Kitamoto Tourism Association

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara #1: Family nursery business

Interview Date: February 6, 2015
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Interviewer: John Esaki
Camera: Evan Kodani
Contributed by Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

© 2016 Japanese American National Museum

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara #5: Jobs in Manzanar

Interview Date: February 6, 2015
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Interviewer: John Esaki
Camera: Evan Kodani
Contributed by Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

© 2016 Japanese American National Museum

Japanese Americans Share WWII Stories

Two women shared stories about Japanese Americans following the Pearl Harbor attacks. One speaker was put into an internment camp in Idaho.

SEUSKF Promotion - 405 & 406

SEUSKF 2014

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara #11: Fort Snelling

Interview Date: February 6, 2015
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Interviewer: John Esaki
Camera: Evan Kodani
Contributed by Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

© 2016 Japanese American National Museum

北本宵まつり 日本刀の演武 ギースにしょうゆにのせてみました。samurai

2012.11.10
北本　宵まつり
北本駅西口にて、総合武術教室 武活道 Martial Arts Lifeの演武を行いました。
日本刀のパフォーマンスです。

Kitamoto evening festival.
At the Kitamoto Station west entrance, it is a comprehensive martial art classroom. bukatudo Martial Arts Life was performed a martial art.
It is Katana performance.


HP→

blog→

twitter→

まちをあげての一大イベントである「北本まつり」は、毎年11月上旬に、西中央通りや北本中学校を会場に開催されます。「宵まつり」は、流し踊りや各団体のパフォーマンスで幕を開け、夕方からは、伝統のお囃子（はやし）が響くなか、扇形の範頼ねぶたや地域コミュニティなど各団体の製作した大小さまざまなねぶた・山車が西中央通りを練り歩きます。

北本まつり「宵まつり」で運行される「ねぶた」のルーツは、平成３年（1991年）までさかのぼります。当時の社会教育委員が青森県弘前市を視察した際、「弘前ねぷた」の制作方法や画法を学び、北本で青少年育成事業の一環として「北本ねぷた」を制作し、青少年育成市民大会で運行しました。
　また、姉妹都市である福島県会津坂下町では、青森県黒石市のねぶたを参考に作ったねぶたを、夏まつりで運行していました。このねぶたを北本まつり「宵まつり」では、「会津坂下ねぶた」という名前で、宵まつり開催当初から招聘し、披露・運行しています。

　平成６年（1994年）、北本まつり「宵まつり」が始まりました。そして、「宵まつり」を盛り上げるため、扇型の「北本ねぷた」と人型の「会津坂下ねぶた」の２種類が、そろって会場で披露・運行しました。 　翌年から、市内８圏域のコミュニティや観光協会などの各団体の手により、趣向を凝らしたねぶたが作られ、運行されるようになりました。
　現在では、明るく照らされた約30台のねぶたや囃子山車が、晩秋の夕闇の中、宵まつり会場を練り歩きます。

The Kitamoto festival which is a 1 big event which raises town is held by the hall in a Hiroshi Nishinaka passage or the Kitamoto junior high school early in November every year.
the size which each organizations, such as sector NORIYORI nebuta, a local community, etc., manufactured while the evening festival opened the curtain by the performance of a sink dance or each organization and traditional musical accompaniment was echoed from the evening -- various nebuta and floats parade a Hiroshi Nishinaka passage.

The root of the nebuta which operates by the Kitamoto festival an evening festival goes back till Heisei 3 (1991).
When a member of a social education board of those days inspected Hirosaki-shi, Aomori, the work method of being PUTA in Hirosaki and the drawing technique were studied, and it made in Kitamoto it is PUTA in Kitamoto as part of a youth training enterprise, and operated by the youth training civic meeting.
Moreover, in the Fukushima prefectural assembly Tsusaka downtown area which is a sister city, it operated around the nebuta which made the nebuta of Kuroishi-shi, Aomori to reference by summer festival.
By the Kitamoto festival an evening festival, by the name of the Aizubange nebuta, this nebuta is invited from the time of evening festival holding, and it announced and operates around it.

