Los Angeles—Discover Nikkei, a web-based project of the Japanese American National Museum, has launched the seventh edition of its Nikkei Chronicles, an annual theme-driven online journal with an open call for writings. This year’s theme is Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage.
Nikkei (emigrants of Japanese descent) can be found all over the world, living diverse lives and adapting to a variety of environments. The one thing that binds Nikkei together is their common heritage as people of Japanese ancestry. Previous editions of Nikkei Chronicles have explored the ways Nikkei express their culture, whether through food, language, or tradition. This year, the focus goes deeper—all the way down to the roots.
Through its rich multimedia website, Discover Nikkei strives to promote a more profound understanding of the complex histories and insights of multicultural, multiracial, and multinational people of Japanese descent around the world. This edition of Nikkei Chronicles will publish a wide range of texts exploring the many questions and issues related to the theme of Nikkei Roots. What does being Nikkei mean to you? How does your Nikkei identity reveal itself in your day-to-day life? What activities do you engage in to maintain traditions from Japan? Most importantly, how do you stay connected to your roots, whether individually or collectively? When or how do you really feel like a Nikkei?
Subjects that may provide inspiration include genealogy, family trees, food, rituals/traditions, festivals, music, sports, religion, and travel. Writers may submit personal stories, essays, memoirs, academic papers, book reviews, or other prose works until September 30, 2018, at 6 p.m. PDT.
Multiple entries are welcome. All submissions that meet the project guidelines and criteria will be published in the Discover Nikkei Journal on a rolling basis as part of Nikkei Chronicles 7: Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage.
For more information and to read already published Nikkei Roots stories, visit 5dn.org/roots.
About Discover Nikkei
DiscoverNikkei.org is a major online resource that brings together the voices and experiences of Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants), who have created communities throughout the world. The multilingual website—available in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese—documents Nikkei history and culture and provides learning and networking tools for Nikkei around the world. At the same time, it seeks to explore the diverse and ever-changing meaning of the term Nikkei. The site’s rich multimedia content includes excerpts from life history interviews, first-person stories and essays, journalistic profiles, research papers, opinion pieces, short fiction, lesson plans, and listings for events worldwide. After thirteen years in operation, Discover Nikkei has published articles by nearly 900 writers worldwide and presented excerpts from over 170 video life history interviews. The content currently spans 15 countries around the globe, and continues to grow.
About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)
Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented over 80 exhibitions onsite and traveled 20 of its exhibitions to locations around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. For more information visit janm.org or call 213.625.0414.
