Clockwise from the top left: Aimee Kanadjian, Kami Kodama, Kelly Toma, Claire Inouye and Julianne Ho.
The Northern California Cherry Blossom Queen will be selected this Sunday at the Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, Cowell Theater in San Francisco.
Since 1968, the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Queen Program has been dedicated to mentoring young women to develop leadership skills and strong community connections. Every April, a new group of women and Queen are selected to become the cultural ambassadors of the Northern California Japanese American community. The ambassadors assist various local community events and make goodwill trips to the program’s long-standing connections in Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Japan.
For more information: https://sfcherryblossom.org, www.nccbfqueenprogram.org/
The candidates are: Julianne Aiko Ho, Aimee Sumire Kanadjian, Kami Chieko Kodama, Claire Anne Inouye and Kelly Midori Toma.
Julianne Aiko Ho
Sponsor: Japanese American Museum of San Jose
Julianne Aiko Ho is 21 years old and received her bachelor’s in business administration from Dominican University of California. Her hometown is San Jose and her hobbies include basketball, coaching and community volunteering.
She is active in a number of community organizations including Nikkei Community Internship, Nichi Bei Foundation intern; Cupertino Hoops, Make It Home Bay Area, Girl Scouts of Northern California and Coast District Youth Buddhist League.
Ho works as membership coordinator for the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California.
“The Northern California Japanese American community is home, only strengthened by the people within. Being a part of the community has made me who I am, and the people I have met have shaped me more than anything else. My identity as a Japanese American woman comes from late nights of set-up before every Obon, and it comes from my aunties who taught me the quickest way to assemble beef skewers. It comes from the older Nikkei who pass by my desk at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) and tell their stories, and it comes from the funeral the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin held for a widely loved tree that stood proudly for generations of Nikkei. The most important aspect of my identity as a Japanese American woman is that I have felt the love of the community and been mentored by other JA women into who I am today.”
Aimee Sumire Kanadjian
Sponsor: Sho Chiku Bai Takara Sake USA Inc.
Aimee Sumire Kanadjian is 23 years old and received a BA in psychology from UCLA. Her hometown is San Carlos and her hobbies include aikido, film photography and crafting.
She is active in community organizations as editor of The Undergraduate Research Journal of Psychology at UCLA; student senator at Associated Students of Ca?ada College and junior officer of the Mariner’s Scout Troop Tradewind.
She works as a project associate at a nonprofit public health research and consulting organization.
“As a Japanese American woman, I am the culmination of the courage and sacrifice of the strong Japanese women who came before me. Throughout her life, my Baba conducted herself with inspiring compassion, generosity, and selflessness. From her, I learned that being a Japanese American woman means creating harmony, acting altruistically, and honoring the values of our family and culture. My mother is one of the most kind, vibrant, and wise people that I know. She raised me to be resilient, to stay true to myself, and to pursue my dreams relentlessly. From her, I learned that being a Japanese American woman means to act with courage, conduct oneself with integrity, and to persist. These two women have shaped my guiding values, worldview, and identity as a Japanese American woman.”
Kami Chieko Kodama
Sponsor: Flagstar Bank, N.A.
Kami Chieko Kodama is 24 years old and received a bachelor’s in cognitive science from UC Berkeley. Her hobbies include hula, Tahitian, photography, caring for my plants and hanging out with my cats and her hometown is Pleasanton.
Community organizations she has been active with include the Berkeley Food Network, Oakland Asian Education Services, Peer Health Exchange, Sigma Phi Omega and Open Heart Kitchen.
She works as a behavior interventionist providing behavioral services for childcare on the autism spectrum.
“Joining the Northern California Japanese American (NCJA) community affords me the opportunity to connect with my Japanese American identity in a deeper context than just my name. A major part of who I am is my family. They are my main support system and are a window into who I am. I am named after my father, Wayne Takami, and great aunt, Pearl Chieko, and I try to emulate their compassion, integrity, and respect. My ancestors on my father’s side immigrated to Hawai’i and my family has close ties to Hawaiian culture. However, as a Gosei, I feel an unwavering disconnect with my Japanese American heritage. I grew up dissociated from my identity as a Japanese Filipina American woman and wish to discover who I am and take on a larger role within our community. I am eager to discover who I am as a Japanese American woman. I have immense gratitude for the NCJA community and the opportunity it presents to those like me to reconnect with our culture and be able to inspire others to find their community.”
Claire Anne Inouye
Sponsor: Japan
Center Malls
Claire Anne Inouye is 24 years old and received her bachelors’ in wildlife, fish and conservation biology from UC Davis. Her hometown is Davis, and her hobbies include hiking, specimen collection, crocheting, reading and instruments/music.
Community organizations she was a student manager of the UC Davis marching band, Unitrans bus driver and life guard and first aid instructor.
She works as a junior specialist at the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, working both in the lab and in the field assisting graduate students.
“I am a hapa born to two hapa parents. My father’s father and my mother’s mother are both fully Japanese, living in the United States during WWII. Being incarcerated during WWII, they both lost most of their possessions and family heirlooms. This caused both of my parents to be raised in a household that had been disconnected from their heritage and encouraged assimilation. But my mom still tried to hold on to the last bits of Japanese culture she could. This mostly consisted of food recipes passed down in the kitchen. So, growing up my biggest connection to a people and a culture was through the food my mom and I would cook.
“But as I grew older and realized I looked different than my friends and their families, and even at home I was surrounded by four brothers. So, besides my mom, I was not near many Japanese American Women. This encouraged me to dive more into our diverse and beautiful culture and community. Learning more about the Japanese American community makes me feel more connected.”
Kelly Midori Toma
Sponsor: Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California
Kelly Midori Toma is 26 years old and she received a BS and MS in electrical engineering from USC. Her hometown is San Mateo and her hobbies include yoga, arts and crafts, tennis, thrifting and strength training.She was a vice president of student affairs with the USC Society of Women Engineers and was a buddy program manager and South Bay chapter lead for Google Playground.
Toma works as a technical program manager at Google.
“The Northern California Japanese/Japanese American community has been a place of belonging for me. I grew up volunteering with my cousins at San Jose Obon, attending Buddhist ceremonies at the Betsuin Church, and watching my relatives pound mochi on New Year’s Day. With my extended Japanese family active in the local community, I can usually count on seeing a familiar face at big cultural events. Even if I don’t see family, I take comfort and pride knowing I am surrounded by people with shared history and culture. I feel reverence meeting people who knew soldiers in the same 442nd regiment as my Jichan, and feel an instant affinity meeting women of Japanese descent who often share many of my life experiences. To me, this community is and always will be home.”