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
JACL is Hiring!
JACL is hiring for the position of full-time business manager and part business assistant for immediate hire. To view the position descriptions click the following links:
To apply for either position, please send a detailed resume with a cover letter summarizing your qualifications as well as your interest in the position and JACL to jobs@jacl.org. Please send any questions about this posting also to jobs@jacl.org.
Minidoka Call to Action Deadline Tomorrow!
THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT COMMENTS EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 20TH!
"Minidoka National Historic Site’s historic, natural, and cultural resources are being threatened. Magic Valley Energy has proposed the Lava Ridge Wind Project, a 400-unit wind turbine field on 73,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property adjacent to Minidoka, 25 miles northeast of Twin Falls, Idaho. If built, it will be one of the largest in the U.S. Several turbines are slated to be installed on the historic footprint of the camp, and almost all are completely visible from the WWII Japanese American incarceration site in Southern Idaho.
The proposed project includes up to 400 wind energy generating turbines, up to seven new substations, approximately 198 miles of 34.5 kilovolt (kV) collector lines, 34 miles of 230 kV transmission lines, 18 miles of 500 kV transmission lines, 381 miles of access roads, 47 miles of temporary crane walk paths, a battery energy storage system, three operations and maintenance facilities, five permanent met towers, and construction-related staging yards. Engineering is preliminary, but the turbines may have a maximum height (including the rotor) of up to 740 feet."
Opinion: Standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building, I learned this lesson
Noah Kurima, one of our recent participants from the 2021 JACL/OCA Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. wrote this powerful piece for The San Diego Tribune about their experience participating in the summit! Noah was also one of the first high school participants we have had in the program in nearly 30 years! Thank you Noah for taking part in the program and sharing your experience with others.
USC Seeking Nisei students whose educations were disrupted by WWII and the racist policies of then-University President Rufus B. von KleinSmid
The following request is from Richard Watanabe, Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC, USC Alumnus '86, '88, '95
The University of Southern California has decided to recognize Nisei students whose educations were disrupted by WWII and the racist policies of then-University President Rufus B. von KleinSmid by bestowing honorary degrees to them or their descendants. Honorary degrees were conferred on living Nisei from that period, but those who had already passed were not honored. This new decree bestows degrees on all affected Nisei, deceased or living. An effort is underway to identify those individuals or their survivors so they can be properly recognized. Above is a 1942 yearbook photo of some members of the USC Trojan Nisei Club along with their names on the right (Courtesy of the Rafu Shimpo). USC is asking for help in finding these individuals or their families for the honorary degrees. If you recognize anyone or know of anyone who should be honored, please send contact information to me at the e-mail above (please note the missing 'e' in my e-mail address...my account was established in the days when user names were restricted to 8 characters) and I will make sure the information is forwarded to the University. Please help us ensure all who deserve this extremely belated, but important, acknowledgment are properly honored.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
JACL Back to School Weekly Feature Recap! BIG Announcement, BIG Thank You!
In case you missed it! For the last 6 weeks, we sent you short emails that highlights one part of our education program. We hope you learned more about our revitalizing Education Program. Please consider supporting our Education Program through the Centennial Education Fund that celebrates 100 years of JACL’s education work.
The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
JACL is happy to announce that we were one of the recipients of the 2021 National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culturegrants. We are happy to bring backCivil Liberties in Times of Crisis: The Japanese American Incarceration for teachers and educators to be a part of in Summer 2022. This one-week program will be available for two different sessions in late June and early July 2022 and will bring educators to Los Angeles' historic Little Tokyo community to take part in the program including guest speakers, trips to Santa Anita Racetrack, and Manzanar National Historic Site. We are so happy to bring this program back after 5 years and look forward to opening upapplications to interested attendees in January 2022.
Multiracial Artists in Conversation hosted by Seattle JACL
Join us for a free Mixed Race Webinar on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021, from 10AM - Noon (PST). As multiracial people, we are constantly put into narrow categories that try to define who we are. But what does it mean to tell your own story? To be able to claim and celebrate all parts of who you are? Speakers for this panel are defining their own narratives through the arts—including photography, visual art, and writing. Mixed Race youth, adults, and families—as well as the arts community—will benefit from this inspiring discussion about what it means to be a storyteller of your own narrative, be it on a canvas, in a book, in a photograph, onstage, or in everyday life.
Event Announcement! Our friends over at Okaeri LA are bringing their biannual conference to the virtual space this year! With 24 workshops and a guest appearance from Gia Gunn, #OkaeriLA ’s mission is to create visibility, compassionate spaces, and transformation for LGBTQ+ Nikkei and their families by sharing personal stories and providing culturally-rooted support, education, community-building, and advocacy. Three workshops will be held in Japanese. The registration link is available below! We hope to see you there!
Fiscal Year 2022 Japanese American Confinement Sites grant applications must be received by Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 5:00pm (Mountain Time). Note: this is not a postmark date.
Congress established the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program (Public Law 109-441, 120 Stat. 3288) for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. The law authorized up to $38 million for the entire life of the grant program to identify, research, evaluate, interpret, protect, restore, repair, and acquire historic confinement sites in order that present and future generations may learn and gain inspiration from these sites and that these sites will demonstrate the nation’s commitment to equal justice under the law.
Berkeley Oral History Project Seeking Project Participants
UC Berkeley's Oral History Project is seeking Nikkei who have had parents/grandparents/great grandparents who have been incarcerated in Manzanar and Topaz concentration camps. How do people heal? Through new oral history interviews, this project will document and disseminate the ways in which intergenerational trauma and healing occurred after the U.S. government's incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. These interviews will examine and compare how private memory, creative expression, place, and public interpretation intersect at two sites of incarceration: Manzanar in California and Topaz in Utah. To nominate yourself or someone else for this project please complete the Nomination Form.
JACL Anti-Hate and Hate Crime Resources
For resources, toolkits, articles, and more about anti-hate programs and hate crimes, you can visit our page on JACL.org by clicking the link below.
Last Wednesday, April 14, the House Judiciary Committee voted for the first time in the bill's 30 year history to advance H.R. 40 to the House floor for a full vote! This is a monumental step in bill's life and a start towards righting another wrong in our nation's history.
JACL Executive Director, David Inoue, discusses JACL’s support of H.R. 40. H.R. 40 would create a commission to examine the institution of slavery, its legacy, and make recommendations to Congress for reparations, beginning a process of repairing and restoring after centuries of enslavement. Click the image above to watch the full video statement.
