Across Oceans
By Yuki Kawakami My parents met in Osaka when Mum was in her final year of school and Dad was a university student. Mum was an occasional backup singer on TV and graduated with a degree in nihongo (Japanese), while Dad worked as a sales representative for a kimono dress and fabric com
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Happy New Year – Nikkei Osechi Ryori in Brisbane / Meanjin by Elysha Rei
明けておめでとございます！ Happy New Year! After my eldest son Kairo just finished his year of the Ox, and I am entering the year of the Tiger for 2022, the both of us decided to make our best version of Osechi Ryori. We researched the various dishes online, and sourced as many authentic ingredien
Read MoreJanuary 04, 2022
What is Filial Piety for a Mixed Family?
(Tim’s mum, Satsuki Steains with chinsuko made by Felicia La France) My mum said she wanted chinsuko for Mother’s Day. It’s a type of shortbread cookie from Okinawa, Japan, where she was born and grew up. Mother’s day is very close to my Anglo-Australian father’s birthday, so most yea
Read MoreOctober 21, 2021
Hasegawa Monogatari: 5G Over 124 Years by Andrew Hasegawa
SETSUTARO HASEGAWA When Setsutaro died on October 4th, 1952, the Hasegawa family’s relationship with Japan became paper-thin. At the height of the northern hemisphere summer, in August, when Japanese pay homage to their ancestors, no one gathers at his grave. Japanese tradition was lo
Read MoreSeptember 29, 2021
Finding Myself in Japan
My parents first met in Japan in the 1960s. Unusual for the time, my father studied Japanese and economics at the Australian National University in Canberra and spent a few months on exchange in Tokyo. For a while he was hosted by my mother’s family, as one of her sisters was studying
Read MoreSeptember 03, 2021
Interview with Reina Takeuchi
Nikkei Australia’s Timothy Kazuo Steains interviewed Nikkei performance artist, writer and researcher Reina Takeuchi. Reina’s practice spans across visual arts, choreography, curatorial projects, written publications and creative facilitation, including her work with Asia
Read MoreMay 06, 2021
Interview with Iori Forsyth
Nikkei Australia member Timothy Kazuo Steains was lucky enough to interview Nikkei Youtube celebrity Iori Forsyth from the channel 大家族フォーサイス家 ! They talked about Iori’s channel and family, having mixed Japanese Australian heritage, and Iori’s plans for moving to Australia.
Read MoreMay 06, 2021
Interned and Enlisted: Omaye Family History
By Shey Dimon My grandfather Tom (Tomo) was a larrikin; the self confessed black sheep of the family. He liked to ‘stir the pot’ and his deep belly laugh would erupt whenever he sensed some kind of family controversy. Just for fun, he left his fiancee, my Nan, waiting FOR A LONG TIME
Read MoreApril 27, 2021
[Lecture] Keiko Tamura “Life Story of Cross-Border Women: Japanese War Brides in Australia” & Interview with Alumni
【講演会】田村恵子さん「国境を越えた女たちのライフストーリー：オーストラリアの日本人戦争花嫁」＆卒業生インタビュー [Lecture] Keiko Tamura “Life Story of Cross-Border Women: Japanese War Brides in Australia” & Interview with Alumni Watch Nikkei Australia’s Dr Keiko Tamura’s zoom presentation about Japanese war bri
Read MoreJanuary 20, 2021
父を語る（About My Father）
By Yuri Furuno My father, Eric Masakazu Shimada (1912-2010), came to Brisbane on a permanent residency visa in December, 1998 at the age of 86. He passed away on the 30th August, 2010. You may think living here for 12 years towards the end of his life would not provide much of a story
Read MoreDecember 17, 2020
My Life Story by Iseko Williams
My Life Story by Iseko Williams Background to this story Iseko Jenny Williams kept an occasional memoir of her life in Japan and Australia. Iseko’s interviewer and biographer, Hiromi Ogata, who interviewed her from August to September 2018, published the
Read MoreOctober 16, 2020
Pearl Hamaguchi’s Oral History from Broome
