ティム・アサメン

(Tim Asamen)

インペリアルバレー開拓者博物館の常設ギャラリー、日系アメリカ人ギャラリーのコーディネーター。祖父母は、現在ティムが暮らすカリフォルニア州ウェストモーランドに鹿児島県上伊集院村から1919年に移住してきた。1994年、ティムは鹿児島ヘリテージ・クラブに入会し、会長（1999-2002）と会報誌編集者（2001-2011）を務めた。

（2013年８月更新）

culture en

Masashi Shimotsusa (1885–1959): The Samurai Photographer of San Diego

ティム・アサメン
2016年5月19日

A note on names: The names of the Issei photographers, including Shimotsusa even though he returned to Japan, are presented in Western order, that is, personal name followed by surname. For the names of Japanese nationals in Japan, I have maintained the Japanese custom of surnames preceding personal names. Masashi Shimotsusa is one of forty photographers featured in the Japanese American National Museum’s current exhibition Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920–1940, which runs until June 26, 2016. Because he and at least two of the exhibition’s other photogr…

community en

George – The Iconic Name of the Second Generation

ティム・アサメン
2016年4月20日

7. You have Nisei relatives named Tak, Tad, George, Harry or Shig. — From 101 Ways To Tell If You’re Japanese American Of the various male and female names found on Jenny Kuida and Tony Osumi’s terrific 101 Ways… list, none is more iconic of the early Japanese American experience than George. I have two Nisei relatives by that name, one of my father’s brothers and an uncle by marriage; both of them were eldest sons. It had to have been the most popular name for Nisei boys. The Imperial Valley in Southern California provides just a small sample size, but e…

sports en

Nisei Greatness on the Imperial Valley Gridiron

ティム・アサメン
2016年3月7日

During the cooler months of fall in the Imperial Valley before the war, only one thing was as important, if not more important, than the price of lettuce—high school football. It was a time when football was not relegated to the sports page of local newspapers. Football news was front-page news and the names that appeared on the front page were names like SASAKI and KITA. It was a different time, indeed. In those days when football was king, a strong sense of Nikkei community also figured large in the Imperial Valley. Isamu “Sam” Nakamura once reminisced fondly about goin…

community en

Japanese Section Beautification Project at Brawley Cemetery

ティム・アサメン
2015年3月12日

Shake & Bake—that is how we characterize the Imperial Valley. The temperature was almost 110 degrees on the afternoon of August 26, 2012, when a magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck. It was centered just a mile or two north of Brawley. Riverview Cemetery is on the northern edge of town and there was severe damage at the cemetery, especially in the northwest corner, which we informally call the “Japanese section.” The earthquake knocked over at least seven headstones bearing Nikkei names, and I was shocked that it caused the Buddhist Memorial Monument (Ireihi) to topple over. …

community en

The Ledger – An Account of Serendipity and Otagaisama

ティム・アサメン
2015年2月26日

In early February 2014, just as The Rafu Shimpo was beginning to mark the third anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan and extol the continued relief efforts of the Nikkei community in the United States, Randy Sakamoto, the historian of the West Los Angeles United Methodist Church (WLAUMC), was scanning old church documents. Among the boxes and files in his charge, he uncovered a ledger book dated 1923. The contents were written almost entirely in Japanese, but a place name written in English under several of the entries throughout the ledger immedia…