Bio

I was born and raised in Orange County until I was 17. I was glad to leave the confines and conservative environment of Orange County to go to Los Angeles for school. I completed college at UCLA and lived the rest of my life until recently in Los Angeles and consider Los Angeles to be my home. I lived in Westwood for four years, West Los Angeles for three years, Echo Park for four years, and lived in Los Feliz for a number of years.

I recently moved to Chicago to pursue studies in the Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago in Japanese History.

I am a mixed ethnic Yonsei/Nisei Nikkei, meaning I am a fourth generation/second generation person of Japanese and Okinawan descent, whose family has been here since the late 1800's.

I am directly descended of immigrants who worked on plantations in Hawai'i, worked on the railroads, picked produce in Southern California, been interned in the Japanese American Concentration Camps, and survived the bombings of Hiroshima. For me, history is a living, breathing everpresent and ever-revolving force that we must be mindful of because it is the voice of our ancestors, communicating to us, warning us, and guiding us.

For most of my life, I have been interested in and a part of the youth counter-culture movement, though I could hardly be considered a youth anymore. Even still, I still keep my ear to the ground on what's going on.