In Heisei 6 (1994), the Kitamoto festival an evening festival started.
And in order to heap up an evening festival, two kinds of Aizubange nebuta of it is PUTA in Kitamoto and a fan type person type announced and operated together at the hall.
The nebuta which elaborated the plan is made by the hand of each organization, such as a community of a city 8 area region, and a tourist agency, from the next year, and came to operate by it from it.
Now, about 30 sets of nebuta and musical accompaniment floats which were illuminated brightly parade the evening festival hall in the twilight of late autumn.

Fresh footage of huge tsunami waves smashing town in Japan

As survivors of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami grappled with the enormity of the devastation, more footage emerged on Sunday showing the moment the tsunami struck Japan's northeast coast. Residents of the port town of Kamaishi in Iwate prefecture watched in horror as the first huge tsunami waves hit, sweeping away cars and buildings. One group managed to scramble to safety on higher ground, where they watched as the water surged towards them. Others were stranded on the roof of a multi-storey building as the water level rose rapidly below.

Top videos of Japan earthquake & tsunami 2011

Subscribe to RT!

Watch RT LIVE on our website

Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Google+

RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.

Densho Oral History - Bob Y. Sakata

Bob Y. Sakata tells how his father's words of wisdom gave him strength.

This clip is an excerpt from Bob Y. Sakata's oral history interview conducted May 14, 2008 (denshovh-sbob-01-0019). To see the complete interview, visit the Densho Digital Archive (

Witnessing the Manzanar Riot - Richard E. Yamashiro

Richard E. Yamashiro was incarcerated in the Manzanar concentration camp, California, during World War II. In December of 1942, violence broke out at Manzanar when several Japanese American Citizens League members were beaten up and those accused of the incident were held in the camp's jail. A large crowd gathered, including Richard, and in this clip he recalls observing the standoff between the Japanese Americans and the military police.

This clip is an excerpt from Richard E. Yamashiro's Densho oral history interview conducted May 24, 2011. To see the complete interview segment, visit the Densho Digital Repository (

For more information:
Manzanar riot/uprising:
Manzanar concentration camp:

Anti-Japanese Sentiment in the Sawmills - Frank Miyamoto

Frank Miyamoto's father's first job after immigrating to the United States was as a sawmill worker. In this clip, he talks about the difficulties his parents faced in the early 1900s.

This clip is an excerpt from Frank Miyamoto's Densho oral history interview conducted February 26, 1998. To see the complete interview segment, visit the Densho Digital Repository (

Japanese Internment Camp experience

A Japanese American living in Seattle, WA during the Pearl Harbor attack, Arlene Reiko Cheadle recounts the subsequent events including her father's imprisonment, the FBI raiding her home and her experience in the Minidoka, Idaho internment camp. Interesting to note that she refers to Dec. 7, 1941 as the start of the war. This of course, was not the beginning of WWII, but rather the day the Pearl Harbor attack occurred. I mention this because up until that day, war probably did not seem like a reality to a 9 year old girl. Anti Japanese sentiment and President Roosevelt's signing of Excutive Order 9066 would change how Japanese American children would see their world as their freedom and rights were taken away. This video is an excerpt from an interview I conducted with my Auntie Reiko in 2007. Let us learn from this, let history not repeat itself.

Densho Oral History - Kara Kondo

Kara Kondo remembers the day of mass removal to the Portland Assembly Center, Oregon.

This clip is an excerpt from Kara Kondo's oral history interview conducted December 7 & 8, 2002 (denshovh-kkara-01-0026), created for use with the Densho Civil Liberties Curriculum To see the complete interview, visit the Densho Digital Archive (

Hearing About the Bombing of Pearl Harbor - Akiko Kurose

Akiko Kurose grew up in Seattle, Washington. In this clip, she talks about how she felt when she heard that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.

