Deporting “Troublemakers” Redux

January 25, 2012 1 Comment

Barbara Takei (left), shown here with Manzanar Committee member Joyce Okazaki (center), and Mako Nakagawa (right), during the
2011 Manzanar At Dusk program on April 28, 2011, at
Lone Pine High School in Lone Pine, California.
Photo: James To

Editor’s Note: Like Soji Kashiwagi, Tule Lake Committee leader Barbara Takei recently shared her thoughts on the National Defense Authorization Act that was recently signed by President Obama, more specifically, two companion bills. Her commentary piece is published here with permission.

Time of Remembrance observances are coming up in another few weeks, a good time to do something to assure, “never again.”

This year, in the context of the National Defense Authorization Act that provides for indefinite military detention of the accused, we need to be more vigilant than ever, especially with two companion pieces of legislation introduced this session of Congress. The two bills, S. 1698 and HR 3166, resurrect the spectre of the little-known government denationalization and deportation program that the Department of Justice used to strip nearly 6,000 Americans of their U.S. citizenship while they were imprisoned at the Tule Lake concentration camp during World War II. Read more of this post

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Open Letter To President Obama Protesting The Signing Of The National Defense Authorization Act

January 24, 2012 2 Comments

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

January 10, 2012

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

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Future Of The Nikkei Community, Not Just The Manzanar And Tule Lake Pilgrimages, Was The Topic Of JANM Event

October 12, 2011 2 Comments

PILGRIMAGES: After talking about the origins, history, and the status of the present-day Manzanar and Tule Lake Pilgrimages, the focus of an October 8, 2011 event at the Japanese American National Museum turned to the future of both pilgrimages, along with that of Japanese American community organizations.

Tule Lake Committee members Barbara Takei (left) and Stan Shikuma (right)
were panelists during an event discussing the origins, history and
future of the Manzanar and Tule Lake Pilgrimages at the
Japanese American National Museum on October 8, 2011.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

LOS ANGELES — Panelists representing the Manzanar and Tule Lake Pilgrimages, along with students, primarily from the University of California, Los Angeles, discussed the origins, history and future of both pilgrimages during Community Builders: Japanese American Activism, 1960-1980 (Part 1), an event sponsored by the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) on October 8. Read more of this post

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Panel Looks At Past, Present And Future Of Manzanar And Tule Lake Pilgrimages During JANM Event

October 11, 2011 1 Comment

PILGRIMAGES: The origins, the history, and the future of the Manzanar and Tule Lake Pilgrimages was the focus of an October 8, 2011 event at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. The following is the first of two stories covering the event.

California Assemblymember Warren Furutani broke down
the origins and history of the Manzanar Pilgrimage during
an event at the Japanese American National Museum
on October 8, 2011.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

LOS ANGELES — The history and future of the Manzanar and Tule Lake Pilgrimages, along with the different generations who participate in them, both young and not-so-young, were in the spotlight at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) on October 8.

During Community Builders: Japanese American Activism, 1960-1980 (Part 1), JANM brought together a diverse group of voices representing the past, the present and the future of both pilgrimages to discuss the origins, the history and what is on the horizon for both of the annual events.

Starting off the event was California Assemblymember Warren Furutani, who represents the 55th Assembly District, which includes the cities of Carson, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway, Lakewood, parts of Long Beach and Wilmington.

Furutani was one of the founders of the Manzanar Pilgrimage back in 1969. Read more of this post

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Origins, History Of Manzanar, Tule Lake Pilgrimages To Be Discussed At JANM Event

October 2, 2011 1 Comment

Manzanar Committee Co-Chair Bruce Embrey, shown here at the 41st Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 23, 2010.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

LOS ANGELES — Manzanar Committee Co-Chair Bruce Embrey, and California Assembly member Warren Furutani, one of the founders of the Manzanar Pilgrimage, will be panelists for Community Builders: Japanese American Activism 1960-1980 (Part 1), at 2:00 PM on Saturday, October 8, 2011, at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.

The program is the first in a three-part series that will deal with the origins, the history, and the future of the Manzanar and Tule Lake Pilgrimages from the perspectives of those who were part of them.

The panel will also include Barbara Takei and Stan Shikuma, both active in the Tule Lake Committee. Read more of this post

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Manzanar National Historic Site: Special Program Schedule Set For Summer 2011

June 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

The following is a press release from the National Park Service.

INDEPENDENCE, CA — Since 2004, the National Park Service has invited special guest speakers to the Manzanar Interpretive Center, to share their unique experiences and perspectives with visitors. This summer’s programs are roughly 45 minutes, and offer opportunities for visitors to interact with presenters before and after their programs.

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


June 18, 19: Tom Takano Gives Talks at 11:00 AM and 1:30 PM

Educator Tom Takano will use both images and stories to discuss Manzanar as an icon of American history, and consider its place in our fast-changing world. Tom’s parents were confined at Gila River, Arizona. He will explore some of the important factors that led to World War II internment of Japanese Americans, as well as some of the reasons Manzanar remains relevant today.

July 3, 4: Arthur Ogami Gives Talks at 11:00 AM and 1:30 PM

Join Arthur and hear his wartime memories of Manzanar, Montana, Tule Lake, North Dakota, and Japan. Arthur arrived at Manzanar days after his twentieth birthday. He worked as an orderly at the Manzanar Hospital, and helped build some of the Manzanar gardens. He later transferred to the Segregation Center at Tule Lake with his family, and expatriated to Japan in 1945. 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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Two Views On Frank Seishi Emi: A True American Hero

December 4, 2010 8 Comments

LOS ANGELES — Last April, at the Manzanar At Dusk program that follows the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, when participants broke up into small groups to share their stories and insights about Manzanar, the Japanese American Internment experience, and how it remains relevant today, one thing struck me…

For the first time in the history of the program, we did not have enough former Japanese American concentration camp prisoners to go around.

Glen Kitayama (far left) joins NCRR members, including Frank Emi (second from right)
during a Los Angeles press conference hailing the signing of the
Civil Liberties Act of 1988 on August 10, 1988.
Photo: Gann Matsuda

At this event, young people, mostly college students, gather to share their feelings and insights about what they experienced at the Pilgrimage, and about the issues surrounding the camp experience. But, most of all, they come to the event to hear the stories directly from those who were forced to live behind barbed wire for more than three years, deprived of their constitutional rights. Read more of this post

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