Watermelon Sushi World: 2017

Wednesday, December 06, 2017

Extra, Extra! Coming Soon! War Brides Of Japan!

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

While the big news for mixies globally is the upcoming wedding of biracial American actress Meghan Markel and Britain’s Prince Harry, there are other brides in the news, too.

Read all about it!

One year after we completed Principal Photography on our War Brides of Japan documentary, we found ourselves in California once again.

In early November, documentary participant Elaine invited us to the elegant birthday party of special blasian lady, JoAnna, in Long Beach. Surrounded by her lovely female friends, we took dozens of photos and later marveled at how many of us had Japanese war bride mothers and African American military fathers.

See for yourself, here:

blasian beauties: top row, left to right: Emma, Michi, Naomi, JoAnna, Yayoi, Joan. seated: Elaine, Floria.

Later on in our travels, Elaine, who's been one of our staunchest supporters, hosted a fundraiser for our documentary. Yes, we’re still in need of funding, and will likely launch a campaign soon so we can pay our amazing composer, LA CAt, what she deserves to have. Meanwhile, you can donate here:

Network for Good

But back to the fundraiser, a good time was had by all who participated at a Torrance karaoke bar where Elaine handed out Coach bags as prizes in several raffle drawings.

Here are some pix from that event:

Elaine calls out winners of the raffle drawings...

...and, a lucky winner is Emma!

but Floria wins, too!

and, so does Patty!

karaoke was kraaazy!

Floria and Patty were clearly moved by Emma's performance

Joan and Emma singing, 'STOP in the Name of Love!'

Sadly, while we were in California, we also lost one of our favorite friends in entertainment. Rhoda Robinson Hicks was an energetic writer and performer, and her son David promises to carry on her legacy.

David as a child actor with Frankie Muniz, Hollywood

an all grown-up David meets with Your Hip Hapa at the American Film Market, Santa Monica

While we’re still busy editing War Brides of Japan for an early 2018 release, we invite you to visit the links, down below, that provide more info about the film.

We thank you for your continuing support and encourage you to donate to our cause if you haven’t already. Every penny is 100% tax deductible. We do appreciate each and every one of you and send a big ARRIGATOU!

If you’ve already made a donation and would like us to post your photo on Facebook and/or the name of the person you made the donation in honor of, please let us know.

We’ll see you next year in March 2018 just in time for sakura and War Brides Of Japan.

Here are links to the film:

War Brides of Japan videos:
youtube 88.1 FM interview
youtube behind the scenes production trailer
vimeo behind the scenes production trailer
youtube pre-production trailer
vimeo pre-production trailer
youtube v.2
youtube v.1

War Brides of Japan websites:

warbridesofjapan.com

weebly

jimdo

War Brides of Japan in the news:

DIFT

NBC

international examiner

international examiner 2

discover nikkei

War Brides of Japan on Facebook:

fan page

War Brides of Japan on LinkedIn:

how they learned to forgive and love the enemy

making love, not war

those bad ass brides!

War Brides of Japan on Twitter:

watermelonsushi

War Brides of Japan on G+:

google plus

War Brides of Japan blogs:

on the road

tumblR

A War Bride's artwork:

iAmArtistYuriko

heARTworkByYuri

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Wednesday, September 06, 2017

Jessica Viana: Helping To Keep History From Repeating Itself

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

It’s hard to believe that one year ago this September, we were on a road trip to 11 cities, in three states, filming Japanese war brides and their families. Among our interviewees were two historians; one—Regina F. Lark—who had written a 450-page dissertation on the subject of Japanese war brides.

In this post, Your Hip Hapa would like to present another important historian. Because so much of world history has not always been good, it’s crucial to know what’s behind us so we can avoid repeating it. And Jessica Viana, a native of Portugal, intends to do what she can to make sure of that.

Here’s her story in her own words:

Jessica snapping photos in Madrid

“I am writing a historical fiction novel about WWII Japan which focuses, apart from the whole society panorama of the time, on the secret biowarfare research units that the Japanese developed and concealed across their occupied territories in China. I've considered giving it the title of White Souls, reflecting the racial aspect of the Second Sino-Japanese War as a whole, which coincided with WWII in time.

I heard about the secret Japanese biowarfare research units through my History teacher in my senior year of high school. He introduced the topic in the way that showed he was shocked at how almost nobody knew about it and how close it was in proportion to the dimension of the German camps and experiments. I became instantly drawn to the subject, and in the next summer the idea of writing a novel persisted in my head, with that topic never fading away.

Jessica in Oriente, Lisbon

I have never visited Japan, although I am fascinated by Japanese culture and tradition. Contrary to my generation's manga and anime fans, I have never watched too many random Japanese films or anime series, but I appreciate the Japanese art of filmmaking and it always reminds me of how different the Eastern and Western worlds are—and that in certain aspects, the Japanese have evolved far earlier than Western countries.

Buddha Eden Garden in Portugal

In my process of writing this novel, besides living my normal life of studying and working, I have spent two years collecting and analysing research papers, books and films/documentaries, which don't seem to ever end! Despite having found out that in Japan people try to bring this to the public’s knowledge, I still believe there isn't enough coverage of these important historical events in the English-speaking world, and I hope that my work—once released one day—will help build some understanding. I do not mean to blame any parties, as much as I simply want to do my work as a writer, which I believe is to portray the truth.

