WASHINGTON — Rep. Michael Honda (D-San Jose) introduced a bipartisan resolution honoring U.S. veterans who were held as prisoners of war during World War II, according to a statement his office issued June 22. The resolution commemorates the men and women who were taken as U.S. prisoners of war in the Pacific. It also commends […]
History
National Park Service to award $2.9 million in JA Confinement Site grants
June 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON — The National Park Service will award 24 grants that total $2.9 million to preserve and interpret sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II. This year — the grant program’s third — the awards will provide $2.9 million to projects in 11 states, Secretary of the Interior […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The Japanese American fight for gay and lesbian rights
June 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
This week’s piece represents a fifth entry in the series of annual columns I have produced for Nichi Bei on the Queer heritage of Japanese Americans. In past pieces I have looked at the hidden and sometimes complex sexual history of early Japanese immigrants; the evolution of widespread anti-gay prejudice in mid-century Japanese communities, […]
IMPORTING AMERICA’S PASTIME: The 75th anniversary of U.S. ball players in Japan
June 10, 2011 by 1 Comment
Japan’s love affair with baseball began in the early 1880s and this shared passion created an enduring bond with the United States, surviving even through war. In fact, in Nicholas Dawidoff’s book “The Catcher Was a Spy,†the author notes that after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Major League ballplayer Moe Berg pleaded with […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: Multiracial pacifist and activist, Yone Stafford
June 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment
One of the more pleasant aspects of doing “The Great Unknown†is the responses that I get to my columns from readers, including friends and family members of the people whom I write about. They not only offer praise but provide additional information and inspire further work. Not long ago I did a column about […]
A student’s perspective on her first pilgrimage to Manzanar
May 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment
When I heard about the Manzanar Pilgrimage, I immediately perked up from my seat in Professor Wayne Maeda’s “Intro to Ethnics†class. I knew that I had to go on this trip as soon as possible because my grandparents were incarcerated in such concentration camps during World War II. I was nervous when I arrived […]
PASSAGEWAY FOR PIONEERS: Exhibit at China Cabin, part of the ship that brought first Japanese settlers to America, depicts voyage of Wakamatsu colonists
April 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
BELVEDERE, Calif. — An unassuming hall overlooks the gentle waters facing San Francisco in the sleepy bedroom community of Belvedere, Calif., located north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. Yet the Victorian social saloon itself is steeped in history, particularly as it relates to the Japanese experience in America. Today it is […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The life and times of resister Gordon Hirabayashi (Part 2)
April 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Note: This is the second of a two-part column. In 1951 Gordon Hirabayashi defended his doctoral thesis in sociology. His subject was the adaptation and status of the Doukhobors in British Columbia’s Slocan Valley. It was an intriguing choice of subject. Members of this sect of pacifist Christians from Russia, who believed in holding land […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: The life and times of resister Gordon Hirabayashi (Part 1 of 2)
April 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment
As we remember the wartime removal of Japanese Americans, one outstanding figure to celebrate is Gordon Hirabayashi, a man of principle whose legal challenge to official injustice went all the way to the Supreme Court. Jeanne Sakata’s 2007 play “Dawn’s Light†has now brought Hirabayashi’s wartime tale exploits to countless audiences. However, there is a […]
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Call for artwork and stories from WWII camps
About five years ago I met Mrs. Rosalie Gould, the former mayor of McGehee, Ark. and a strong advocate for teaching and visiting the Japanese American concentration camps in her community. Mrs. Gould told me she had a collection of children’s artworks in her spare room and welcomed me to see them. I was absolutely […]