri Kochiyama
When I grow up I wanna be like Yuri Kochiyama

Lonely Planet - Japan
07 Jun
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles

Cool Hunting: Kinokuniya Little Tokyo

Some of the cool things we found on a trip to LA (to watch the Warriors play in the NBA Finals on TV). Kinokuniya is definitely a good stop if you’re close to Little Tokyo. It’s the biggest store in the LA area, as most of their branches in the OC have closed. Anyway, everytime we go there we find a few cool things to check out.

Lonely Planet - Japan

Lonely Planet – Japan

Lonely Planet specializes in travel books, and we admit to owning more than a few of them, but this one is 100% visual—and all the pictures are square (Insta influence?). Lots of great snaps of places to go all over the country.

Maido: A gaijin's guide to Japanese gestures and culture by Christy Colon Hasegawa

Maido: A gaijin’s guide to Japanese gestures and culture by Christy Colon Hasegawa

Traveling (or moving) to Japan is unique for a million different reasons, but at the top of the list is the feeling of leaving your home country—it’s language, and nonverbal communication—behind and walking into an entirely new world. Everyone visiting should definitely bring a phrase book to at least attempt to meet and greet the natives in their native tongue—don’t be the ugly American, for sure. The lesser considered element of communication is the gestures and nonverbal cues. This book is from 2016, but it’s basically timeless on this subject. It collects all of the most common gestures and shows visually how they are used, and describes what they mean. If you’re brand new to Japanese, this book will at least keep you minimally in the know as you settle into your new experience in Japan.

Everyday Onigiri 101: Healthy, Easy Japanese Riceball Recipes

Everyday Onigiri 101: Healthy, Easy Japanese Riceball Recipes by Reiko Yamada

This is also a few years old, but do we really need some trendy new recipes muddying up the age-old rice and nori classic—I think not. What this collects are the basics in a broad and comprehensive way. You’ll be familiar with a few of the versions here, but there are definitely a few new spins you can put on your mama-san’s classic version—perhaps from another prefecture, or another age altogether.

Mecha Samurai Empire (A United States of Japan Novel Book 2)

Mecha Samurai Empire (A United States of Japan Novel Book 2)

This one I have not read yet. It slipped by me late last year, I have read the first book and enjoyed it, so I have this on my list of things to do this summer. It’s shouldn’t be lost on anyone that we here at Japanifornia love the blending of Japan and the United States, and so we’re 100% behind the idea of the United States of Japan.

Let us know what you found recently at K-ya in Little Tokyo. We’d love to hear.

Kinokuniya Los Angeles
Little Tokyo
123 Astronaut E. S. Onizuka Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
T 213.687.4480

Ne and Yo in Hiragana
21 May
Nihongo

The first two syllables to learn in Japanese: ね and よ.

ね is pronounced as ‘neigh’. Close to ‘nay’. And it’s used at the end of sentence, a suggestion, or a statement. And it has the meaning of “calling for agreement”. It’s an easy way to establish rapport with another speaker. In English, it would be similar to saying something and following it with, “don’t you agree?”

よ is ‘yo’. It’s quite like the Baltimore version of ‘yo’—it’s multipurpose. Mostly it’s used to end a sentence with an authoritative: “…I’m telling you (for the first time)”.

These two have to short phrases which are you can use next. They are:

‘いいね’ which is pronounced like the name of the letter ‘e’ with neigh. It means “good, agree?” It’s friendly and useful.

‘いいよ’ is pronounced as the same ‘e’ followed by yo. It’s said in response to being asking if something if alright. To which it is the response like “it’s cool” or “sure”.

Give these easy phrases a try with a native speaker and see if they don’t give you a little props for trying to use conversational Japanese.

Kanrin Maru members
07 May
Japanese American

May 7, 1843: The First Japanese in America

The month of May was chosen to commemorate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month to capture two significant dates in Asian American history, firstly, the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States on May 7, 1843, and secondly to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.

Specifics as to who was the first Japanese is sketchy, but what is known is that there were official Members of the Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860), who sailed on the Kanrin Maru and the USS Powhatan. Fukuzawa Yukichi sits on the right in the picture above.

Let’s all celebrate May 7 as a mark of really incredible pan-Pacific voyages in an era well before worldwide travel was as safe as it is today.

Community activist Mike Murase
02 May
United States

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM)

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM). Stay tuned to this blog for the next few weeks as we set about to telling stories of our brothers and sisters from the past. Let’s make it a month of celebrating the JAs in our history who took the rebellious route—becoming the nail that sticks out, and refusing to be pounded down.

Let’s also celebrate the existence of this month in and of itself. Here is a quick review of how our own history month came to be:

It started, officially, in June 1977 when Reps. Frank Horton of New York and Norman Mineta of California introduced US House Joint Resolution 540 to proclaim the first 10 days in May as Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week. A month later, Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar resolution called Senate Joint Resolution 72. Unfortunately, at the time, neither of these resolutions passed. Remember, it’s not like this whole multicultural thing happened quickly. It’s been more of a long, hard struggle of all of us POCs.

In June of the following year, Rep. Horton again introduced a House Joint Resolution, this time number 1007. This resolution proposed that the President should “proclaim a week, which is to include the seventh and tenth of the month, during the first ten days in May of 1979, as ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.’” This joint resolution passed House, and then also passed the Senate, and was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 5, 1978 to become Public Law 95-419.

In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed a further bill from congress to extend the initial week out into a full month, and make law the official designation of May as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. There were plenty of nikkei behind the scenes, but big shouts out to Mineta, Inouye and Matsunaga.

The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.

Asian-Pacific American (APA) or Asian-Pacific Islander (API) is a term sometimes used in the United States to include both Asian Americans and Pacific Islands Americans.
16 Jun
Furniture

New home decor from John Doerson

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16 Jun
Design trends

The big design: Wall likes pictures

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