Gil Asakawa, "Nikkei Voice"

Gil Asakawa is a journalist, editor, author and blogger who covers Asian American issues and culture in several blogs and social media.

His main blog, Nikkei View, is about pop culture from an Asian American perspective. He also posts short commentary about pop culture at http://gilasakawa.posterous.com, and short commentary about media and technology at gilasakawa.tumblr.com, and he's active on Facebook and Twitter.

He is a nationally known speaker, panelist and expert on Asian American and Japanese American issues. He served as the Editorial Board Chair for the Pacific Citizen and a member of the national Board of Directors for the JACL. He is a past president of the Mile Hi Chapter of the JACL.

In 2009 Gil and his partner, Erin Yoshimura launched visualizAsian, a live online interview show featuring conversations with Asian American leaders and newsmakers.

Articles by Gil Asakawa:

Traveling to Japan

Seven months after the earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster hit Japan, my wife Erin and I are going to do the one thing that I think will help Japan the most, even more than the hundreds of dollars we’ve donated to various aid efforts. We’re going to visit Japan — with my mother in tow — and spend money the...Read More

Support Concentration Camp Preservation, Across the States

It's a fact: The 10 concentration camps built during World War II to imprison 120,000 people of Japanese descent — more than half U.S.-born and therefore American citizens, and most of them mere children — were in godforsaken corners of the country. No offense to people who live near the sites of these former "relocation cente...Read More

Appreciating Asian American Culture at the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival

It struck me towards the end of the first day of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival that the clash of cultures I had just witnessed perfectly encapsulates why I've been a volunteer for this event since it was started in 2001. Full disclosure: Last year, my partner Erin Yoshimura took on the role as executive director of the festival, after volu...Read More

A Tribute to Hosokawa

Many readers of the Pacific Citizen — especially older readers — will be familiar with the name Bill Hosokawa. He wrote a column that ran in the P.C. for decades, "From the Frying Pan," which was a running commentary on Japanese America. In 1969 he published the first comprehensive history of Japanese Americans, "Nisei: ...Read More