a mixed plate of Japanese American news and culture
In 2008 I voted for President Obama hoping for comparisons with Franklin D Roosevelt, a Democratic president who entered office amid a financial crisis and who used the federal government to help working people find and keep jobs. However, I did not expect or want my comparison to extend to FDR’s signing 70 years ago [...]
Dear Mr. Pete Hoekstra, You appealed to the general public on Super Bowl Sunday to vote for you, rather than that spendy Democrat incumbent of yours. That ad, which you say is not racist and not at all demeaning to Asians — and is actually just rhetoric against the taxing excess shown by Debbie Stabenow [...]
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 [...]
The latest Redistricting map for the Supervisor Districts in San Francisco is BAD news for J-Town. It places J-Town north of Geary in District 2 and south of Geary to remain in District 5. 1. J-Town does not start north of Geary Boulevard; it starts from Ellis Street where Rosa Parks Elementary School and the [...]
What is the impact of moving the voting boundary lines by dividing the Japanese community of San Francisco? That is precisely the intent of the new redistricting lines being drawn between District 2 (D2), Supervisor Mark Farrell’s district, which includes Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, Seacliff and the Marina. And if the people promoting this idea [...]
The death of Gordon Hirabayashi closes the chapter on some of the heroic actions taken by three Japanese Americans during WWII. Hirabayashi, Min Yasui and Fred Korematsu were all men who challenged the government over our illegal incarceration in the courts, and their cases went up to the Supreme Court of the United States. They [...]
It was through a news report in the early nineteen forties that I first became aware of the remarkable Gordon Hirabayashi. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor he had surrendered to the authorities and asked to be imprisoned for violating the curfew order that was imposed on all those of Japanese ancestry. He apparently disagreed [...]
Dear Erin Yasuda Soto, Thank you for your continued support for our work at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. Your article, “Labor of Love” (Jan. 5-11, 2012) described our farming exhibit reception and the artifacts beautifully. Aggie Idemoto, Ed.D., President, Japanese American Museum of San Jose
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 [...]
Jeremy Lin and Bruce Lee
All my life I’ve wondered exactly how Bruce Lee, the world’s greatest martial artist (at least in film), could be Asian, but there had never been a dominant, cat-quick, ninja-like point guard, akin to Allen Iverson, or Brandon Jennings — thin, wiry, yet strong and fluid, and SO quick you couldn’t stop him. As an [...]