JACL Weekly Digest

November 5, 2024

JACL National News

Today is Election Day! Voice Your Vote!

JACL Demands Accountability at the National Archives

November 4, 2024 - 

A Wall Street Journal article published October 29, 2024, included several serious allegations that the National Archives, led and directed by Colleen Shogan, “sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history. She has ordered the removal of prominent references to such landmark events as the government's displacement of indigenous tribes and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II from planned exhibits.” Also of note was requesting the removal of Holocaust materials from a planned exhibit. The article elaborates that “Shogan and her top advisers told employees to remove Dorothea Lange's photos of Japanese-American incarceration camps from a planned exhibit because the images were too negative and controversial.” 

Applications for the 2025 Norman Y. Mineta Fellowship are Available Now!

The Norman Y. Mineta Fellowship is named for the late Secretary and Congressman from San Jose, CA. The fellow will monitor key legislative initiatives of importance to the JACL mission, and design and implement JACL-sponsored programs among other tasks and duties.

This fellowship provides the opportunity to work on advocacy issues and educational programs at a national level through the JACL Washington, D.C. Office. As a fellow, you will become a key component of the national staff; representing JACL and its members within D.C. and various community networks. Fellows can expect to play a large role in policy initiatives and execute programs such as JACL / OCA Leadership Summit, the Kakehashi Program, and JACL National Convention.

Priority Deadline: November 11, 2024 at 11:59 PM HST. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Program Dates: Start January 2025. This fellowship term lasts 1 year, with the possibility of being extended for an additional year.

Recognizing Mis/Dis/Malinformation and How to Combat It

JACL is Hiring! Looking for a Director of Fundraising and Membership Development

JACL Chapters News

If any JACL Chapters would like to submit stories or events to the Weekly Digest, please send inquiries to Education Programs Manager, Matthew Weisbly at mweisbly@jacl.org

Care & Consumption J-Talks: Godzilla Edition Part 2 & 3 hosted by JACL MDC

JACL Midwest District Council (MDC) will continue their partnership with the Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Program Alumni Association (JETAA) of Chicago on the return of the of webinar series J-Talks: Strengthening Ties Through Dialogue which centers around themes of identity, social issues, cultural understanding, and leadership as experienced by people with meaningful connections to Japan.

Thank you to those in our community who joined us for Part 1 of our webinar series with Derrick Fields, complete our trilogy (of course those new attendees welcomed too!), and join us for the second and third installments of the J-Talks: Godzilla Edition - Care & Consumption Webinar series. More information & RSVP Required via Guestlist:

• Thursday, November 14th at 7:00pm CT - Part 2 with Dr. Yuki Miyamoto, Ph.D. is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Humanities Center at DePaul University. More information & RSVP Required via Guestlist: https://guestli.st/788151
• Wednesday, November 20th at 7:00pm CT - Part 3 with Gabriel Coronado, Lifelong Godzilla fan & President of Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Program Alumni Association - Chicago. RSVP Required via Guestlist: https://guestli.st/788160 

In honor of Godzilla’s 70th anniversary, this year’s J-Talk Webinars are a series of interviews that center around the themes of Care & Consumption in relation to the King of the Monsters origins, history and cultural impact. Join us as we connect with JET alumni and members of the US-Japan community about how we interact with Japanese culture and how our perception evolves over time.

San Diego JACL Monthly Virtual Dialogue November 2024

Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement Screening in Philadelphia

JACL Philadelphia is the proud co-sponsor of Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival's Philly premiere screening of the new feature length documentary Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement. The screening will take place on Wednesday, Nov 13 6:30pm at Asian Arts Initiative.

Nobuko Miyamoto is a trailblazing Sansei artist-activist, who was a member of the Yellow Power movement era folk trio Yellow Pearl. Miyamoto continues to do incredible work bringing communities together through her FandangObon event, which celebrates the shared traditions and cultural overlap within Japanese, Mexican, and West African cultures.

Read more about the film and reserve your tickets online: https://tickets.paaff.org/2024/movies/nobuko-miyamoto-a-song-in-movement

From Our Partners

JAVA and NJAMF's Annual Veteran's Day Program

Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans work together to open museum  in Crystal City Texas featuring Internment Camp exhibit

The above image is an artist rendering of the exhibit space. 

The Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee, a group of Japanese  American and Japanese Peruvian incarceration survivors and their descendants, are preparing to open the first  permanent exhibit dedicated to their experiences in Texas during World War II. Between 1942 and 1948, the little-known Crystal City US Department of Justice site held thousands of Japanese and German nationals,  along with their US-born family members. The camp also imprisoned thousands of Latin American families of  Japanese ancestry who were extradited from 13 countries in Central and South America as part of a prisoner of  war exchange program. The Crystal City detention center exhibit titled “America’s Last WWII Concentration  Camp” and funded by the Tomoye & Henri Takahashi Charitable Foundation, will open during the Crystal  City Spinach Festival on Saturday, November 9, where it will be housed at the My Story Museum - The  Story of Us: Tres Historias en Crystal City. 

Located in South Texas two hours Southwest of San Antonio, Crystal City is currently home to a population of  approximately 6,500 who identified as over 95% Hispanic on the 2020 US Census. Known as the “Spinach  Capitol of the World,” and home to the nation’s largest spinach-growing operation, Crystal City also played a  significant role during the Chicano Movement as the site of numerous student protests in 1969 that led to  school reform and election victories by working-class Mexican American farm laborers who became leaders of  the progressive political group The Raza Unida Party. 

My Story Museum is the brainchild of former city manager Diana Palacios – herself one of the 1969 student  protest leaders, who helped organize a series of school walkouts in response to the unequal treatment that  Mexican Americans were receiving at that time. Palacios imagines the museum as a way to bring local history  to life for both local residents and out-of-town visitors. Exhibits will feature topics related to Crystal City’s  role in the Chicano Movement, the history of Zavala County, a wall honoring local veterans of foreign wars,  and the WWII internment camp.

My Story Museum will host its grand opening on Saturday November 9 from 4-8pm CT. The following  day on Sunday, November 10 from 12-2pm CT a panel discussion will be hosted at the museum including  former internees Kaz Naganuma and Hiroshi Shimizu alongside Crystal City community leaders Diana  Palacios and Ruben Salazar will explore the shared connections between the Japanese and Mexican American  communities that have allowed this project to flourish. 

My Story Museum - The Story of Us: Tres Historias en Crystal City is located at 224 E. Zavala Street,  Crystal City Texas 98839.

DOJ Community Relations Service is Hiring

DOJ Conciliation Specialist with the Community Relations Service

This is a Conciliation Specialist position in the Department of Justice, Community Relations Service (CRS). CRS' mission is to provide tension reduction and conflict resolution services to diverse stakeholders to both resolve and prevent community-level disputes. CRS provides facilitated dialogue, mediation, training, and consultation to assist these communities to come together, develop solutions to the conflict, and enhance their capacity to independently prevent and resolve future conflict.

NPS Announces JACS and JACE Grant Applications Now Available!

The National Park Service is accepting project applications for two types of grants that help preserve and interpret United States sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II and educate the public about the historical legacy of the federal government’s war-time policy. 

The deadline to apply for a JACS or JACE grant is Thursday, November 14, 2024. The Notices of Funding Opportunities outlining the grant application and selection process for both grants are available online at www.grants.gov. 

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