43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage – VIDEO

February 11, 2013 by Leave a comment

Banners representing each of the ten American concentration camps where Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated during World War II are shown
here during the 43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 28, 2012, at the
Manzanar National Historic Site, in Calfornia’s Owens Valley.
(click to view larger image)
Photo: Gann Matsuda/Manzanar Committee

We’re very, very late with this, but video from the 43rd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, held on April 28, 2012, is now available.

The 2012 Pilgrimage included a performance by UCLA Kyodo Taiko, remarks by Les Inafuku, Superintendent, Manzanar National Historic Site, and by Manzanar Committee Co-Chair Bruce Embrey. It also featured a keynote address by Mitchell T. Maki, author of Achieving The Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress, remarks by Manzanar Committee member Pat Sakamoto, the presentation of the 2012 Sue Kunitomi Embrey Legacy Award to Rose Ochi, and musical performances by Mary Kageyama Nomura, the Songbird of Manzanar, and by Ken Koshio, Nancy Gohata, Darrell Kunitomi and Keith Uchima.

Read more of this post

Filed under Audio/Video, Manzanar, Manzanar Pilgrimage Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Family, Friends, Community Come Together To Remember and Honor Tak Yamamoto – VIDEO

February 5, 2013 by Leave a comment

On January 26, 2013, long-time Manzanar Committee, San Fernando Valley Japanese American Citizens League, and LGBT leader Tak Yamamoto was honored and remembered by friends, family, colleagues and fellow activists at an informal memorial service, held at the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center in Pacoima, California.

The following is a tribute to Yamamoto by Alisa Lynch, Chief of Interpretation, Manzanar National Historic Site, a portion of which was read as part of the program.

Video of the event, and a handful of photographs from the event can be viewed below.

Long-time Manzanar Committee leader Tak Yamamoto (second from left), shown here receiving the Sue Kunitomi Embrey Legacy Award at the 40th Annual
Manzanar Pilgrimage, April 25, 2009, died on November 9, 2012.
(click to view larger image)
Photo: Gann Matsuda/Manzanar Committee

According to a War Relocation Authority roster, on May 17, 1942, a boy tagged with family number 24119 arrived in the searing hot desert of Arizona. Just two days before his fourth birthday, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066, ultimately allowing the U.S. Army to round up and confine 120,313 Japanese Americans based solely on their ancestry. The boy was like two-thirds of all of the people in the camps: a child and an American Citizen.

His family’s “pre-evacuation city” was listed as Westminster, California. His parents, Tokuichi and Kotoyo Yamamoto Read more of this post

Filed under Audio/Video, Manzanar, Manzanar Pilgrimage, News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Celebration of Life: Remembering Manzanar Committee, San Fernando Valley JACL, LGBT Leader Tak Yamamoto

January 12, 2013 by 3 Comments

Tak Yamamoto, shown here during the 35th
Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage in April 2005, who died
on November 9, 2012, will be remembered at a
Celebration of Life on January 26, 2013.
(click above to view larger image)
Photo: Tom Walker/Manzanar Committee

LOS ANGELES — A Celebration of Life honoring long-time Manzanar Committee, San Fernando Japanese American Citizens League (SFV JACL), and LGBT community leader Takenori “Tak” Yamamoto, who died on November 9, 2012, will be held at on Saturday, January 26, 2013, at the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center, in Pacoima, California, starting at 6:30 PM.

Yamamoto served as president of the Asian and Pacific Islanders for LGBT Equality, and was one of the founders and a long-time president of the Asian/Pacific Lesbians and Gays (now Asian/Pacific Gays and Friends) in Los Angeles, an organization formed to fight discrimination against Asian and Pacific Islanders. It remains the oldest active group of its type in the United States.

During his tenure as president of the SFV JACL, Yamamoto was open about his sexual orientation, refusing to allow it to be an obstacle to his work, and in 1994, he was instrumental in pushing the National JACL to support same-sex marriage.

Read more of this post

Filed under News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Manzanar Committee Loses Long-Time Leader Tak Yamamoto on November 9, 2012

November 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

Long-time Manzanar Committee leader Tak Yamamoto (second from left), shown here receiving the Sue Kunitomi Embrey Legacy Award at the 40th Annual
Manzanar Pilgrimage, April 25, 2009, died on November 9, 2012.
(click to view larger image)
Photo: Gann Matsuda/Manzanar Committee

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee is saddened to report the passing of long-time Manzanar Committee leader Takenori “Tak” Yamamoto, of Los Angeles, on Friday, November 9, 2012.

Yamamoto, 74, died of natural causes, according to long-time partner and Committee supporter Karl Fish.

Growing up in a large family, Yamamoto was among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry who were forcibly removed from the West Coast as a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Read more of this post

Filed under Commentary, Manzanar, Manzanar At Dusk, Manzanar Pilgrimage, News Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 81 other followers