twojapaneebruddahs.com | two japanee bruddahs | a japanese american duo writes about hawaii

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Nichi Bei Times to Close; Nonprofit to Carry Torch

The home of our Two Japanee Bruddahs column, the Nichi Bei Times, Northern California's oldest Japanese American newspaper, announced today that it will close on Sept. 30 after 63 years of business.

I have joined a group of Nichi Bei Times staff and community members (incl. Kenji Taguma and Kerwin Berk) in starting the Nichi Bei Foundation, a separate nonprofit that hopes to keep the newspaper going.

Please visit http://nichibeifoundation.org and

* Subscribe to our RSS feed
* Donate some spare change
* Fan our Facebook page - http://bit.ly/wTcak - and write on our wall
* Follow us at http://twitter.com/nichibei

Learn more about our team:
http://nichibeifoundation.org/about/

I hope you can support us!

- Keith

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Two Japanee Bruddahs is a column by Kyle Tatsumoto and Keith Kamisugi (bios below) about Hawai'i that was featured in the Nichi Bei Times, the award-winning Japanese-English daily newspaper, which is closing on Sept. 30, 2009. A new nonprofit media organization, the Nichi Bei Foundation (NichiBeiFoundation.org) led by Kenji Taguma is hoping to carry the torch.

Kyle Tatsumoto, spent his formative years in Waimanalo, undoubtedly, where he honed his pidgin. His family eventually moved to Kaneohe, where Kyle attended Kapunahala Elementary, King Intermediate and finally, Castle High School ('75). Kyle received his BBA from the University of Hawai'i and MBA from the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Like others who relocated to the Mainland to further their education, Kyle's plan was to log two or three years of San Francisco work experience on his resume before returning home. Two or three years have since turned into 23 years, and counting.

Kyle is currently Vice President and Manager of the Financial Planning Department of California Bank & Trust (formerly Sumitomo Bank of California) in Oakland, California. He resides in Mill Valley with his wife, Carole Hayashino, who is Vice President of Advancement at Sacramento State University. Their son, Kenso, is pursuing his master's degree at Sacramento State University, while their daughter, Ali, is an undergraduate at the University of Hawai'i.

Kyle serves as Treasurer of the Hawai'i Chamber of Commerce of Northern California. This volunteer organization, whose slogan is "Aloha is our Business," strives to build bridges between Hawai'i and Northern California, and to promote the 50th State, its products, people and business opportunities throughout the region. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California.

In addition, Kyle was one of the founders of Nikkei Traditions in San Francisco's Japantown. The retail store, which closed in November 2004, was established in 1999 to help preserve the Japanese American heritage of one of the last three remaining Japantowns in the U.S., and featured Japanese American crafts and products including familiar Hawai'i lines such as Cane Haul Road and 'Iolani Sportswear.

Keith Kamisugi is a leading practitioner of pidgin on the Mainland. His pidgin spoken word concerts have drawn as many as five people per venue, all of whom came for the free Primo beer and spam musubi. You can catch him at Hukilau in San Francisco, begging Patrick Landeza for some mic time.

"Keet" was born and raised in Waipahu and Mililani, learning to double-chop like Kikaida, serving as Mililani Waena Elementary's first student body president, memorizing Rap Replinger's "Fate Yanagi," doing time as a rippah-wallet maker at Wheeler Intermediate, and pretending to be a drum major and school newspaper editor-in-chief at Mililani High School ('88).

Unable to give up Zippy's fried saimin (and actually because he never applied anywhere else), Keith attended the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, developing a taste for politics as student body president after an unsuccessful stint as a sports writer for the athletic department. (Jim Leahy got him fired after he forgot to change the scoreboard at a baseball game...)

After stints as an aide in the Hawai'i state Senate and in the elections office, Keith got his first full-time job in the Governor's Office a little before Gov. John Waihee finished his second term -- and then continued on as the resident computer geek when Gov. Ben Cayetano took office.

Because he was never able to take any of the 21 days of paid vacation per year offered to state workers, in 1997 Keith applied for the spokesman job at the telephone company (GTE Hawaiian Tel, Verizon Hawaii and now Hawaiian TelComm) -- and somehow managed to get hired.

Catching "rock feevah," he quit the "somber, but sincere" phone company job and packed his bags for San Francisco, joined a technology public relations firm (which closed its doors only 18 months after Keith was hired -- unrelated for sure), and then went into freelance consulting.

Keith's paternal grandfather came to Hawai'i from the Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan, making Keith a young sansei.

For more information on Keith, visit www.keithpr.com, or try and find him on www.globalpauhana.org.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Nichi Bei Times to Close; Nonprofit to Carry Torch

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