The Nisei Week Queen and Court Program: Japanese American History, Identity, and Shared Experiences

By MICHELLE TIO

The opening sequence of the short film begins with pictures of Nisei Week Courts from the 1930’s and progresses through the present day, a visual reminder of the changes that Little Tokyo’s Nisei Week Queen and Court program has made since its inception.

Black-and-white photos of young Japanese women in kimonos make their way to full-colored pictures of Japanese women in modern gowns, sashes, and tiaras, all set to the uplifting tunes and steady drumbeat of traditional Japanese instrumentals. Suddenly, a powerful drum beat hits, the words “What is the Nisei Week Queen and Court Program?” appear, and the film transitions to an interview with 1984 Nisei Week Queen and actress Tamlyn Tomita.

In her interview, Tomita traces the history of the Nisei Week Queen and Court program from its beginnings as a beauty contest to draw business in Little Tokyo to its contemporary format as a women’s empowerment, ambassadorship, and leadership program. 

This short film, titled “The Nisei Week Queen and Court Program”, is the work of Aiko Dzikowski, Kara Chu, and Sara Kubo.

Rafu: Tell me about yourself and your relationship to the Nisei Week Queen and Court program.

Aiko Dzikowski: I am half Japanese and half Polish. Currently, I live in Redondo Beach and am a PhD student at UCLA focusing on language and identity within the Japanese American Community. I was a princess on the 2023 Nisei Week Court.

Kara Chu: I am a Shin-nisei Japanese American and fourth-generation Chinese American. I just graduated from UCLA! My sister Kaitlyn was the 2023 Nisei Week Queen. I have not participated yet in the Queen and Court Program, but I hope to.

Sara Kubo: I am half Japanese and half Caucasian and currently work as a Production Control Lead in the Aerospace Industry. I grew up – and still reside in – Temple City. I was the 2023 Nisei Week First Princess, and my younger sister Amy is on the 2024 Nisei Week Court.  

Rafu: Why did you decide to make the Nisei Week Queen and Court program the subject of your film?

Aiko: I think there’s so much that we can learn from a program like this. I think that it offers a really great glimpse into Japanese American history, Japanese American identity, and the shared experiences of a lot of Japanese American women.

Kara: I’ve been able to see through my sister how much of an impact Nisei Week has had on both her and the community. So when Aiko told me about her film project proposal, I was really excited because I wanted to learn more about the roots of the program and how it ties together with so many generations of Japanese American women.

Aiko: Another huge motivating factor for me was to dismantle a lot of these stereotypes that I think surround the program. What you see on the surface is the crown and the sash, and there’s  the history of the pageantry of it all. I wanted to show that it’s so much more than that. And to really explain what the program was about.

The whole experience itself was very life changing. And so it’s something that I just want to share with as many people as I can.

Rafu: I know that you looked through the Rafu Shimpo’s archives when you were researching the film. What photos and articles from the archives stood out to you? What did you learn?

Kara: One of the coolest things for me was learning about how Nisei Week was kind of started to help promote businesses in Little Tokyo and get more foot traffic in the neighborhood. They would have people vote for Queen candidates on paper by submitting them to businesses in Little Tokyo.

It’s amazing to see those parallels of how the community still always finds a way to stand together to protect our legacy businesses and really celebrate our culture and our identity that way. For example, the way people are rallying together to stop the gentrification little Tokyo today.

Rafu: Can you remind me: what was the year that Nisei Week started?

Aiko: Nisei Week started in 1934, and the court program began in 1935. The origin story of how it began sort of during the Great Depression and bringing in business is really important. But then, because of World War II there was a pause in the festival and in the court program. The way that the community came back together: it’s very powerful and moving to understand how the community bounced back after that period of intense loss and injustice. So the images that stick out to me are of the 1st court after World War II.

Sara: I want to expand on the resilience of the community. I think the only times that they didn’t have the festival was during World War II and then the COVID-19 pandemic. So, having the community come back from those two really significant, life-changing events really shows how resilient the community is.

Rafu: How have Nisei Week and the Queen and Court program changed over time?

Sara: Initially, it was an opportunity to bring people into Little Tokyo and to bring businesses more profit. But nowadays it’s all volunteer based. It’s definitely more incorporated in both promoting businesses foot traffic, but also the cultural aspect and sharing that with the surrounding community.

Aiko: Another huge thing that stood out to me and looking through the archives was the way that the program itself has evolved over the years. For example, there used to be a swimsuit portion, but that was done away with years ago. And the blood quantum requirement has changed over time. Originally, you had to be fully Japanese, but then it was lowered to 50%.

