Cast in Bronze: Terminology Symposium in San Francisco, October 22, 2011

January 30, 2012 8 Comments

By Soji Kashiwagi

The main reason for holding a day-long symposium on terminology and the use of U.S. government euphemisms during World War II was not, according to event organizers, to take on the role of the “word police” and tell members of the Japanese American community what they should or should not say regarding what happened some 69 years ago.

In fact, Mako Nakagawa, the Seattle-based author of the Power of Words Resolution which was passed by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) National Council in 2010, said that those who lived through the experience “…have earned the right to call it whatever they want.”

Instead, the event’s focus turned toward educating those in public institutions and museums who cast words in bronze that, as Lane Hirabayashi describes, “…are not strictly or historically accurate like ‘internment,’ or ‘relocation,’ on plaques, memorials, exhibits, and installations in Interpretive Learning Centers.” Read more of this post

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Dancing With Grace – Gracious And Graceful

January 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Editor’s Note: The following piece by Jenni Kuida, a tribute to former Manzanar Committee member Grace Harada, was originally published in January 2002, in the Rafu Shimpo, and on her family’s web site. She posted a link to her story on Facebook on January 18, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Harada’s passing. We thought it would be a fitting tribute to publish it here as well.

Former Manzanar Committee member Grace Harada (center), shown here with Jenni Kuida (left) and
Sue Kunitomi Embrey (right), who passed away in 2006.
Photo: Jenni Kuida

You might not have ever met Grace Harada. But if you’ve been to an Obon at Senshin Buddhist Temple or the Manzanar Pilgrimage in the last thirty years, chances are, you have surely seen her. She was the petite Nisei woman dancing Bon Odori in the inner circle, leading Sansei like me, trying to follow along in the outer circle. I would always seek her out when stumbling through the moves, because I knew that if I followed her, I’d be ok.

Sadly, she passed away on January 18 at age 76. Only one week earlier, she suffered from a massive stroke and slipped into a coma. Just like that. At the memorial service for Grace at Senshin Buddhist Temple, Reverend Mas Kodani spoke fondly of Grace, using the words “gracious” and “graceful” to describe Grace. He talked about how Grace loved to dance. She lived her life doing what she loved to do. She found true joy in dancing, and in teaching dance to others. Read more of this post

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2011 Cherry Blossom Festival Scheduled For September 24-25, 2011 In Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo

September 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

The following was excerpted from a press release by the Cherry Blossom Festival SoCal.

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL: Manzanar Committee to be honored

To download a printable flyer,
click on the image above.

LOS ANGELES — Celebrating its tenth year, the Cherry Blossom Festival SoCal will be held on September 24-25, 2011, in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo (enter the festival at the intersection of Temple and Alameda Streets).

Produced by the grass-roots, 100 percent volunteer Cherry Blossom Festival SoCal, a fiscally sponsored project of the Pasadena Arts Council, the annual festival promotes and educates attendees about the culture of Americans of Japanese Ancestry, along with Japanese culture. This year, the festival recognizes the history of Japanese Americans during the World War II era and Japan Rebuilt/10,000 Origami Cranes. Read more of this post

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A No-No Boy Goes To Washington – Hiroshi Kashiwagi

June 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

Playwright Soji Kashiwagi, who is active with the Tule Lake Committee, has even more reason to be proud of father Hiroshi Kashiwagi, also a playwright and a “No-No Boy,” who was recently invited to an event at the White House, where he got a chance to meet President Obama and the First Lady. He recently wrote about his father’s experience in our nation’s capital.

Photo: Kashiwagi Family Collection

PASADENA, CA — For my father, Nisei playwright, poet and actor Hiroshi Kashiwagi, the journey up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the heart of Washington, D.C. was steep and arduous. Now 88 years old, he moves much slower than he used to, but he was determined to reach the top, slowly, step by step, because for my Dad, a steep climb up some steps is nothing in comparison to the long journey he has taken throughout his life to reach this moment.

