Japanese Biography

Kimi’s Obaachan, her grandmother, had always been a silent presence throughout her youth. Sipping tea by the fire, preparing sushi for the family, or indulgently listening to Ojichan’s (grandfather’s) stories for the thousandth time, Obaachan was a missing link to Kimi’s Japanese heritage, something she had had a mixed relationship with all her life. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, all Kimi ever wanted to do was fit in, spurning traditional Japanese cuisine and her grandfather’s attempts to teach her the language.

Masuo Yasui arrived in America in 1903 with big dreams and empty pockets. He worked on the railroads, in a cannery, and as a houseboy before settling in Oregon to open a store, raise a large family, and become one of the area's most successful orchardists. But his family's life changed forever on December 7, 1941, when they were forced from their homes into vast inland camps. Although shamed and broken, the Yasui family would yet endure to claim their place as Americans.

After Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, over 100,000 Japanese Americans were ordered to leave their homes. The government was afraid that because they looked like “the enemy,” they might be spies. One American, librarian Clara Breed, was heartbroken and outraged. As the San Diego Public Library’s Children’s Librarian, Miss Breed was close to many of the children who were evacuated. She went to the train station the day they left, handing out postcards and telling them to send her letters.

Flown to Japan as a 16-year-old exchange student, Roy Dean entered the world of fighting through the art of Judo. Returning to the USA, he pursued even more intense study, becoming an apprentice to a Japanese jiu jitsu and aikido master in Monterey, California. This is a recollection of transformative events, his introduction to the art of Brazilian jiu jitsu, and the lessons you can only learn by living in a dojo.

Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki is the genius behind such animated classics as Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds. His bountiful imagination and compassion have earned him accolades the world over. Until the early 1990s, Miyazaki’s work was largely unfamiliar to American audiences. But that would soon change, and now fans of all ages eagerly await new material from the master.

笑えて泣ける岸田家の日々のこと　車いすユーザーの母、ダウン症で知的障害のある弟、ベンチャー起業家で急逝した父――

学問を挫折した男はコミュニケーションをどのように磨いて世界一のお金持ちになったのか？部下を鼓舞、経営陣を説得、オンラインミーティング、大人数のプレゼンなど

A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences.

Growing up, Wat Misaka wasn’t the tallest kid on the basketball court, but he was fast and he loved the game! In his Japanese American basketball league, Wat dribbled with speed and shared the ball as much as he scored. Encouraged by his father to always do his best, Wat applied this mindset to every challenge in his life. As Wat spent more time on the court, his passion for the game grew. He played in college at the University of Utah during WWII, a time when many Japanese Americans were stripped of their freedoms and incarcerated by the US government.

February 19, 1942. George Takei is four years old when his world changes forever. Two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares anyone of Japanese descent an enemy of the United States. George and his family were American in every way. They had done nothing wrong. But because of their Japanese ancestry, they were removed from their home in California and forced into camps with thousands of other families who looked like theirs.

大王製紙社長の長男として、幼少時代は1200坪の屋敷で過ごし、東大法学部に現役合格。27歳で赤字子会社を立て直し、42歳で本社社長就任。順調な経営、華麗なる交遊……すべてを手にしていたはずの

Shohei Ohtani, also known as "Shotime," is widely known for his skills in both pitching and hitting. At the 2016 Japan Series, Ohtani led his team, the Fighters, to victory. He later signed to the Los Angeles Angels in 2017 and earned the title of American League Rookie of the Year in 2018. In 2021, Ohtani made Major League Baseball history with over ten homeruns, over twenty stolen bases, and over one hundred strikeouts. That same year, at only age twenty-seven, he was given the American League Most Valuable Player Award.

Frederick Rutland was an accomplished aviator, British WWI war hero, and real-life James Bond. He was the first pilot to take off and land a plane on a ship, a decorated warrior for his feats of bravery and rescue, was trusted by the admirals of the Royal Navy, had a succession of aeronautical inventions, and designed the first modern aircraft carrier. He was perhaps the most famous early twentieth-century naval aviator. Despite all of this, and due mostly to class politics, Rutland was not promoted in the new Royal Air Force in the wake of WWI.

Marine general William H. Rupertus is best known today for writing the Corps' Rifleman's Creed. Rupertus was one of the outstanding Marines of the twentieth century, but he died in 1945, so his story has never been told. Rupertus "made his bones" in the USMC's "savage wars of peace" before World War II: Haiti for three years after World War I, China in 1929, and again in 1937.

In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain. Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Trying to recreate comforts from home, they established Buddhist temples and sumo wrestling pits. Kabuki performances drew hundreds of spectators — yet there was little hope.

When Ian Buruma arrived in Tokyo in 1975, Japan was little more than an idea in his mind, a fantasy of a distant land. A sensitive misfit in the world of his upper middle class youth, what he longed for wasn't so much the exotic as the raw, unfiltered humanity he had experienced in Japanese theater performances and films, witnessed in Amsterdam and Paris.

"Miguel Ángel", un joven de 28 años nacido en Medellín y graduado de la facultad de Derecho de una universidad bogotana, llega a Tokio en la primavera de 1992 en busca del "sueño americano en versión japonesa". Con el paso de los años se covertiría en "toda una leyenda del submundo y la vida nocturna clandestina" en el país del Sol naciente, primero ejerciendo él mismo la prostitución y luego convirtiéndose en ficha clave para la Yakuza, la más temible mafia asiática, en la trata de prostitutas colombianas en el Lejano Oriente.

Since the beginning of civilization, crime and injustice has existed. At the same time, gangs in all shapes and sizes have been around, from rebels, dissidents, and rogue soldiers to the average circle of miscreants loitering in alleys and behind convenience stores. In Japan, a gang of a different breed would arise - one underscored by honor, respect, family, and a code of ethics. They are the Yakuza. The Yakuza claim to be the Robin Hoods of the Far East. While they may lean towards the other side of the law, justice is all they truly aim for.

In April of 1942, author Julien Goodman, MD was working as a member of the US Army Medical Corps at General Hospital Number One in Bataan when the hospital fell into the hands of the Japanese. M.D.P.O.W. is a description of Dr. Goodman's experiences as a prisoner of war. During his 42-month ordeal, he not only witnessed the horrendous effects of war, but he also experienced them.

ベルリンで暮らし始めて一年。冬には友人と温泉で新年会をしたり、家で味噌を仕込んだり。春になったら青空市で見つけた白いアスパラガスに、薄切りハムとオリーブオイルを添えて。短い夏には美味しい味と