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Weekly Digest
December 14, 2021 |
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JACL's physical offices remain officially closed. Staff continue to do the work of the organization remotely with some visits to the physical office. Please direct all phone calls to our Washington, D.C. Office at (202) 223-1240 and we will get back to you as quickly as possible. Otherwise, we will all be available via email. All staff emails can be found HERE. Stay safe everyone and we hope to see you all in person again soon. - JACL National Staff |
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Give Back with JACL! Gift a membership, donate, or share your story! |
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Place your order by this Thursday, December 16th if you want your membership order to arrive in time for Christmas (December 25th)! |
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Want to share your JACL story and be featured in our emails and social media like Ryan from the Twin Cities Chapter? Click the button below to fill out our member highlight form for a chance to be featured in upcoming JACL media! |
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JACL Celebrates the Launch of White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders |
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December 9, 2021 JACL celebrates the formal re-launch of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) and the Federal Interagency Working Group (IWG) and Regional Network (RN). Previous iterations of the initiative existed under former administrations, however, we particularly wish to acknowledge the expanded inclusiveness of Native Hawaiians. We welcome the addition of Ambassador Katherine Tai as co-chair of the initiative and look forward to her leadership with co-Chair Secretary Becerra and Executive Director Krystal Ka’ai. |
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From the Executive Director: To Protect Everyone, We Must Connect Everyone: Our Lives May Depend on It |
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December 13, 2021 Congress has just passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which will provide more resources toward implementing broadband in rural and urban areas that continue to lack access. We need to continue to invest to ensure that those in areas with limited internet availability also have access. The internet has demonstrated its importance to us all this past year, and we know how those with access to broadband and basic computer technology are in a much better position to meet all the challenges society is throwing at us. It is becoming increasingly unimaginable that one can participate in normal daily life activities without the ability to access the internet regularly and reliably. |
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JACL Announces Membership Coordinator, Bridget Keaveney's Transition to Norman Y. Mineta Fellowship |
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JACL is pleased to announce the transition of Bridget Keaveney as the New and Norman Y. Mineta Fellowship. Bridget has served the past 9 months as the Membership Coordinator for JACL. Before joining JACL Staff Bridget also worked in archiving and democratizing Japanese American history from her time at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Portland State University in 2019. She has a content creation background as a co-publisher and illustrator for the children’s book, “Dreams of Little Miss Aeva”, as well as a social media background at a global disabilities advocacy group, Traipsin’ Global on Wheels. Bridget says: "I couldn’t be more excited to start this next chapter in my career! The word "grateful" certainly comes to mind; I couldn't have made it this far without the loving support of my family and friends. I look forward to supporting my colleagues in Washington, D.C., and advocating at a national level. As someone who strives to be an effective change agent, I wish to uplift, empower, and protect the civil rights of all those who are marginalized. It is of great importance to me that I do all that I can to best support and serve the AANHPI community, as the issues that face this community are deeply personal to me. I am proud to represent the JACL but even prouder to be Shin-Nisei!" |
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Support Puyallup Valley JACL at Holiday Magic at the Washington State Fair Grounds |
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From the Puyallup Valley JACL, courtesy of Eileen Yamada Lamphere: "'A BETTER AMERICAN IN A GREATER AMERICA' This is the motto of the National Japanese American Citizens League and is also the title of the holiday tree decorated by the Puyallup Valley Chapter. This is the second year that PV has been asked to participate in the Holiday Magic on the Washington State Fairgrounds. With the 80th year of EO9066 coming up, it seemed fitting to honor all the men and women who either volunteered or were drafted to serve during the war. The tree is decorated mainly with pictures of paintings by Chris Hopkins, a local artist, who has devoted much of his talent acknowledging the wartime experience of the Japanese Americans. Chris’ wife, Jan Itami Hopkins, is a sansei and Chris has deep emotional connections to her family and the greater JA community. Also, on the tree are logos from the armed services and, the newly minted, Go For Broke, postage stamp. The Congressional Medals of Honor are reproduced to honor the 442, 100th, MIS, and Merrill’s Marauders." In taking part in the Holiday Magic events, the Puyallup Valley JACL is hoping to bring a permanent name marker to the Washington State Fairgrounds in honor of the 7600 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were forced to live there for part of World War II following Executive Order 9066. |
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Events this Week! (12/14-12/17) |
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AARP Leading with a Champion Mind - Thursday, December 16 at 12pm PT/3pm ET |
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Minidoka Follow-Up Community Call - Thursday December 16, at 5pm PT/8pm ET |
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A Stain on American Jurisprudence: What "Korematsu vs. United States" Means for Us Today - Thursday, December 16 at 6:30pm PT/9:30pm ET |
