Seven times each year, in the classes of college or university students, I distribute Keiji Nakazawa’s autobiographical comic book about how he witnessed the bombing of Hiroshima, “I Saw It” (originally “Ore wa Mita”). Then I show them Nakazawa’s feature-length animated film “Barefoot Gen” (originally “Hadashi no Gen”), which he adapted from his epic-length manga [...]
By Caitlin Fuller IE Contributor New America Media www.newamericamedia.org Last month, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) introduced the Legal Workforce Act, which would require employers to verify their employees’ legal immigration status using the online program E-Verify. While proponents of the program believe the resulting loss of jobs will compel undocumented workers to return to their [...]
“There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be [...]
I grew up in Mukilteo, Wash. – a small seaside town about half an hour north of Seattle. It’s mostly known for its ferry route to Whidbey Island, a historic lighthouse, and a stellar beach coated with cracked seashells. A train runs along the coastline – its nightly whistle lulled me to sleep for years. [...]
After working in the International District/Chinatown for 20 years and studying other Asian ethnic neighborhoods, I know developing the ID into a more economic vibrant neighborhood demands community collaboration and creativity. The new economic reality places more urgency on the ID to create effective economic development efforts that ensure the preservation of our historic cultural [...]
For the past three weeks, my wife has been in Vietnam, staying with my relatives in a small mountain village. It’s so surprising to the simple villagers to see a real Black person that they immediately go on to Facebook and update their Wall. She’s been having a great time absorbing the language and culture [...]
The most significant introduction I received soon after coming to the United States was to the world of literature. I was immediately smitten and my eyes could not stop scanning page after page of barely recognizable words. What little I was able to understand still conjured up amazing sights and sounds I had never experienced [...]
In May, I traveled to Cuba on a women’s delegation with the US Women and Cuba Collaboration. Since 1960, the US government has placed an economic embargo against Cuba. The Cubans refer to this policy as “El Bloqueo,” which is Spanish for “blockade.” The blockade has had a devastating impact on Cuba’s people. Though the [...]
BY RINKU SEN IE Contributor ColorLines.com The Supreme Court issued its decision in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart sex discrimination case yesterday, a frustrating ruling that doesn’t challenge the existence of bias, but that exempts the company from accountability. The case highlights the difficulty of addressing discrimination at a time when intentional bias is both illegal [...]
BY Kim Nguyen Special to the International Examiner Kim Nguyen is the President of the OCA-GS Board of Directors. Learn more about OCA-Greater Seattle, formerly the Organization of Chinese Americans, at www.ocaseattle.org. In late May, a resolution was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate calling on Congress to formally acknowledge and [...]
Dear readers, last year, I started a blog called “Lazy-Ass Vegan,” a forum for recipes that you can prepare during commercials of “Law and Order.” However, I was too lazy to update it. Plus, Law and Order started sucking. Luckily, while developing recipes for that blog, I discovered the basic principles of successful cooking. Principle [...]
BY TAMMY NGUYEN & KRYSTN JOY IE Contributor You can’t open a newspaper or turn on the radio these days without hearing about the healthy food crisis in America. Children – especially children from low income families – are too fat, we’re told. But who are we to blame? Poor moms and pops of color [...]
The API Community Mayor’s Forum on June 8, held at the Asian Counseling Referral Service, gathered approximately 160 attendees to speak directly with Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and his department representatives. The purpose of the forum was to engage in dialogue between the API community and the mayor and address concerns the community has. ACRS [...]
Dear Editor, Operation of the Sound Transit light rail system has created a parking demand along Rainier Beach residential streets which was a foreseeable result of operating the rail line. Permits were granted for construction of the light rail stations with no provisions for park and ride lots to accommodate commuters driving to the train [...]
BY Bob Shimabukuro IE Contributor “Who knows what a Writ of Coram Nobis is?” Attorney Peggy Nagae asked at the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association western regional conference June 4 in Portland. Only one person raised their hand. The attendees were mostly lawyers 5 or fewer years out of law school, so most were [...]
