Ed ShIMAMOTO
Beyond Assimilation: Being Both Japanese and American
“A story that needs to be told.”
ED’S VIDEO INTERVIEW
Ed (far L) is one of five children and a second generation Japanese
Ed has volunteered at the MO Botanical Garden’s Japanese Festival for decades.
To learn how Ed became “typically American” after WWII but later embraced his family’s Japanese culture, read his special feature.
Ed Shew
Ed Shimamoto was born during World War II in an internment camp conceived to contain the “threat” that West Coast Japanese Americans posed to U.S. national security. Post-war, Ed’s family sought to assimilate into American life, and Ed pursued sports in school and became an engineer for McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing). As he got exposed to more “modern” expressions of Japanese culture, Ed found spaces for building community and celebrating his ancestors. These opportunities gave him the motivation and tools to reconnect with a version of identity that allows him to be comfortable as both Japanese and American.