This clip is an excerpt from Akiko Kurose's Densho oral history interview conducted June 17, 1997. To see the complete interview segment, visit the Densho Digital Repository (ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-41-13/).

For more information:
December 7, 1941:
Aki Kurose:

2018 AUSKF High Rank Kendo Shinsa: 5Dan Division 5th Group

2018 AUSKF High Rank Spring Shinsa: Kendo practitioners testing for the ranks of 5-7Dan in SoCal.

5Dan court; 5th group of People testing for 5Dan.

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Dedication Memorial Wall

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND —

Everywhere she went, Kayo Natalie Hayashida Ong, now 70, was greeted over and again with delight and recognition as the baby!

An iconic photograph of her at age 1, asleep in her mother's arms as her family was forcibly removed from their Bainbridge Island home during World War II, became one of the best-known symbols of a dark period in American history.

They were among the first of 120,000 people of Japanese descent who were exiled from the West Coast or forced into internment camps by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Exclusion Order after Pearl Harbor was bombed and the U.S. declared war on Japan.

I don't remember it at all, Ong said, somewhat apologetically. But now that I am older, I recognize the injustice.

She and her mother, Fumiko Hayashida, were among the dozens of camp survivors who attended the dedication of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Wall on Saturday.

Built on the historic site of the Eagledale Ferry Dock, where the residents were loaded onto a ferry and taken from their homes, the cedar, granite and basalt wall honors the 276 Japanese Americans from the island who were the first to be relocated.

Along with quotes and ceramic art, the wall is graced with the name of every resident who left the island during the relocation.

It also is intended as a symbol of gratitude to the friends and neighbors who protested the action or helped those displaced by holding on to their land and property for them.

Help from neighbors

In part because of the goodwill among neighbors, 150 exiled residents returned to the island after the war, a greater percentage than in any other community, according to speaker Mary Woodward, whose parents reviled the exile in the local newspaper.

The wall also is a reminder and a warning. Nidoto Nai Yoni, which means Let it not happen again, is emblazoned on a stone, and the phrase was repeated many times during Saturday's ceremony.

There were some tears of sorrow and outrage expressed during the dedication.

A few people wiped away tears when Earl Hanson, class of 1941, spoke of being threatened by a soldier with a bayonet when he went to the dock to say goodbye to some of his closest friends.

These kids were a part of our lives, he said.

But there also was plenty of laughter and greetings and hugs.

Sadumu Ted Kitayama and Bill Takamoto were 12 when they were rounded up by the Army, herded onto the ferry Kehloken and taken to fenced relocation centers, where they would spend the next several years.

For the adults, they said, being rounded up like criminals and losing their land and all they had worked for was distressing beyond words.

But for the kids, they said, it was a different experience.

It was a little bit of an adventure for us, said Kitayama.

We didn't have to work on the farm anymore, said Takamoto.

It was hard for our parents and grandparents, said Sumio Yukawa, who was 16 in 1942. But we had our friends, and we got to run a little bit wild.

Fumiko Hayashida, — who, at 100, is the oldest living survivor from Bainbridge — was greeted like a celebrity by her many old friends and neighbors.

She pronounced the wall, the feeling behind it and the dedication ceremony to be wonderful.

By Christine Clarridge

Seattle Times staff reporter

Manzanar National Historic Site Oral History: Richard Sakurai

Richard Sakurai Interview, Segment 15
Answering the so-called loyalty questionnaire

This clip is an excerpt from Richard Sakurai's oral history interview conducted July 25, 2010 (denshovh-srichard-01-0015). To see the complete interview, visit the Densho Digital Archive (

Jesus Love Church Japan Live

Frank Kikuchi Reflects on Manzanar (2002)

Francis Isamu (Frank) Kikuchi was born in 1924 and incarcerated with his family in Manzanar from 1942 to 1945. They lived in Block 20, Barracks 11, Apartment 2. Sixty years after the US Army forcibly removed his family and community to Manzanar, Frank reflected on the importance of education and the relevance of Manzanar. This interview was recorded November 6, 2002.