After months of darkness and despair, Spring is finally bursting forward like things featured in pictures from Representative Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account. Which only means one thing: Time to break out the hoes! For gardening, of course. Seattleites are gardening freaks, and now that Jameelah and I have a condo, with a little balcony, we [...]
I’m so grateful for the Asian American courses I took at UW. It was there I was first exposed to the Examiner as a reader – and you know where that went. It was also my first education to the community’s history, contributions, and contemporary issues. To learn that at 20 years-old is late, in [...]
I want to express my gratitude to all of our sponsors and supporters at this year’s Community Voice Awards fundraising gala. The May 18 event left the team and I inspired and energized to continue our work and return the appreciation we felt that night. Thank you! Our sponsors rose to the occasion and so [...]
As you may have read in the op-ed “Europe, Arizona, and My Plumber”, immigration is a reality and its acceptance is vital to a healthy world, despite heated debates to the contrary and laws prohibiting it. For some, immigration debates shed light on their own story and that of their family’s. Here, we share the [...]
Pei Chou – IE Videographer – Barely a decade after her immigration, Pei Chou begins to document her experience. For those readers who love IE online, meet Pei Ju Chou, 22, the precocious film maker who enhances IE news delivery with online videos. Eleven years ago, Chou immigrated from Taipei, Taiwan to Silverdale, Wash., a [...]
Abe Wong – IE Production Designer – Chinese influence that’s uniquely American. Like many Americans, Abe Wong’s cultural background extends beyond the borders of the United States. “My dad is from Hong Kong and my mom was born in Canton, China,” said Wong, 31. “Her family moved to Hong Kong before coming to the U.S.” [...]
Collin Tong – IE Staff Reporter – Planting roots in San Francisco’s Chinatown. In 1937, when my parents set sail on the S.S. Cleveland from Guangzhou [Canton] bound for Honolulu, and thence to San Francisco, they carried little with them except the typical dreams of first-generation Chinese immigrants. Forty-four years later, when my wife and [...]
Diem Ly – IE Editor in Chief – A war propels an immigration wave and one family’s journey across America. For Nhuan Ly, the events of April 30, 1975 will be forever seared into his family’s memories. Leaving his village of Can Tho, about two hours south of Saigon, Ly narrowly escaped South Vietnam on [...]
Alan Lau – IE Arts Editor – An upbringing in the Sierra Nevadas shapes an artist. With a history as deep as the roots of the trees that grew in his original hometown of Paradise, Calif., the only ‘Chinatown’ Alan Chong Lau, the International Examiner’s Arts Editor, saw around him when he was raised was [...]
Ryan Catabay – IE Graphic Designer/Creative Director – The son of immigrants becomes a modern designer. “My last real job was working at Kinko’s, and before that I was working at McDonald’s. Technically, I have only had two jobs.” So says the man who is now at the head of a successful and fast-growing design [...]
Jason Chen – IE Advertising Representative – Parents from two different worlds share one to call home. Jason Chen, 25, has lived in Washington his entire life, but his ties to Taiwan are a huge part of his identity. Growing up in an affluent Bellevue neighborhood, Chen enrolled in one of the best school districts [...]
Gina Kim – IE Editorial Intern/Assistant – A two-part immigration from Seoul to home. It’s never easy to live up to parents’ expectations. “I have this weight on my shoulders to pay my parents back somehow,” said Gina Kim, 22. “To pay them back for what they sacrificed for me.” Currently, Kim is an editorial [...]
Ellen Suzuki – IE Business Manager – Incarcerated during WWII didn’t stop her family’s dream. As Asian Pacific Islanders living in the United States, we have all asked questions relating to our immigrant past: how did we get here? What is our relationship to the motherland? And more importantly, how do we make sense of [...]
