Fumiko Emily Takei, 1912-2002

June, 2002

June, 2002

(The June installment of George Takei's monthly column has been canceled
because of his mother's passing. George's column is scheduled to return in July.)

Obituary
Fumiko Emily Takei passed away in Los Angeles on May 25, 2002, after a long illness. She was 89.

She was born in Florin, California, on September 29, 1912. She was the daughter of Benkichi and Shigeno Nakamura.

In 1922, her parents sent Fumiko to Japan to be educated. She returned to California, and, in 1935, she married Takekuma Takei in Los Angeles.

With the outbreak of World War II, Fumiko and her family together with 120,000 other Japanese Americans were placed behind the barbed-wire enclosures of United States internment camps. They were evacuated from their Los Angeles home in 1942, first to the Santa Anita Race Track assembly center, then to the internment camp at Rohwer, Arkansas, and then to the internment camp at Tule Lake, California. They returned to Los Angeles after the war.

Widowed in 1979, she was active in the Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple and the Pioneer Center. She was a dedicated volunteer at the Koreisha Chushoku Kai senior citizens hot meal program.

Fumiko and her husband were avid travelers, having covered almost all the continents of the globe. They had been to the African countries of Kenya and Tanzania, Iran, Egypt, India, Singapore, Tahiti, Bora Bora, the Russian cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, South America, Europe, and Asia. In recent years, she joined her son George on cruises to Alaska, Bermuda, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

She is survived by her children George Takei, Henry Takei, and Nancy Reiko Takei, all of Los Angeles; her grandchildren, Scott Takei of Los Angeles and Akemi Louchheim of Seattle; two great-grandchildren, Hana and Markus Takei of Los Angeles; and her sisters Yukiko Tamura of Hiroshima, Japan, and Setsuko Thurlow of Toronto, Canada. Fumiko's and Takekuma's first-born child, Furuto, died in infancy.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Japanese American National Museum, 369 East First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

People Break Down The Folks They Consider To Be Literally Evil
Alessio Zaccaria/Unsplash

When we feel we have been wronged by someone, we tend to think the worst of them.

Irredeemable.

Evil, even.

But the concept of what is evil depends on the individual and their level of tolerance.

So what is pure evil then?

It's not always about demons. Because the truth is, humans are capable of doing some of the worst things imaginable.

Keep reading...Show less
Woman in underwear on the beach.
Photo by Yarden on Unsplash

It's a sad truth that just about all women find their bodies objectified or, for better or worse, the unwanted subject of conversation.

One of the many reasons why too many women are self-conscious about their bodies and suffer from sometimes crippling body image issues.

More often than not, women often find themselves most self-conscious about a part of their body or appearance most people will never notice, or even see.

But much to their surprise, sometimes it is that very thing they hate most about themselves that others might find most beautiful about them.

Keep reading...Show less

Reaching 50 is a life goal.

Getting to that milestone is something we should all aim for.

So many years, so much life lived.

Which means there is so much story to tell.

Who can't help but look back and advise about how to do it better?

Keep reading...Show less