Harry Honda

Harry Honda is a native Angeleño, born in 1919, and graduated from Maryknoll School in 1932. Harry's long career in Nikkei journalism began in 1936 with the Rafu Shimpo in Los Angles and a year at Nichibei Shimbun in San Francisco. He served in the Army during World War II all stateside, graduated in political science from Loyola University in 1950, then edited the Pacific Citizen for 50 years, retiring in 2002.

Articles by Harry Honda:

Part 2: DVD and Two Books About Pearl Harbor

THIS IS DESSERT (so to speak), as two readers have supplied “sweeteners” for this column with the same title that ran last November. A Kibei Nisei, Albert Yamamoto of Minnesota Twin Cities and his sister, are believed to be the only Americans in Mitsukue-mura, Ehime-ken, in 1941 to see the men in training who manned “Killer Subs a...Read More

A DVD and 2 Books About Pearl Harbor

RECENTLY I VIEWED “Killer Subs at Pearl Harbor,” a DVD about the five Japanese mini-submarines, called “tubes” produced at Kure Naval Base in Hiroshima. To remain submerged for a long time, air conditioners were installed for the two-man minisubs, torpedoes were trimmed to fit, and a gyrocompass provided direction while unde...Read More

PANA: Gazing at the North-South Dimension

Much of the history of the Pan American Nikkei Association (PANA) can be found in a bilingual Spanish-English book authored in 2005 by Emi Kasamatsu, “Historia de la Asociación: Nikkei Presencia e inmigración japonesas en las Americas” — “History of the Pan American Nikkei Association: Japanese presence and imm...Read More

Capitalize ‘Evacuation’

A JACL DRAFT, titled "Power of Words Handbook" and sporting the Stars and Stripes in full color on the cover, has been widely circulated as a prelude for serious consideration at the 42nd JACL National Convention, July 7-10, at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. The handbook focuses on events and words in wake of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese att...Read More

And About Issei Pioneers in Alaska

With so much political play about Alaska the past several months, plus getting a photograph with Japanese characters inscribed on a wooden pole at the cemetery in Skagway for, no doubt, a sourdough who died sometime in 1900, invites us to spin some tales of Issei pioneers of Alaska. The photo came from Mas and Marcia Hashimoto of Watsonville after...Read More