From a small, country store in Loomis, California, to behind barbed wire at the Tule Lake Segregation Center during World War II, his road to Washington has not been easy. Branded and stigmatized as “disloyal” and a “troublemaker” by members of his own community for his refusal to answer two deeply flawed U.S. Government imposed “loyalty” questions, he has lived a shadowy life of a “No-No Boy,” once considered the “lowest of the low” among those Americans of Japanese ancestry who protested their unjust World War II incarceration in America’s concentration camps. Read more of this post

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Yosh Kuromiya: Random Thoughts On Being Nisei During World War II

May 19, 2011 3 Comments

Born in Sierra Madre, California in April 1923, Yosh Kuromiya and his family moved to Monrovia, where he attended grammar school, junior high and high school. He was attending Pasadena Junior College as an art major when his family was forced out of their homes and imprisoned, like other Americans of Japanese ancestry, during World War II. His family was first sent to the assembly center at the Pomona Fairgrounds, before they were imprisoned at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming.

Draft resister Yosh Kuromiya (seated, center) was a member of the “Poster Shop Gang,” designing and printing posters at the Heart Mountain concentration camp, one of ten such camps where Americans of Japanese ancestry were unjustly imprisoned during World War II.
Photo: Kuromiya Family Collection

Kuromiya became one of 63 members of the Fair Play Committee, a group of Heart Mountain prisoners who resisted the draft in protest of the government’s denial of their civil rights. Along with other Fair Play Committee members, Kuromiya, then 21 years old, was arrested, tried and convicted of draft evasion.

Kuromiya was sentenced to three years in federal prison. He was released on parole after two years, and was pardoned by President Harry S. Truman in late 1947.

A retired landscape architect, Kuromiya resides in Alhambra, California with his wife, Irene. Today, he often speaks to groups and organizations about his experiences during World War II, and especially about his experience as a draft resister.

Below is the text of a speech he gave to the Greater Los Angeles Singles Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League on May 13, 2011.

Good evening and happy Friday the 13th! If you haven’t already had your share of misfortune today, maybe you are about to, but I hope not.

I would like to thank you all, for having me here tonight. However, I must warn you that I am neither a historian, a professor, a scholar, nor even a speaker. My exposure to history is that I’ve been around for 88 years, but never seemed to make a difference. I’ve professed a few ideas during those years but never received an encouraging response, much less a degree. Read more of this post

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2011 Sue Embrey Community Service College Scholarship Available

April 6, 2011 Leave a Comment

The following is an announcement from the Asian Pacific Committee of United Teachers Los Angeles.

The Asian Pacific Committee of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is, once again, offering scholarships up to $1,000 to current high school seniors enrolled in Los Angeles Unified School District schools.
The Sue Embrey 2011 Community Service College Scholarship was established in 2008 by the Asian Pacific Committee of UTLA to honor of the legacy of longtime teacher, community activist, and Asian Pacific Committee member, Sue Kunitomi Embrey.

The scholarship funds are part of UTLA’s continuing program to help fund young people who desire to continue their education in a community college or university.

“Sue Embrey, educator, activist and author, lived by her principles of non-violence, self-determination through unionization, social justice for workers, teamwork, collaboration, service to others, and empowerment of the disenfranchised,” the union said in a statement. Read more of this post

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Words Do Matter: A Note on Inappropriate Terminology and the Incarceration of the Japanese Americans

November 9, 2009 Leave a Comment

Since the discussion about euphemistic language used to describe America’s concentration camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly imprisoned during World War II has been gaining momentum lately, here is an article by scholar Roger Daniels, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati. Read more of this post

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Manzanar National Historic Site Volunteer Spotlight: Cathy Erickson

October 31, 2009 1 Comment

Editor’s Note: The following is the second edition of a (hopefully) monthly article written by the staff of the Manzanar National Historic Site. Your feedback on their work would be deeply appreciated! Please leave a comment by clicking on the Comments link at the bottom of the story.

by Mandy Harmon, Park Guide

Imagine hundreds of pieces of fabric in shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns sitting next to a sewing machine. You may not immediately see a connection between the swatches and the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast of the United States during World War II, but meeting Cathy Erickson and seeing her quilts could change your mind. Read more of this post

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