Sara: To expand on that a little bit this year in 2025 on the official Nisei Week website, they actually lowered it to be a requirement of 25% Japanese. I think that also shows how it’s changed, because on the 2023 court, all of us as participants were of mixed ethnicity. None of us were fully Japanese, which I think also shows the change of times as well: that there’s a lot of mixed ethnicities and backgrounds that kind of come into play. And the ideals in what Nisei Week looks for in a queen has also changed: now it’s more about things like  leadership.

Rafu: This is a great segway into what Tamlyn Tomita said in the film regarding the evolution of the Nisei Week Queen and Court Program over the years. She says, The Nisei Week program has evolved through the decades into an ambassadorship where the women serve as ambassadors of Japanese American culture… advocating for issues, for organizations, for events they care about to enhance what it means to be a Japanese American woman.” Can you elaborate on this?

Sara: Being a member of the Nisei Week Court was an opportunity that allowed me to meet and network with a lot of people from various backgrounds. Los Angeles and Nagoya are sister cities, and we traveled to Japan.

Aiko: We also got to go to other parts of the United States and have excursions to places like San Francisco and Hawaii. When we met those other Japanese American communities, it also felt like an ambassadorship experience because they have their own different sort of cultures and communities. We also serve as a bridge between different Japanese immigrant generations (i.e. if your family has been in the US for generations versus if you kind of newly immigrated).

Kara: Each of the girls runs on a platform, so they are able to promote an issue in the Japanese American community that they are passionate about and to raise awareness. For example, my sister ran on the Go for Broke National Education Center. And it’s super cool to see how the princesses and the court are all just truly ambassadors: they are not just a face — they are outspoken leaders in the community.

Sara: We also push back on what people stereotypically think of what a Japanese woman is. Because we are in the public eye, are actively participating in the community through events, and are even supporting some of those organizations that we want to bring awareness to, we help push those boundaries.

And then, even just with some of the past members of the legacy of the program, there’s plenty of people that come back and volunteer. I think it also provides an opportunity for the alumni to continue developing the program into what they think would help future generations. The 2023 Nisei Week president, Joanne Cordero, was a past participant, and I think she was queen. This year’s president, Helen Ota, was also a past participant in the Queen’s program. I think that kind of goes to show that it does develop leaders and give women in the community opportunities to show that leadership as well.

Kara: There’s this intergenerational impact. I have seen that the court is a platform that inspires young girls and the next generation of the Japanese American community. My sister and other princesses are figures in the community. They’re showing the next generations that they can be. These like powerful women in the future by also being you know, like proud of their culture. And those things are not separate from each other. They’re intertwined. I think that I’ve also been able to see my sister, and, like Aiko and Sarah and the whole court, also leave an impact on the younger generations as well.

Rafu: What were the highlights of being involved in Nisei Week?

Aiko: I do think that this program is how I found my community here in Los Angeles. I really feel like I found a family. For me, my absolute favorite part was the sisterhood. I really feel like our court just got along so well, and we’re so supportive of each other.

I am from Pennsylvania, so I didn’t grow up with the Japanese American community at all. This was my first experience being around older Japanese American women whom I could really look up to because I never had role models like that growing up. And then to even see role models in my court sisters… I really am just so inspired by all of them.

When we were getting ready for coronation night — that was our 1st time wearing the kurisode. When I put on the kimono and I was looking at myself in the mirror, I cried because I’d never been given that opportunity to embrace my culture and heritage before. That was just so special to me. There’s just something so life-changing about this whole program.

Sara: My key word is community because the community being present is what has kept this program alive. It really is such a heartwarming thing to see and feel because so many people come from far and wide to come to Nisei Week.

I felt like I was such an outsider growing up because I didn’t do a lot of cultural activities. Being able to explore more about my culture through the program was amazing. To learn about, like the Nihon buyō and also do other cultural lessons throughout the time of training, like doing Ikebana, or learning how to wear yukata, or like the kimono or furisode.

I really want to continue to help and support the community because without them, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity to learn more about my culture, to become this ambassador, to become a leader, and to grow as a person.

Aiko: Like Sara was saying, this program gives you so much that it really makes you just want to give back.

Kara: I haven’t gone through the program, but I know how much it means to my sister. It’s been really impactful learning about the history of the program: seeing its challenges, all the obstacles it’s faced, but also the way it has continued to rise again and again. It’s empowering. It’s profound to be able to immerse myself in that history and then hopefully experience that future as well.