Dear Editor, The letter writer who wrote that Jane Beckwith should be replaced is way out of line. I maintain that if it wasn’t for Jane B. there probably wouldn’t even be a Topaz Museum! Instead of calling for her resignation, we should be thinking about holding a huge banquet in her honor. Fred M. Shinoda […]
Letters
LETTERS: A call for building trust and grieving
September 1, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Dear Nichi Bei Weekly, It is heartbreaking to read of the continued hurt and controversy over Mr. Wakasa’s memorial stone. Especially painful are the continued invalidating messages that only add to the trauma. Forgiveness can only come as a consequence of healing, a conscious choice that cannot be forced, and as an expansion of compassion. […]
LETTERS: Preserving the site of James Wakasa’s murder
June 9, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Dear Editor: I’m glad there is consideration for a professional archeological examination of the site of the Wakasa memorial stone. It is very appropriate as the stone marks the most important archeological artifact of Topaz camp. James Wakasa was a martyr and the site of his murder needs to be preserved and commemorated for future […]
LETTERS: The Wakasa stone
April 14, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Dear Editor, To quote Jesse Jackson, “We must turn to each other and not on each other.” I am referring to the current controversy in the Japanese American community regarding the damage done to the Wakasa memorial stone in the Topaz concentration camp grounds. The National Park Service Assessment Report was released in February itemizing […]
LETTERS: Author ‘ignores … primacy of racism’
February 3, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent in response to the ‘“Enemies among Us’ author protests book review” letter to the editor Dr. John E. Schmitz wrote, published in the Jan. 20, 2022 issue of the Nichi Bei Weekly. Dear Editor: John E. Schmitz charges me with misrepresentations concerning his book. He denies what he […]
LETTERS: ‘Enemies among Us’ author protests book review
January 20, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent in response to the “Enemies among Us: The relocation, internment, and repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during the Second World War” book review entitled ‘Composite history’ falls short,’ published in the Jan. 1, 2022 issue of the Nichi Bei Weekly. Dear Editor: As the author of […]
LETTERS: JA ‘offended’ by ‘desecration’ of James Wakasa’s ‘final resting place’
September 2, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent in response to the column entitled “The ‘desecration of sacred ground’ at Topaz†that appeared in the Aug. 19, 2021 issue of the Nichi Bei Weekly. Dear Editor: I have just learned they discovered the secretly buried James H. Wakasa memorial monument. Mr. Wakasa was a neighbor of […]
LETTERS: Wakasa monument statement from the Friends of Topaz
September 2, 2021 by Leave a Comment
August 30, 2021 To the Japanese American Community, We are the Friends of Topaz, a group of predominately Japanese American descendants of World War II Topaz concentration camp incarcerees, living in the San Francisco Bay Area. We exist to support the Topaz Museum because we believe in their mission to preserve Topaz stories and to […]
LETTERS: Bay Area Day of Remembrance underscores the need for unity
April 15, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent in response to the article entitled “Bay Area Day of Remembrance calls for reparations for African Americans†that appeared in the March 4, 2021 issue of the Nichi Bei Weekly. Dear Editor, Not being able to have an in-person event this year because of the pandemic, it was […]
LETTERS: COVID-19 and the national disasters
January 7, 2021 by Leave a Comment
In the United States as of Dec. 27, 2020, there were 331,524 COVID-19 deaths. This is from January through December of 2020, a one-year period. During World War II, from 1942 through 1945, in the four-year period the American casualty was around 400,000. We were fighting a war then and the military leaders were leading the […]
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