Nancy Matsumoto

nmatsumoto

Nancy Matsumoto is a freelance writer and editor who covers agroecology, food and drink, the arts, and Japanese and Japanese American culture. She has been a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Time, People, The Toronto Globe and Mail, Civil Eats, NPR’s The Salt, TheAtlantic.com, and the online Densho Encyclopedia of the Japanese American Incarceration, among other publications. Her book, Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake: Rice, Water, Earth, was published in May 2022. Another of her books, By the Shore of Lake Michigan, an English-language translation of Japanese tanka poetry written by her grandparents, is forthcoming from UCLA’s Asian American Studies Press. Twitter/Instagram: @nancymatsumoto

Updated August 2022

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Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center Exhibit Highlights Seizure of Nikkei by FBI after Pearl Harbor

By Nancy Matsumoto
12 May 2011

I happened to be in Portland, Oregon, recently, and dropped in on the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center. The center’s permanent exhibit features wonderfully detailed recreations of barracks at the Minidoka prison camp in Idaho and a pre-war general store, as well as maps and displays that evoke the pioneering spirit of the Nikkei who worked on farms, in canneries, or lumber camps throughout the region, or owned and operated small businesses in the city’s Nihonmachi. Especially interesting, though, was a temporary exhibit “Taken: FBI,” which focuses on a part of the World …

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Kizuna: Nikkei Stories from the 2011 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

Reaching out to relatives and friends after the Great Tohoku Earthquake

By Nancy Matsumoto
27 Apr 2011

I woke on the morning of March 11 to an email from a friend saying she had just heard about a massive quake in Japan and she hoped that my relatives and friends there were safe. It was the first of many such emails and phone calls I received in the days and weeks that followed. Like most of my Nikkei friends, I knew no one in Sendai, or in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures. Yet I understood that to non-Japanese those place names meant nothing, and I shared the impulse to check-in. We were concerned and we wanted to be reassured. We felt helpless as we watched images of the 30-foot-tall tsunami swe…

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West Coast Nikkei Eldercare: Planning for New and More Diverse Systems of Care

Part IV: Seattle’s Nikkei Concerns

By Nancy Matsumoto
8 Apr 2011

Having surveyed the landscape of Nikkei long-term care choices in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Sacramento and San Jose, I turned my attentions to Seattle, the last stop on my reporting tour. Although Japanese immigrants began arriving in Seattle in the late 19th-century, its Nihonmachi population has always been small compared to cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. At its peak, there were 8,500 members, according to Preservation Seattle magazine, and that number dwindled during the Depression. After the mass roundup and imprisonment of Japanese during World War II, many Seattle Nikkei…

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West Coast Nikkei Eldercare: Planning for New and More Diverse Systems of Care

Part III-2: Multicultural centers in Sacramento and Los Angeles

By Nancy Matsumoto
21 Sep 2010

>> Part III-1Although it does not specialize in Nikkei senior housing or offer a nutrition program, Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) is worth examining in the context of embracing an increasingly multi-cultural viewpoint and offering services that match. LTSC Executive Director Bill Watanabe explains that the 30-year-old non-profit began when Little Tokyo was populated mostly by Issei, Japanese nationals, and war brides. The goal was to provide linguistic and culturally sensitive social services to this community and, initially, to protect low-income resi…

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West Coast Nikkei Eldercare: Planning for New and More Diverse Systems of Care

Part III-1: Multicultural centers in Sacramento and Los Angeles

By Nancy Matsumoto
14 Sep 2010

West Coast Nikkei eldercare organizations are preparing for a time in the not-too-distant future when Nikkei alone will no longer fill their programs and beds. This was the universal message I heard from the seven organizations I surveyed. Yet at the same time, I sensed a desire to hold on to the Japanese cultural identity that is at the core of organizations such as Keiro Senior HealthCare in Los Angeles and Kimochi, Inc. in San Francisco. We California Nikkei, especially the Issei and Nisei generations, are a community that formed insular pockets within Caucasian communities. My …

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Discover Nikkei

Japanese migrants and their descendants

Nancy Matsumoto

Kizuna: Nikkei Stories from the 2011 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

