Dialogue

DIALOGUE BY Karleen Chinen There are many days when I feel more like a traffic cop (scheduling and juggling feature stories) than a journalist. With an editorial “staff” of two — and that’s including myself — it’s hard not to feel like that. Between planning, scheduling, copy editing and other “stuff,” there’s just no time....

By Karleen C. Chinen For several weeks before last month’s general election, I was receiving daily emails — make that several emails a day — from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Most of them emphasized...

DIALOGUE By Karleen Chinen Shinnen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Happy New Year! Every inch of our New Year’s edition (Jan. 5) was filled with either editorial content or advertising support, so Gwen Battad Ishikawa, Grant “Sandaa” Murata and I weren’t able to wish you good wishes for the new year as we would have wanted. We....

Karleen C. Chinen Commentary The recent passing of my uncle — my dad’s last surviving brother — at age 90 in Los Angeles brought his family and Dad’s youngest sister, Cindy, also a SoCal resident, home...

DIALOGUE BY Karleen Chinen This annual Okinawan Festival edition is one of our favorites to produce each year. It’s a lot of work, but always fulfilling, because the Okinawan Festival is one of the finest examples of a community’s efforts to keep their cultural heritage alive and thriving and sharing it with everyone. We thank....

Karleen C. Chinen Commentary Argh! The agony of a press deadline! We are sending this issue of the Herald to press on Tuesday afternoon, general election day. The polls will be closing in less than an...

DIALOGUE BY Karleen Chinen Putting together a focused issue like this fourth annual Kaua‘i edition usually leaves me with a valuable takeaway. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time with the stories. In that process, they “speak to me” and leave me realizing something I hadn’t prior to getting to know them on my....

DIALOGUE By Karleen Chinen Commentary Most of us are familiar with the Japanese phrase, “Kodomo no tame ni,” meaning “for the sake of our/the children.” It usually refers to generational sacrifice: The Issei endured backbreaking labor in Hawai‘i’s sugar plantations and pineapple fields so they could give their American-born Nisei children a better life. The....

Karleen C. Chinen Commentary A massive undertaking like this two-issue Hawai‘i Herald 35th anniversary edition doesn’t just happen because we say we want to do it. Pulling together all of the components even after the former...

For You, Jane ... DIALOGUE By Karleen Chinen There is a scene in the Okinawan movie, “Nada Sou Sou.” It’s near the end . . . after the hardworking Yoota dies suddenly after collapsing while checking on his hänai (adopted) sister Kaoru during a typhoon. He is burning up with fever, so Kaoru calls for....