Praia dos Beijinhos (Little Kisses Beach) in Algarve, Portugal

In order to depict the reality of a society which, to me, is slowly coming out of the dark, I have approached a few people with family and/or friends who might have experienced the WWII years first-hand or knew someone who did. These stories are the purest gold you could ever give me, as the detail of recalling an episode of one's life always brings so much more than what's documented in books.”

Arrigatou, Jessica! If any of you in our Watermelon Sushi World have personal family stories about WWII, please contact us and we’ll put you in touch with Jessica.

Meanwhile, we’ve added some new crew to the War Brides of Japan documentary:

Below, on the left, is Alfred Chan, an animator who recently helped bring my illustrations to life.

On the right is LA CAt, an amazing musician currently composing music for the War Brides of Japan documentary.

Alfred Chan

LA CAt

And, here are the usual links to learn more about the film:

War Brides of Japan videos:

youtube 88.1 FM interview

youtube behind the scenes production trailer

vimeo behind the scenes production trailer

youtube pre-production trailer

vimeo pre-production trailer

youtube v.2

youtube v.1

War Brides of Japan websites:

warbridesofjapan.com

weebly

jimdo

War Brides of Japan in the news:

DIFT

NBC

international examiner

international examiner 2

discover nikkei

War Brides of Japan on Facebook:

fan page

War Brides of Japan on LinkedIn:

how they learned to forgive and love the enemy

making love, not war

those bad ass brides!

War Brides of Japan on Twitter:

watermelonsushi

War Brides of Japan on G+:

google plus

War Brides of Japan blogs:

on the road

tumblR

A War Bride's artwork:

iAmArtistYuriko

heARTworkByYuri

We’re still accepting your 100% tax deductible donations, so please check out our Network for Good account to make your contribution.

https://fromtheheartproductions.networkforgood.com/projects/15778-documentaries-war-brides-of-japan

Until next quarter, ja!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Wednesday, June 07, 2017

War Brides of Japan: Still in Post

a war bride before she was a war bride

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

At the risk of repeating last quarter’s blog, we are repeating last quarter’s blog.

For those of you who are filmmakers, it’s likely you know why. For those not, please know that filmmaking is a long, involved process and right now our documentary, War Brides of Japan, is still in post.

If you’re interested in learning more about the mixed race experience, please join our Hip Hapa Homeez group page on Facebook. That’s where we discuss everything about ethnicity, nationality and multicultural living.

You can also join our Japanese War Brides and Their Children group page on Facebook to participate in discussions about your war bride mother--or any war bride you may know.

Meanwhile, enjoy these links to info about the War Brides of Japan documentary. If the main (first listed) website doesn’t work, please revisit it later as we have very recently changed web hosts.

War Brides of Japan videos:

youtube 88.1 FM interview

youtube behind the scenes production trailer

vimeo behind the scenes production trailer

youtube pre-production trailer

vimeo pre-production trailer

youtube v.2

youtube v.1

War Brides of Japan websites:

warbridesofjapan.com

weebly

jimdo

War Brides of Japan in the news:

DIFT

NBC

international examiner

international examiner 2

discover nikkei

War Brides of Japan on Facebook:

fan page

War Brides of Japan on LinkedIn:

how they learned to forgive and love the enemy

making love, not war

those bad ass brides!

War Brides of Japan on Twitter:

watermelonsushi

War Brides of Japan on G+:

google plus

War Brides of Japan blogs:

on the road

tumblR

A War Bride's artwork:

iAmArtistYuriko

heARTworkByYuri

We’re still accepting your 100% tax deductible donations, so please check out our Network for Good account to make your contribution.

https://fromtheheartproductions.networkforgood.com/projects/15778-documentaries-war-brides-of-japan

War Brides of Japan animator Michelle Jericho Poppler...

...has a surprise for you!

Enjoy your summer and arrigatou gozaimashita for your support and encouragement!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

visiting Masako White (l) in New Jersey

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

War Brides Of Japan: Helping Change U.S. Immigration Laws

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez.

Since the U.S. immigration ban fiasco of a few weeks ago, it’s notable how timely our War Brides of Japan documentary is.

me with my father at right

Remember, the Immigration Act of 1924 prevented Asians from entering the U.S. However, during the American occupation of Japan following WWII, many GI’s—including my father—wanted to bring home the Japanese wives they’d married while being stationed there.

But, in order to make that happen, legislation had to be enacted to allow those marriages and subsequent arrivals of Japanese war brides in America. Thus, the War Brides Act of 1945 was passed. Even though history has rarely acknowledged this monumental effort, some suggest it might have taken longer for other Asians to immigrate to America had it not been for the brave war brides of Japan. Ladies, we salute you!

One of two historians in our film, Regina F. Lark, discusses in detail the impact of that law on screen.

camera operator Sean Hardin sets up for Regina F. Lark interview

Meanwhile, our editors are moving forward with the project. Please welcome Lynn Hammonds, author of Becoming Misako Kikuchi, who’s assisting with music licensing for the film.