Chasing Cherry Blossoms

Guest: Jean Mishima, President, Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Jean Mishima was one of more than 20,000 people of Japanese ancestry to resettle in Chicago after she was incarcerated by the US government during WWII. After her incarceration at the age of six, Jean spent her youth helping her mother re-establish their lives by running a dry cleaning business. Jean’s mother was a fierce...

Guest: Susan Miyagi McCormac, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Japan Culture NYC As Gaby tries to define his multicultural identity, he meets Susan Miyagi McCormac, who grew up in North Carolina with an Okinawan mother and a U.S. military father. When Susan discovered that the 1945 Battle of Okinawa (in which the U.S. invaded Okinawa) began on her mother’s birthday, she felt an urgency to learn about...

Guest: Joan Shigekawa, Arts and Culture Philanthropist Many artists with underrepresented backgrounds face additional challenges when they first try to set their career path. Gaby talks to Joan Shigekawa, who received the National Medal of the Arts from the President of the United States in 2021. Since she was incarcerated as a child by the U.S. government during WWII, she made an extraordinary ca...

Guest: Russell Tanita at Tanita Farm Rusty’s father was one of the thirteen children of Naomasa Tanita who started farming in Arizona in 1928. The family business grew into a farming empire, Tanita Farm, once the largest grower and shipper of mixed vegetables in the state of Arizona in the 1960s. While the city has developed and generations of families have left farming, Rusty continues to farm in...

Guest: Fumiko Sally Matsumoto Adams at Japanese American Citizen League Arizona Chapter Growing up as a child of Japanese immigrants in the 1950s California often made Sally uncomfortable. After marrying her airman husband and living in Alaska for forty years, she finally began to reconcile with her heritage and became an active member of the Japanese American Citizen League, Arizona Chapter.  Pro...

Guest: Irene Tsukada Simonian  at Bunkado The COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to shutter, but as one of the few remaining original Japanese-owned businesses in Little Tokyo, legendary gift shop Bunkado had faced such hurdles before. What is the secret to its longevity? Bunkado owner Irene Tsukada Simonian shares her memories of growing up in Little Tokyo, and why she returned to run Bunka...

Guest: Dr. Patricia Allyn Biggs at National Park Service,  Manzanar National Historic Site Every year, Japanese American communities across the nation organize a pilgrimage to former WWII incarceration camp sites. One of those sites is Manzanar National Historic Site in Southern California, preserved by the National Park Service. Historian and park ranger Dr. Biggs describes the everyday lives of...

Guests: Dr. Kathryn Nakagawa at Arizona State University / Baseline Flowers and Donna Cheung at Japanese American Citizen League, Arizona Chapter Cat and Tin live-record a panel discussion at Arizona State University, as part of the AAPI Heritage Month celebration in the spring of 2022. Native Arizonan Dr. Nakagawa runs the last remaining Japanese American flower shop, established by her father in...

Guest:  Cindi Kishiyama Harbottle at Japanese American Citizen League, Arizona Chapter In the 1960s and ’70s, people used to travel long distances to see the Baseline Flower Fields in Phoenix, Arizona. Tin returns home and talks to Cindi Kishiyama-Harbottle at the Japanese American Citizen’s League Arizona Chapter. Cindi talks about how her family were early settlers in Arizona, and one of the fir...

Guests: Kathy Masaoka and Yasuko Sakamoto at Little Tokyo Service Center Tin’s next destination is the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), an organization that provides social welfare and community services in Little Tokyo. They have been a major force in preserving the town while welcoming people from various ethnicities. Tin speaks to Kathy Masaoka, a board member of LTSC, and Yasuko Sakamoto, a...

Guests:  Dr. Brett Esaki at University of Arizona   and Dane Ishibashi at Bunkado Tin begins her journey as a biracial Asian American by traveling to Tucson to meet Dr. Brett Esaki, an assistant professor in the East Asian Studies Department at University of Arizona. Dr. Esaki – whose grandparents met in a Japanese American incarceration camp – shares his unique perspective on the camps, and along...

Guests: Michael Komai and J.K. Yamamoto at Rafu Shimpo To explore how Japanese Americans redefine their experience through community storytelling, Cat visits Rafu Shimpo, a 120-year-old Japanese-English bilingual newspaper operating in Los Angeles. Together with a group of ASU students, Cat talks to President and Publisher Michael Komai, and their longtime journalist, J.K. Yamamoto. Komai shares t...

Guests: Dr. Mitchell Maki at Go For Broke National Education Center and Carolyn Sugiyama Classen at Southern AZ Japanese Cultural Coalition An Arizona native, Cat often feels pressure to be a picture-perfect Asian despite her unfamiliarity with her heritage. She meets Dr. Mitchell T. Maki, President and CEO of the Go For Broke National Education Center in Los Angeles, an organization that promotes...