The 81st Nisei Week Grand Parade held on Sunday, Aug. 13, included dancers, taiko drum performers, participants from local community groups and high schools, elected officials and representatives, and the newly crowned 2023 Nisei Week queen and court.
The Grand Marshal was Bill Watanabe, a community leader and founding executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, a social services and community development program (www.ltsc.org).
The Parade Marshal Jamie Hagiya, a former USC basketball player and a CrossFit athlete, also led the parade as it kicked off on Central Avenue at Second Street and wended its way along Little Tokyo streets in Los Angeles.
The 2023 Nisei Week queen candidates, the organizations they represent and their platform:
- Nancy Izumi Chin (Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute; Be the Match)
- Kaitlyn Emiko Chu (Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council; Go for Broke National Education Center)
- Aiko Marie Matsumura Dzikowski (Venice Japanese Community Center and Venice-West Los Angeles JACL; Vigilant Love)
- Kamalani Higashiyama (Japanese Restaurant Association of America; Down But Not Out)
- Kaili Mika Inouye (San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center; Japanese American National Museum)
- Sara Emiko Kubo (East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center; Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages)
- Isabelle Rose Polizzotto (Gardena Evening Optimist Club; Gold House)
Nisei Week 2023 — Aug. 12 through 20 — is a celebration of Japanese and Japanese American culture and includes many events that are free to the public. Nisei is a generational term for children born in the United States (or in other countries like Canada), to parents who were born in Japan (known as Issei).
Nisei Week continues daily in Little Tokyo this week and culminates this weekend Aug. 19-20 with a two-day “Plaza Festival” at the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center.
Saturday’s event, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., will include martial arts…
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