My name is Pearl Hamaguchi. I was born in Broome in 1940. I live in Broome. I’ve lived nowhere else. My grandmother on my father’s side, Yae Yamamoto, was Japanese. Yae was from Ichoda-mura (now part of Amakusa city), a village on Shimoshima Island, the largest of the Amakusa Islands
Read MoreSeptember 11, 2020
The first recorded Japanese in Australia: Steve Dawson’s family story
By Steve Dawson It is a privilege to be able to write about my family’s ancestral Japanese roots, especially given the significance of Sakuragawa Rikinosuke, who is recorded as the first Japanese to settle in Australia. Technically, this pioneer was my great-great grandfather, but th
Read MoreAugust 29, 2020
Akane Kanai’s Nikkei family
by Akane Kanai My mother, Yumiko, and my father, Masakazu, met in Sydney in the early 1980s. My dad had dreams of trying something different, separate from his large family in Nagoya; my mother had previously moved to Australia from Tokyo, with her first husband, a clever man named Jo
Read MoreAugust 28, 2020
Jim McFarlane’s Nikkei Australian family history
All individuals featured in this article have been approached for permission to be named. My name is Jim McFarlane. My sister Coral and I come from a Japanese mother and an Australian father who met in Hiroshima during our father’s service in the occupation forces in 1952. Setsuko Nak
Read MoreApril 22, 2020
Finding a balance between the two: Interview with artist Mariko Konno
by Timothy Kazuo Steains I recently interviewed the twenty-seven-year-old Nikkei artist Mariko Konno. We went to the same primary school, all those years ago: SJS or the Sydney Japanese School. It’s a Japanese international school in Sydney, and Mariko and I were in the interna
Read MoreDecember 12, 2017
Story of Hasegawa Family by Andrew Hasegawa
By the time I was born in the early 1960s the long shadow of world war two was starting to fade. The 1950s and 60s saw wave after wave of immigrants arrive in Australia but almost no Asians or Japanese. The white Australia policy still prevailed and if the colour of my skin was anythi
Read MoreOctober 06, 2014
Michi’s Memories – The Story of a Japanese War Bride
Michi’s Memories The Story of a Japanese War Bride by Keiko Tamura ISBN 9781921862519 (Print version) $28.00 (GST inclusive) ISBN 9781921862526 (Online) Published September 2011 ANU Press: http://press.anu.edu.au?p=144351 This book tells the story of Michi, one of 650 Japanese war bri
Read MoreMarch 04, 2011
戦争花嫁 ミチ 国境を越えた女の物語り Japanese language version “Michi’s Memories – The Story of a Japanese War Bride”
Japanese language version: Michi’s Memories – The Story of a Japanese War Bride
Read MoreApril 11, 2022
「オーストラリアの日本人」（Japanese in Australia – Japanese footprints over a century）
「オーストラリアの日本人」は、日豪友好記念事業（1996-1998年）の一環として、各州の日本クラブの連合組織「全豪日本クラブ」により、編集・発行された日豪友好
Read MoreAugust 06, 2020
Internment Symposium March 2014
Civilian Internment in Australia during WW2 - history, memories and community heritage: this international symposium was held during Cowra's annual Festival of International Understanding March 6-16, 2014 in Cowra NSW.Keynote Speech by Dr Yuriko Nagata – Internment Symposium
Dr Yuriko Nagata’s keynote speech “The Legacy of Internment: shattered lives and lost communities” at Civilian Internment in Australia during WWII: history, memories and community heritage.
Introduction by Dr Keiko Tamura – Internment Symposium
Dr Keiko Tamura’s introduction at Civilian Internment in Australia during WWII: history, memories and community heritage.
Cowra Unveiling & Commemorative Ceremonies
On 9 March 2014, an interpretive board detailing the internment of Japanese and nikkei civilians during WWII in Australia was unveiled at the Japanese War Cemetery in Cowra, followed by commemorative ceremonies at the Australian War Cemetery,
Former civilian internees
of Tatura Internment Camps
Former civilian internees of Tatura Internment Camps gather at a symposium: Civilian Internment in Australia during WWII: history, memories and community heritage.
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