By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

Over the last several years, policies enacted to fight the so-called “War on Terror” have fueled a sustained debate on what the government can do in the name of national security. The Japanese American community has been vocal on this issue, as the civil rights of Nikkei were violated during the Second World War, most famously by the mass-incarceration of United States citizens and permanent residents of Japanese descent.

Nichi Bei Times Report

A year ago San Francisco’s Japantown was in turmoil, as most of the ethnic enclave’s economic hub was up for sale, leading to a natural fear of a dubious fate.

Note: Plastic surgery is on the rise in ethnic communities across the United States, and in 2005 Asian Americans had 437,000 cosmetic surgeries, up 58 percent from 2004. NAM editor Andrew Lam, who contemplated getting double eyelid surgery, could have been part of that statistic. Lam is the author of “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora.”

By ANDREW LAM
New America Media

Three decades ago, fresh from the refugee camp of Vietnam, I was first made acutely aware of my own Asian looks by a schoolyard bully in my junior high. He pulled the sides of his eyes back to make them look slanted and sang the ditty now made famous by Rosie O’Donnell recently on “The View” — “Ching Chong, Ching Chong Chinaman.”

By ALEC YOSHIO MacDONALD
Nichi Bei Times Contributor

Twenty years ago, the Japanese government put a highly ambitious plan into action.

The goal: prepare the nation’s youth for an increasingly globalized future, while promoting Japanese culture all across the world.

The method: welcoming foreigners into local schools and town halls to teach their native languages and support internationalization activities, while providing them with an understanding of Japanese society to share upon their return home.

Nominations for the 2007 Takeo Okamoto Community Leadership Award are now being accepted by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC). This award will be presented to an individual who embodies a spirit that is modest, scholarly, and who has positively impacted the Japanese American community through their long-term commitment.

By ALISON BRADY
Kyodo News

LOS ANGELES — Fairfax, the largest Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles, is quiet on Monday evening. The delis and shops that usually keep the area bustling with commerce have barred their doors and hung signs in the window reading “Closed” and “Pesach Sameach,” Hebrew for “Happy Passover.”

By FRED OSHIMA
Nichi Bei Times Columnist

It was a glorious night to remember. A very nostalgic, memorable evening for the Nikkei’s greatest generation at the National Japanese American Historical Society’s annual award dinner, “Tribute to Nisei” March 31 at the Miyako Hotel in San Francisco’s Japantown.

By SEANA K. MAGEE
Kyodo News

NEW YORK (Kyodo) — “The Cats of Mirikitani,” which has received international accolades from film festivals worldwide, and garnered the Tribeca audience award last year, opened for its theatrical release last month in Manhattan and has been held over multiple times due to popular demand.

By DREW MORITA
Nichi Bei Times

Casey Watabu, 23, hails from Wailua on the small Hawaiian island of Kauai. As a youth, he played on the neighborhoods baseball teams and also began playing junior golf at Wailua Municipal Golf Course.

Upon his entry into Kauai High School, Watabu decided to stick with golf, a decision that has proven to be the right one.