#nikkeijin

[himikochan]

Time is a flat circle

Finally got the overlocker my auntie gave me working, making my own kimono for some ancestor celebrating

[himikochan]

(okay follow up to me talking about my baachan on anarchblr’s post and also my “time is a flat circle” post)

Time is a flat circle again and my grandma turned 91 and I’m sewing her a kimono (on a machine that’s only a little younger than her) to wear at a festival to honor our ancestors this week.

Time is a flat circle and my college degree lands me a job doing mostly what my grandma and great grandma did except this time English is the dominant language.

Time is a flat circle and FDR and the American people called them “concentration camps” and the only way forcibly incarcerated Japanese people could get recognition for what happened is when they called them the (kinder) term “internment camps” and we are watching that history be erased again.

Time is a flat circle again and we can’t let my baachan leave the country because we’re not sure we can come back. Again.

Time is a flat circle and we’re going to fucking straighten it.

[arkipelagic]

The Japanese of prewar Davao City, Philippines. Davao Photo Album by Fumio Magose, circa 1930. National Diet Library, Japan.

[arkipelagic]

A picture of a mixed Bagobo-Japanese family in prewar Davao City. Photo provided by “YM” to Sachio Negawa on Discover Nikkei, 2011.

[himikochan]

I’ve been feeling some complicated gender feelings but I realized it’s been a hot second since I’ve shared my long hair

they/them

[himikochan]

Hey yo nikkeijin/nihonjin friends my Japanese is not so good could anyone help me find this version of 俵積み歌 (tawaratsumi uta)? It’s sung by a man and there’s an electric guitar and shamisan

[hearthfire-heartfire]

february 19th, 2023 was the 81st anniversary of executive order 9066 which created what became known as japanese american internment camps. there's still so much that died with the people who lived through those times. i don't know that i'll be able to visit the ireichō exhibit to mark my relatives names off. it's really hard to keep these sacred days when i'm still not able to meet up with in community. so, i didn't do a whole lot to mark the day of remembrance this year. but as always, i am constantly learning things i didn't know on the last anniversary. here's a short video exploring dorothea lange's impounded photographs of the evacuation process and what might have been the criteria for their exclusion from the narrative the war relocation authority was trying to craft.

[hearthfire-heartfire]

yeah, i'm fascinated by the soy sauce thing.

also, i'm hoping that people understand that japanese people were extorted by occupying forces. our sacred places were looted, GIs got rich off selling survival basics on the black market in japan and their looted treasures back home, the CIA poured money into the japanese right wing in order to prevent communism from taking hold, both common soldiers and american interests poured money into yakuza business fronts which set them up for political power. it wouldn't surprise me if one single american person was given authority over a cultural staple and it wouldn't surprise me if it was made up by the company in order to open up a new market in the US. it wouldn't surprise me if the yakuza were involved. i have a basic familiarity with what was going on in japan at that time

this is not a period of history that i particularly enjoy revisiting.