David Yamaguchi

David Yamaguchi is an editor at The North American Post, Seattle’s Japanese community newspaper. A book David co-authored, The Orphan Tsunami of 1700 (Univ. Washington Press, 2005; second ed., 2015), describes how tsunami records from Edo-era Japanese villages helped define today's Pacific Northwest earthquake hazards. It can be perused full-text on Google Books.

Updated September 2020

migration en

Kiyoko Terao, Early Shin-Issei

  • By David Yamaguchi
  • 6 Jun 2021
Kiyoko Terao interrupted her career as a Tokyo seamstress to come to Seattle, temporarily in 1959, to help her older sister care for her four children. While here, a Nisei asked her to marry him, and so she ended up staying. Below, Kiyoko shares her life story, beginning with her days as a high school student in Imabari, Ehime-ken, Shikoku, during World War II, continuing with her Seattle career, and ending with her present-day life. * * * * * Among the most charming people whose voices, and occasionally, faces I come across these days is that of my friend, Kiyoko Terao. If it has been a wh…

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media en

Katsura Sunshine Rakugo Storytelling

  • By David Yamaguchi
  • 19 Oct 2020
Washin Kai and Town Hall Seattle welcome renowned entertainer Katsura Sunshine for a special performance of unique storytelling called rakugo. Rakugo (from the kanji for Kyoto, the capital, + speech, language) is a 400-year-old tradition of comic storytelling in Japan. Katsura Sunshine starred in the NHK World TV series Dive into Ukiyo-e, emceed the opening reception for the G20 Summit in Osaka in 2019, and has performed in an extended run of shows Off-Broadway. This special, English-language performance will be broadcast live from Tokyo. Sunshine will perform one traditional rakugo story a…

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war en

Fujie Yamasaki, Well-Liked War Bride

  • By David Yamaguchi
  • 23 Sep 2020
Fujie Yamasaki is a person who many readers know. For many years, she was a regular presence at the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival. Until recently, she also routinely volunteered at Keiro Northwest. She is just one of those people whom many can mentally picture as the “lady with her hair tied up in a kerchief, wearing an apron,” quietly doing meaningful, kind things. She comes across as an ordinary, nice mom who goes by her first name. Yet, beneath her placid exterior, Fujie has a backstory. A first glimpse into it comes from the two-part NHK World documentary, The Lives of Japa…

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war en

Helmet for My Pillow and With the Old Breed

  • By David Yamaguchi
  • 6 May 2019
ENGLISH READERS know much about the experiences of Japanese-American families during World War II. Many can also trace the wartime journey of the famed JA 442nd infantry across Europe. Yet, our knowledge base drops quickly when we pull back the viewpoint to include the settings in which Nisei linguists served in the Pacific, translating captured documents and questioning Japanese prisoners of war. There are several reasons for this. The translators were widely dispersed among many units. There was lingering wartime and postwar secrecy, intended in part to protect the Japan-based relatives of…

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culture en

Semi-Immersion

  • By David Yamaguchi
  • 7 Feb 2018
ON THURSDAY NIGHT, Nov. 16, 2017, I had a date with my cousin, Diane, to see Kuniko Fukushima sing and play the piano at the Royal Room, a jazz club in Columbia City near our homes. When I opened the club door and we walked in, the first thing we heard at the reception front desk—without any beating around the bush—was “Nanmei-sama desu ka?” [How many are in your party?] I had to laugh, for the question took me by surprise. For until that moment, Diane and I had been walking on familiar Rainier Valley terrain, a few blocks from where we both attended elementary…

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