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2022 JACL NEH "Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis: The Japanese American Experience" Applications Now Open! |
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| | Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis: The Japanese American Experience JACL and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) are inviting seventy-two educators to explore the historical significance and enduring legacy of the World War II Japanese American incarceration experience and the reparations movement. While past participants are primarily social studies and humanities teachers at the K-12 levels, all are invited to apply. This NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop will be offered twice: June 19-24 and July 10-15, 2022. Participants will be staying in the historic Little Tokyo neighborhood in Los Angeles with the majority of programming being at our host institution, the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), with day trips to Santa Anita Park (a WWII temporary “assembly center”) and Manzanar National Historic Site (one of the ten permanent WWII “internment” camps). This will be one of the last times we are able to host a workshop with living camp survivors as the WWII generation passes the torch to future ones. | | |
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Check out NEH Programs from our partners below! |
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2022 Scholarship Programs! |
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The JACL has been helping students achieve their educational dreams with the National Scholarship and Awards Program since 1946. The program currently offers over 30 awards, with an annual total of over $70,000 in scholarships to qualified students nationwide. The National Scholarship and Awards Program offers scholarships to students who are entering freshman, undergraduate, graduate, law, in the creative & performing arts, and those with financial need. All scholarships are one-time awards. |
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JACL Reflects on the 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Attack | | |
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December 7, 2021 Today the JACL reflects on the 80th anniversary of the devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japanese forces. The attack resulted in the deaths of over 2,400 Americans stationed in Hawaii. This event is especially painful to the Japanese American community because the attack led to the direct questioning of loyalty and incarceration without trial of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. Those that were not incarcerated continued to face hate and discrimination from their fellow Americans who saw them as indistinguishable from the faces of the enemy. |
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Updates on the Wakasa Memorial Site at Topaz |
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Eleven Japanese American survivors and descendants from California traveled to Utah on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 to witness the National Park Service begin its fieldwork at the Topaz concentration camp where an issei-built monument to James Wakasa, a 63-year-old issei who was murdered inside the fence in 1943, was dug up earlier this year by the Topaz Museum. The members of the Wakasa Memorial Committee held ceremonies on both days -- at the museum, where the memorial stone is now located, and at the murder site, next to the barbed wire fence. Public radio KUER of Salt Lake City covered the story. The NCWNP is among the sixteen members of the Wakasa Memorial Committee's Advisory Council. JACLers Nancy Ukai, Satsuki Ina, Barbara Takei, and Karen Korematsu are among the members of the committee and advisory council. |
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Minidoka WWII Honor Roll Replica Update Project 2022 |
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Calling all Minidoka WWII Veterans, their families, and friends! The National Park Service is updating the reconstructed Honor Roll located at the front entrance of Minidoka National Historic Site. If you are a WWII veteran who was unjustly incarcerated at Minidoka, or if you are a friend or relative of such a veteran, we would like to hear from you! Veterans include those who served in the 100th /442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service, Women’s Army Corps, Army Nurse Corps, and Cadet Nurse Corps. From December 2021 to January 31, 2022, we are accepting applications to add Minidoka WWII veterans onto the Honor Roll if their names have not yet been listed. We are also accepting applications to correct misspellings or make changes to an existing name. Project details, including the current names on the replica Honor Roll, can be found on the Minidoka Honor Roll project webpage. |
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Help the Library of Congress Identify Photographs of Japanese Americans
Incarcerated During WWII |
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From The Library of Congress - "Previously unidentified, we were able to add her name, Shizuko Ina, and information about her incarceration experience to the public record. A blog post interview with her daughter, Satsuki Ina, describes the experience. We have now finished scanning and cataloging the remaining War Relocation Authority photographs in our collections. Many of the people depicted in the WRA images are unidentified. The Prints & Photographs Division is now digitally sharing 30 WRA photographs through an album in the Library of Congress Flickr Project. Survivors and descendants of the incarceration during World War II are encouraged to provide names of unidentified persons and deeper context for the history behind the photos. You can see more photographs of the forced removal of Japanese Americans by searching in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. All are welcome to comment on the photographs posted in the Flickr album, and the information you provide there may be added to the catalog records for the images in the online catalog. Identifications and comments for additional WRA photographs can be submitted to Library of Congress Ask A Librarian." |
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Updated Link: USC Seeking Nisei students whose educations were disrupted by WWII |
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