From The North American Post introduction to a 2017 interview with cartoonist Sam Goto:. Sam Goto drew his Seattle Tomodachi strip for five years. He passed away on New Year’s Eve 2017, but he left the North American Post with enough new comic strips to last well into 2018. For five years, Sam told mostly true tales about Nisei life in the Pacific Northwest. His strips were funny, whimsical, silly and sometimes a little serious or sad. But collectively, they tell a story of what it was like to be a new immigrant to the US, what the community did to maintain its culture and values, and how, little by little, people would assimilate into the mainstream culture.