West Coast Nikkei Eldercare: Planning for New and More Diverse Systems of Care

West Coast Nikkei Eldercare: Planning for New and More Diverse Systems of Care

West Coast Nikkei Eldercare: Planning for New and More Diverse Systems of Care

Series this author contributes to

Nikkei Chronicles #11—Itadakimasu 3! Nikkei Food, Family, and Community

Intercultural Communication Through Sushi

Roger Arakaki, Chef and Teacher

The Nisei Women Who Fought—And Won—An Early Redress Battle In Seattle

Nikkei Chronicles #11—Itadakimasu 3! Nikkei Food, Family, and Community

Food for Thought—TikTok & Tamagoyaki

子どもをサーファーにするため渡米 ― 五十嵐ツトムさんとミサさん

Nikkei Chronicles #12—Growing Up Nikkei: Connecting with Our Heritage

Journal Entry #Lesson 3450: "Sharpen Your Pencils!"

Narumi Ogusuku Ubiquitous Nikkei Artist

Herald Salutes – Staff Sergeant Higuchi

The Morgenthau Diaries and FDR's Troubling Views of Minorities

書評：和泉真澄『日系カナダ人の移動と運動―知られざる日本人の越境生活史』

1992年渡米、目標は「アカデミー賞」— 俳優の井上英治さん

Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tiempos pandémicos: teletrabajo y koden digital

Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 e os heróis anônimos

香川県海外移民の父：今雪真一の情熱と功績

第３部：金子正則知事の南米訪問とその主な見解

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Journal Entry #Lesson 3450: "Sharpen Your Pencils!"

Narumi Ogusuku Ubiquitous Nikkei Artist

Herald Salutes – Staff Sergeant Higuchi

The Morgenthau Diaries and FDR's Troubling Views of Minorities

Mercedes Luna: Thriving Within Her Rich Heritage - Part 2

Mercedes Luna: Thriving Within Her Rich Heritage - Part 1

Remembering Roger Daniels

Journal Entry #6am – 8am: "Childhood Delusions..."

Digging up Ways to Honor Her Ancestors—Kyoko Oda and Ireichō

Aloha 'Oe, Dr. Franklin Odo: Remembering a Brilliant Scholar and a Special Mentor and Friend - Part 2

Aloha 'Oe, Dr. Franklin Odo: Remembering a Brilliant Scholar and a Special Mentor and Friend - Part 1

Journal Entry #78.79 Years: "This Mortal Coil..."

Cuando llegue el momento

Journal Entry #At Least 195 Degrees...: "Unusual Tastes..."

Parental Responsibilities

Chapter 11 (Part 2) Picture-Bride Marriages on the Rise

Miye Sugino—Art as Advocacy: “To me, art is a reclamation of identity”

Veteran History – Earl Terao: Kotonk in Paradise

Poetry - Cow 1 Is Not Cow 2

Virgil William Westdale Takes One Last Flight at 104

Journal Entry #5 Great Powers: "I'm Telling You Why..."

No Christmas Like an Inouye Family Christmas

Reflections on a Pilgrimage: The Dust of Poston

Grammy-Nominated Musician Masa Takumi and His Move to the U.S. in 2018

ByFood.com: A Cornucopia of Information for Planning Food Adventures and More in Japan — Part 1

Academy Award Nominated Writer Iris Yamashita Uses Her Lifelong Love of Writing to Forge Her Next Chapter

Dr. T.T. Yatabe, the American Loyalty League, and the Birth of the JACL

Chapter 11 (Part 1) Picture-Bride Marriages on the Rise

How Do Nikkei Living in Japan Spend Their New Year?

Bay Area Man Recalls Career Exploring World for Energy in Exotic Places

Journal Entry #70 MM, B.C.: "Santa Claus is coming to town!"

In Tribute to Roger Daniels: The Father of Us All

Remembering Roger Daniels—A Reflection

William Saroyan and the search for "The Japanese American Novel"

Joe Oishi’s Nursery and The Promised Year

Stone Songs

Reflections on a Concocted Conversation

40 Years of Toronto Taiko with Kiyoshi Nagata — Part 2

'A Heuristic Model' for Historians to Emulate with Other Camps

Nikkei in Motown: Masao Hirata, Diego Rivera and Japanese in Detroit

Journal Entry #2023: "I Resolve to Win the Lotto..."

Japanese Canadian Culture Through a Japanese Lens

A Lifetime Christmas Gift

Two Books That Shine New Light on the Nisei Experience in Japan

Expansion

Recollections from Jerome and Rohwer