About the Author
Dr. Akemi Kikumura is an anthropologist and an author of plays, short stories, books, and professional articles. Currently, she is the Director of the International Nikkei Research Project, an innovative project that has assembled an impressive multidisciplinary and multinational research team of 21 scholars and 14 institutions, located in 10 different countries. This collaborative research project seeks to identify the transformative processes involved from "being Japanese" to "becoming Nikkei," (a person of Japanese ancestry who has settled in a country outside of Japan).
Eiichiro Azuma is a Japanese-language curator and researcher. He was a curator for "In This Great Land of Freedom: The Japanese Pioneers of Oregon," and an assistant curator for "Sumo USA: Wrestling the Grand Tradition." He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in history at UCLA.
Darcie C. Iki is the Life History Curator at the Japanese American National Museum. She coordinates the development of the Museum's Life History Program. Ms. Iki completed her Bachelor's Degree at the University of California, Los Angeles in History, with a specialization in Asian American Studies and a Master's Degree in Asian American Studies from UCLA.
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On the Big Island of Hawai'i is the district of Kona, the only place in the United States where coffee has been grown commercially for more than one hundred years. Along the upland slopes of Mauna Loa and Mount Hualalai on the southwest side of the island runs the famed Kona coffee belt. The rich volcanic soil combined with moderate temperatures and gentle afternoon showers, create some of the best coffee-growing conditions found anywhere in the world.