Discover Nikkei Celebrates 12th Edition of Nikkei Chronicles with Call for Coming of Age Stories

LOS ANGELES, CA – Discover Nikkei, a web-based project of the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) that promotes connections and understanding among the global Japanese diaspora, announces the 12th edition of its Nikkei Chronicles special series, an annual, themed open call for writings.

This year’s theme, Growing Up Nikkei: Connecting with Our Heritage, calls for stories, essays, and vignettes about the ways in which Nikkei from around the world have connected with their Nikkei heritage while growing up. For example, what kind of Nikkei community events did you attend? What kinds of childhood stories do you have about Nikkei food? How did you learn Japanese as a child?

Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 6 p.m. PDT. Those that meet the guidelines and criteria will be published in the Discover Nikkei Journal on a rolling basis as part of the Nikkei Chronicles series. Submissions will also be eligible for selection as the Nima-kai community favorite. Nima are members of the Discover Nikkei online community called Nima-kai. “Nima” stems from the combination of Nikkei and “nakama” which is Japanese for “colleagues”, “fellows”, or “circle.” Writers are encouraged to submit their work early so that readers can vote for their favorites by logging in and giving it a “star.” 

Four additional stories in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese will be selected by the editorial committee. The editorial committee features Alden M. Hayashi (English), Emily Anderson (Japanese), Harumi Nako Fuentes (Spanish), and Laura Honda-Hasegawa (Portuguese). Hayashi is a Sansei fiction and nonfiction writer and the author of Two Nails, One Love. Dr. Anderson is the Project Curator at JANM and is the author of Christianity in Modern Japan: Empire for God; and the editor of Belief and Practice in Imperial Japan and Colonial Korea as well as a number of articles and book chapters on religion and imperialism in Japan and the Pacific. Nako is the Communications Manager at the Japanese Peruvian Association (APJ), editor of Kaikan magazine, and a member of the editorial board of the APJ Editorial Fund. Honda-Hasegawa is a retired educator who now writes essays, short stories, and novels from a Nikkei point of view. 

All submissions must be sent by email and formatted using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Submissions must include a short author biography, a headshot, and an image to illustrate the piece. Multiple submissions and submissions written by multiple authors are welcome. For more information, please visit 5dn.org/growing-up. 

Growing Up Nikkei: Connecting with Our Heritage is presented in partnership with the Asociación Peruano Japonesa, the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, and the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. The logo was designed by Jay Horinouchi.

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About Discover Nikkei

DiscoverNikkei.org is a major online resource that brings together the voices and experiences of Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants), who have created communities throughout the world. The multilingual website—available in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese—documents Nikkei history and culture and provides learning and networking tools for Nikkei around the world. At the same time, it seeks to explore the diverse and ever-changing meaning of the term Nikkei. The site’s rich multimedia content includes excerpts from life history interviews, first-person stories and essays, journalistic profiles, research papers, opinion pieces, short fiction, lesson plans, and listings for events worldwide. After 17 years, Discover Nikkei has published articles by over 1,000 writers worldwide and presented excerpts from nearly 200 video life history interviews. The content currently represents 15 countries, and it continues to grow.

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over 70 exhibitions onsite while traveling 17 exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM is open on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday–Sunday from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. and on Thursday from 12 p.m.–8 p.m. JANM is free every third Thursday of the month. On all other Thursdays, JANM is free from 5 p.m.–8 p.m. For more information, visit janm.org or follow us on social media @jamuseum.

Community Partners

Asociación Peruano Japonesa

The Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ—Peruvian Japanese Association) is a non-profit organization that represents the Peruvian Nikkei community and its institutions. Founded on November 3, 1917, APJ preserves the memory of Japanese immigrants and their descendants, develops cultural promotion and welfare assistance activities, and provides education and health services. APJ also promotes cultural, scientific and technological exchange between Peru and Japan, strengthening friendly relations between both countries.

Japanese American Museum of Oregon

The mission of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon is to preserve and honor the history and culture of Japanese Americans in the Pacific Northwest, educate the public about the Japanese American experience during WWII, and advocate for the protection of civil rights for all Americans. Formerly known as the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, our museum is a venue for culture and research as well as an invaluable resource for exploring Nikkei experiences and their role in Oregon’s multicultural community. Our permanent exhibit space highlights Issei immigration and early life in Oregon, Nihonmachi (Japantown), and the experience during World War II through Nikkei life today.

Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre

Founded in 1963, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) is a not-for-profit organization which celebrates the unique culture, history, and legacy of Japanese Canadians for the benefit of all Canadians, while creating a tribute to the history of the Nikkei community and their contributions to the building of our nation. A multi-cultural centre, the JCCC is recognized worldwide as an important and vibrant community institution. It serves 5,200 members, almost half of which are of non-Japanese ancestry, attracts over 210,000 visitors a year to its festivals, concerts, martial arts tournaments and special events and is home to the Discover Japan Educational Program which hosts 15,000 school children annually. The JCCC has welcomed many guests and dignitaries including Their Majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Japan and Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado.