Weekly Digest
February 6, 2024

JACL National Completes the Winter 2024 National Board Meeting and Staff Retreat

This past weekend, the JACL National Board met for their winter 2024 board meeting to discuss board reports, budget, and the upcoming year. The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 27, 2024. Details will be sent out closer to the meeting. 

After the board meeting, JACL staff met for the 2024 staff retreat. During the retreat, JACL staff were able to bond and discuss goals for the coming year. Also going over some operational changes to better support the board and budget. This retreat also served as a farewell for the current Norman Y. Mineta Fellow, Bridget Keaveney, while welcoming the incoming fellow, Ariel Imamoto.  

JACL Welcomes New Norman Y. Mineta Fellow, Ariel Imamoto!

Ariel is a fifth-generation Japanese American who graduated from California State University Fullerton with a degree in accounting. While working in corporate accounting, Ariel has been heavily involved in the Southern California Japanese American community. Her passion for community in her college days serving as the President of CSUF’s Nikkei Student Union and the Vice President of the Intercollegiate Nikkei Council. This is where she realized the importance of cultural identity and first began to explore the significance our Japanese American history has to the larger American population.

After seven years of corporate accounting and a self-reflection period post-2020, Ariel realized she wanted to serve a purpose greater than herself by pursuing a career that combined her passion for community organizing with her background in business/accounting. Ariel embraces any opportunity to hear stories and create connections that will lead to great collaboration. In addition to her background in business, Ariel brings several years of event planning, fundraising experience, and youth development. Most recently, Ariel has dedicated her time to the Rising Stars Youth Leadership Program’s planning committee and as a Go For Broke National Education Center’s Torchbearer. Ariel has also been a member of the San Fernando Valley JACL since college.

While she will miss the beaches and mountains of Southern California, Ariel is excited to work with the JACL Policy Team and connect with the broader Nikkei and Asian American communities.

NCWNP District Youth Board and Berkeley JACL Intergenerational Potluck!

The JACL NCWNP District Youth Board is partnering with Berkeley JACL to hold an intergenerational potluck where attendees can build connections through food and storytelling. The purpose of the event is to foster connections between all of those involved in the Japanese American community with a particular focus on the older and younger generations.

WHEN: Saturday, February 10 at 12 PM

WHERE: Berkeley Buddhist Temple (2121 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704)

WHO: Anyone, including members of the NCWNP district of all ages!

RSVP: You can RSVP at tinyurl.com/inter-potluck-2024

Please email us at ncwnpyouthboard@jacl.org if you have any questions, and feel free to share this event with your chapters. We hope to see you there!

San Diego JACL Monthly Virtual Dialogues

Sneak Peek of the New Film "Kintsukuroi" in San Jose

Please join us for a special “Sneak Preview” of the full-length Feature Film Kintsukuroi, benefitting the Japanese American Museum of San Jose and the New Dharma Center of the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin (SJB). Mark your calendars for February 10 th , 2024 at 2pm to take place at SJB, 640 N 5 th Street, San Jose, CA 95112. Tickets are $25 for Premium Seating and $20 for General Admission. Limited Availability!

Tickets available online: https://app.donorview.com/NZrZe

kintsukuroi n.
1. Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold
2. the beauty and strength found within something that has been broken

The promise that is America is within the grasp of two immigrant families living in Northern California. The Itos are industrious shopkeepers in San Francisco and the Ibatas are hardworking farmers from a small rural community.

With a stroke of his pen, President Roosevelt destroys their lives and the lives of another 120,000 Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both families lose everything they own but the emotional cost of the war is even more devastating.

Sent to Utah and Wyoming, respectively, the two families live lives of quiet desperation behind barbed wire fences and gun towers. Some will go off to fight the war, others remain and resist but everyone will make sacrifices that change the course of their lives forever.

KINTSUKUROI will take you from San Francisco to the concentration camps in the American West to the battlefields of Europe and back again as the Itos and the Ibatas pick up the pieces of their broken lives.

The film was shot at locations in San Jose, San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area and Northern Californian. It features Ryan Takemiya, Kealani Kitaura, Ken Takeda, Ron Munekawa, Kiyomi Koide and Chizuko Omori.

Call for Day Of Remembrance Events!

As we're coming up on Day of Remembrance, JACL is once again asking all of our chapters and supporters to send us information on any events that you know of so that we can share it with the wider membership and Japanese American community! 

Please send any information you have on your DOR events, including date(s), times, any website/social links, and images/flyers you might have! We'll continually update the listing so if you currently only have some information and are still waiting on more, send us what you have and we can update the event page. The event page and calendar will be made available later. 

Send any program information you have to Education Programs Manager, Matthew Weisbly at mweisbly@jacl.org

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

Defining Courage Coming to San Francisco!

2024 JACL National Scholarship Program Applications Available Now!

2024 JACL Chicago Chapter Scholarships Available Now!

The 2024 Minoru Yasui Student Contest is open for submissions!

This year's contest theme is advancing democracy and prompts students to think about what an ideal democracy looks like, challenges to achieving democracy, and how to overcome them. Contestants will express their answers through a visual art piece and artist statement. The contest has a Junior Division (5th-8th grade) offering a $500 grand prize and Senior Division (9th-12th grade) offering a $1,000 grand prize.

To view the full details of the contest, and submit your entry, visit the Minoru Yasui Student Contest webpage. Submissions must be completed and uploaded by 11:59pm PT on Friday, March 1, 2024.

Organized by the Minoru Yasui Legacy Project and the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, the Minoru Yasui Student Contest offers students the opportunity to explore societal topics in connection with the legacy of Minoru Yasui, the only Oregonian to have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

JACL Arizona Chapter Annual Essay Contest!

See Omoiyari a Song Film by Kishi Bashi!

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