Weekly Digest
September 14, 2021

JACL Operating Status

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:

Business Manager

Business Assistant

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.

JACL on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11

September 10, 2021

Washington, D.C. - [Friday marked] 20 years since the September 11th attacks that brought about a new time in our nation’s history. A period now known for the longest war our nation has ever been a part of, that has led to more military spending than during the Cold War, and has led to a rise in hatred and bigotry that is all too similar to the kind that led to the mass incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II. 

It was this dark similarity to the Japanese American experience during World War II that sparked a renewed pathway forward for our community, not seen since the successful redress movement in the 1980s. Japanese Americans were among the first and loudest to speak out against anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments in the wake of 9/11. JACL leadership at the time, led by President Floyd Mori and Executive Director, John Tateishi, made strong and swift steps to ensure that on the national and local levels, the JACL was working with the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian (MASA) communities in combating this new wave of xenophobic rhetoric...

20 Years Post 9/11 presented by SALDEF

Join SALDEF in a virtual symposium looking back at the impact of 9/11 on Muslim, Arab and South Asian (MASA) communities. JACL is co-sponsoring this event and will be a participant in one of the panels. To register, click the button below.

2021 JACL/OCA Leadership Summit Comes to a Close!

The 2021 JACL/OCA Leadership Summit came to a close earlier today! The four-day summit brought 24 members of JACL and OCA to Washington, D.C. to experience what it's like talking to members of Congress, how to conduct legislative visits, discuss policy, see the relationship we have with partners, and so much more! We are so excited to have had our participants join us this year. We hope participants will return home and share their experiences and new knowledge and understanding of advocacy at the Federal level, as well as what lessons might be carried back to their local communities. 

Minidoka Call to Action Writing Sessions Tomorrow and Deadline Extended!

THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT COMMENTS EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 20TH! 

TIPS FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE PUBLIC COMMENT-Two sessions!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 

LIVE ONLINE 

11AM PT Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnKAm4rjXFk

4PM PT Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ2bXWevxn4

Join this information session and writing workshop with these experts! Dan Sakura has worked with Japanese American non-profit partners and the National Park Service to create, expand, and protect World War II-era confinement sites as National Parks. Ben Otto is an Energy Associate for the Idaho Conservation League. Ben protects Idaho’s air quality and climate stability by engaging directly with utilities and state regulators to replace fossil fuels with clean energy. Holly Sandbo is the Northern Rockies' Manager of Outreach and Engagement of the National Parks Conservation Association. They will walk through, step by step, how to write an effective public comment that cannot be denied! Bring your list of ideas and rough drafts and fine-tune your public comment. Bring your friends and family! Q and A session to follow. Produced by the Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages.

"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."

JACL Back to School Weekly Feature Recap! Week 2!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

JACL Affirms Right to Reproductive Freedom

September 3, 2021

In 1973, the Supreme Court made the landmark decision that ruled access to abortion and one’s right to choose as protected under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Roe v. Wade has been one of the most contested and debated Supreme Court decisions in recent history. Since the court made its decision, it has come under attack by numerous state and local organizations. Unfortunately, his year has been no different. In the first half of 2021 alone, more than 90 laws restricting abortion access have passed in several state legislatures. Tuesday, Texas enacted the most restrictive abortion law to date; banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. On Wednesday, a narrow majority of the Supreme Court ignored 48 years of precedent in allowing the Texas law to stand.

JACL On the Recently Released 2020 FBI Hate Crimes Statistics

September 1, 2021

The 2020 FBI Crime Statistics report was released earlier this week and serves as a reminder of the importance of tracking and recording hate crimes data. From 2019 to 2020 the number of incidents of Anti-Asian hate increased 70%, from 161 to 274. In comparison, overall hate crimes increased only 6.5%. This disproportionate increase is alarming but fails to capture the full scope of what the Asian American community has experienced in the past year and a half. Other community-based sites have collected reports of over 9,000 incidents from March 2020 to June 2021. Crimes are either not being fully reported and recorded due to victim reticence or an agency’s failure to report, or possible hate crimes are not being identified by law enforcement and prosecutors. This was demonstrated recently in the high-profile Atlanta area shootings where the murderer was not charged with racial bias by one of the prosecutors despite the specific targeting of Asian-owned and operated businesses. 

JANM Author Discussion—When Can We Go Back to America? with Susan Kamei

Saturday, September 25th - 2:00-3:30pm PDT

In this virtual program, Susan H. Kamei will discuss her new book, When Can We Go Back to America?: Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during WWII, and the lessons that she hopes readers of all ages will take from it. She will be joined in conversation by William A. Darity Jr., Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Duke University, and A. Kirsten Mullen, writer, folklorist, museum consultant, and lecturer.

This program is presented in partnership with the Japanese American Citizens League and the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. 

JACL members should email publicprograms@janm.org with the subject line "JACL tickets - When Can We Go Back to America?" to receive FREE admission to the program. Zoom information will be sent directly to all who register.

Tadaima 2021 Registration Now Open!

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.

H.R. 40 Updates and Join in Support

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. 

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