By TAKESHI NAKAYAMA
Nichi Bei Times Contributor

LOS ANGELES — The Little Tokyo Community Council's Planning and Cultural Preservation Committee held a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 4, at the Japanese American National Museum to discuss the impact on the community caused by the sales of two significant properties and to plan ways to preserve the ethnic and cultural identity of Little Tokyo.

SALINAS, Calif. — Haiku poet and activist Violet Kazue de Cristoforo, who was recently honored as one of the 2007 recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowships — the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts — died at her home in Salinas on Oct. 3, 2007. She was 90.

By MARTHA NAKAGAWA
Nichi Bei Times Contributor

LAKEWOOD, Calif. — A multi-cultural contingent of elected officials, community leaders and supporters came out Oct. 6 to kick off Warren Furutani's bid for the 55th California Assembly District seat.

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

On Oct. 5, a U.S. Court district judge ruled to stay the retrial of Lt. Ehren Watada, the Sansei U.S. Army lieutenant who refused deployment to Iraq on the grounds that he believes the war is illegal.

Nichi Bei Times

Gary Mukai, whose work in creating curricula has helped to build bridges between people from around the globe, was recognized with a Foreign Minister's Commendation from the Government of Japan.

Mukai, the director of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), has over many years contributed to the promotion of mutual understanding between Japan and the United States, especially in the field of education by developing Japan-related curriculum.

Asahi Shimbun

Incensed by the government’s decision to expunge descriptions in school textbooks of the army’s involvement in wartime mass civilian suicides in Okinawa, survivors are coming forward with tales of Japanese soldiers encouraging islanders to take their lives.

By APRIL ELKJER
Nichi Bei Times

An ethereal, haunting voice soared to meet the sky-high chapel ceiling and stained glass windows of San Francisco's First Unitarian Universalist Church.

"On this night

Parting like oyster shells,

the clouds

On this night

I see us riding through

the cornfields

Cradled in your arms..."

Performing in a small, intimate chapel comes naturally to indie-rock songsmith Odessa Chen, whose Chinese American father is an organist and choir director in Baltimore, Maryland. Influences of childhood days spent singing in the church choir and classical choral can be heard in her music still. Flanked by Rich Douthit on drums and Devin Hoff on stand-up bass, Chen transports the audience with her chillingly beautiful voice, poetic lyrics and delicate acoustic guitar pickings.

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

"Lust, Caution," the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee, has become famous for its NC-17 rating and for rumors that the sex that earned the rating is not simulated. While this aspect of the production has been discussed endlessly, there is much more to "Lust, Caution" than just sex.