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
Open Letter To President Obama Protesting The Signing Of The National Defense Authorization Act
January 24, 2012 2 Comments
Follow @manzanarcomm
Playwright Soji Kashiwagi, who is active with the Tule Lake Committee, recently wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, criticizing him for signing the National Defense Authorization Act on December 31, 2011. Kashiwagi, who writes from Pasadena, California, has graciously permitted us to repint it here.
Soji Kashiwagi
Photo courtesy Discover Nikkei
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Obama,
Before I begin, I must say that I have the utmost respect for the Office of the President, and I want to thank you for the job you are doing under difficult circumstances and in an oftentimes hostile environment.
That being said, I must also express to you my deep disappointment and outrage at your “under the radar” New Year’s Eve signing into law of the National Defense Authorization Act. Read more of this post
Filed under News, Commentary Tagged with Japanese American, Japanese American Internment, civil rights, Tule Lake, racism, discrimination, Soji Kashiwagi, Hiroshi Kashiwagi, Barack Obama, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Japanese American Incarceration, Gordon Hirabayshi, National Defense Authorization Act