Speaking Up! Democracy, Justice, Dignity
For the 25th anniversary of the Japanese American Redress legislation, the Japanese American National Museum presented its fourth national conference “Speaking Up! Democracy, Justice, Dignity” in Seattle, Washington from July 4 to 7, 2013. This conference brought fresh insights, scholarly analysis, and community perspectives to bear on the issues of democracy, justice, and dignity.
These articles stem from the conference and detail the Japanese American experiences from different perspectives.
Visit the conference website for program details >>
Stories from this series
A Trip to Cedarville
June 17, 2013 • Hiroshi Kashiwagi
It was near the closing of camp, when restrictions were being relaxed a bit, that I heard from our neighbor George about Mr. Crane, the Camp Reports Officer, taking a small group to entertain some high school students at Cedarville. Cedarville is in Modoc County, about 120 miles from Tule Lake. George and a few of his musician friends were going and he asked me if I would be interested in joining them. My first thought was “I don’t sing …
Lessons From the Japanese Canadian Experience - Part 3 of 3
June 12, 2013 • Maryka Omatsu
Read Part 2 >> LESSONS FROM THE JAPANESE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE Amateur volunteers working on a shoestring, we Japanese Canadian activists were armed with resolve and blessed with lucky timing. Post redress, other communities and struggles have examined the Japanese Canadian Redress victory to learn from our mistakes and successes. Of course, our experience is not necessarily transferable to other issues or locales.1 1. Determination Famed 16th century Japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi wrote, “Combat makes apparent something that already exists. A battle is …
Lessons From the Japanese Canadian Experience - Part 2 of 3
June 10, 2013 • Maryka Omatsu
Read Part 1 >> The Redress Campaign In 1980, the community’s long-time political voice, the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) decided to investigate redress possibilities. By 1984, the campaign began in earnest. The issue became national front page news, when then leader of the opposition, the Progressive Conservative leader Brian Mulroney challenged the Liberal Party leader, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, to do the right thing by Japanese Canadians. Initially within the Japanese Canadian community there were factions who needed to be …
Lessons From the Japanese Canadian Experience - Part 1 of 3
June 7, 2013 • Maryka Omatsu
I will begin with a story. Over a century ago, Japanese immigrants landed on North America’s shores brought by the warm waters of the “Kuroshio,” or Black Current, which travels a perpetual circle from Japan south to the Pacific Islands and then up along North America’s west coast and back again. Transplanted adventurous peasants from a feudal island, we helped to clear the forests, to harvest the seas, and to develop a virgin country. In those days, Japanese fishermen attached …
Radio Station KOBY in Medford, Oregon
May 30, 2013 • Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Daytime we could get only two radio stations—small town stations in Medford and Klamath Falls, Oregon that played incessantly. the women dug the lakebedand turned up seashellslong dormant in the sandsorted and cleanedpainted and shellackedthey became ornamental thingstrinkets and necklacesmade in captivity this is Radio Station KOBY in Medford, Oregon we took pieces of 2 x 4whittled and carved themmine were unremarkablebut old Yoshimoto-sanalways did womena shelf lined with themsevere and woodboundmore Egyptian than Japaneseall frontal and nude this is …
The Block Manager’s Canary
May 23, 2013 • Hiroshi Kashiwagi
I knew three block managers in camp—actually, four, as I was one myself. Though I don’t consider myself a regular block manager, since I served only a few months toward the end of camp when there was little administrative work. But recently a former resident of my block unnerved me by announcing to one and all, “He was our Block Manager!” I didn’t know how to take that. A block manager was indeed an important functionary in the block. He …