On Feb. 29, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to amend the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The act, which allocates funding to the nation’s military and its activities, includes provisions that authorize the “indefinite detention” of American citizens suspected of terrorism without charge or trial. Feinstein, who opposed the bill last December with another [...]
S.F. DOR remembers civil rights icon Hirabayashi, urges vigilance
March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
On Feb. 19, hundreds gathered at the Bay Area Day of Remembrance (DOR), which was held at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco’s Japantown, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066. The order, signed by then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, authorized the mass incarceration of some 120,000 Nikkei during World [...]
LA DOR: Human Relations Chief Warns of Dangers in Defense Authorization Act
March 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES — Robin Toma, the executive director of Los Angeles County’s Human Relations Commission, warned about threats to human rights and civil liberties in the National Defense Authorization Act that President Barack Obama signed into law at the end of last year. Toma sounded the alarm during his keynote speech Feb. 18 at the [...]
Community fine-tunes city redistricting draft
February 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A little more than a dozen people met at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) on the evening of Feb. 15 to discuss the redistricting process in San Francisco’s 11 city districts. Japantown community members first became involved in the redistricting process when early drafts of the district boundaries drawn by [...]
Veterinarian works to save surviving animals in Fukushima
February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A long row of cows is crowded at a gate, their heads straining through the metal as if desperately reaching for food. All of them are dead. For Dr. Shigeki Imamoto, a veterinarian who travels to Fukushima Prefecture to save animals in communities devastated by last year’s disaster, this was not an uncommon sight. In [...]
Family of dementia patient files wrongful death suit against conservator, transit agencies
February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The family of a San Francisco dementia patient who died last year filed a wrongful death suit against transit agencies responsible for his transportation and his conservator for what they call elder abuse and negligence. San Francisco attorney Ingrid Evans announced the litigation in a news conference on Feb. 8 with members of Kenneth Chin’s [...]
A TIME TO REMEMBER: The 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066
February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
On Feb. 19, 1942, then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, setting the wheels in motion for one of the largest violations of civil liberties in the country’s history. The forced exclusion of those of Japanese descent from the West Coast — most of whom were American citizens — and their mass incarceration in [...]
THE GREAT DIVIDE: Community discusses redistricting in S.F.’s Japantown
February 10, 2012 By 1 Comment
Concerned members of the Japantown community and those of neighborhoods surrounding the ethnic enclave met on Feb. 3 to discuss the potential redistricting boundaries of San Francisco’s voting districts. One of the proposals suggested drawing a boundary that would result in the area north of Geary Boulevard leaving Japantown’s District 5 for District 2, which [...]
UCLA to sell treasured Japanese garden amid financial difficulty
January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The University of California, Los Angeles plans to sell its Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and the adjoining home to raise money for endowments, the institution announced in a statement issued in November of last year. The property, which is located a mile from the campus, in Bel Air, was a gift from Edward Carter, then [...]
iTOUR THROUGH HISTORY: New app allows digital media to teach about the Japanese American incarceration experience
January 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
Have the days when students learned about Japanese American history through textbooks gone by the wayside? As consumers latch on to the latest tech gadgets, some companies are using digital media to teach about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. From iPhone applications to video games, the emerging trend signals the innovative [...]
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