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A publication of the JACL Chicago Chapter

April-June 2020 No. 139

In this Issue:

page 1 JACL Chicago Celebrates 75 Years

page 3 JACL Chicago: Reflections of a Progressive Chapter

page 4 Nikkei Activism and Solidarity in a Pandemic

page 5 JACL Rebukes Arizona Legislator’s Comparisons of COVID-19 Quarantine to Japanese American Experience

page 6 Staying Connected to History at Home

page 7 Kansha Project 2020 Update

page 10 JACL Chicago Remembers Lillian Kimura and Helen Kawagoe

page 11 Thank You to Our Donors and Advertisers

page 12 Calendar of Events

Continued on page 3

On April 15, 2020 JACL Chicago celebrated our 75th anniversary. It was certainly an unusual moment in which to celebrate and not what we had planned. However, even if we are unable to gather together for a party, we are still able to reflect on

the past 75 years of JACL Chicago and honor all of those who got us to this milestone.

JACL Chicago was founded by 25 charter members, including Thomas Yatabe, George Hirua, William Hirua, Noboru Honda, Dixie Ishida, Togo Tanaka, Kumeo Yoshinari, and Bill Minami, who was the chapter’s first president. This group, largely, came to Chicago out of confinement and worked hard to establish a strong Japanese American community in the city. These social organizations, sports leagues, churches, temples, and more are the backbone of the Japanese American community that we still enjoy and grow in Chicago.

JACL Chicago has also been tied closely to the Midwest District Council and JACL National efforts. JACL Chicago member and Midwest District Governor Hiro Mayeda worked across the midwest advocating for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the 1970’s and 1980’s JACL Chicago and the Midwest District Council were very active in the redress movement. Midwest District Director Bill Yoshino worked with other JACL National leadership to craft the legislative strategy for the redress bill. When Chicago was selected as a site for a Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of

JACL Chicago Celebrates 75 YearsBy Lisa Doi, President

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Civilians, JACL Chicago member Chiye Tomihiro recruited and prepared speakers and dozens of JACL Chicago members testified before the committee. Throughout this time, JACL Chicago, through the leadership of Shig Wakamatsu, was also central to the Japanese American Research Project, a multi-decade long project chronicling Japanese American history.

JACL Chicago still centers its history of solidarity and collaboration in service of civil rights. Today, the chapter is the second largest in the country and runs a range of significant programs including the Kansha Project, which educates college-aged Midwestern Japanese

Article submission deadline for our next issue is 7/24/20.

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Current JACL ChiCAgo BoArd memBers And stAff At the 2019 ChApter AnnuAL meeting.

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JACL Chicago: Reflections of a Progressive ChapterBy Bill Yoshino

As JACL Chicago celebrates its 75th anniversary, I’ve been asked to reflect on my association with the

chapter. I was always proud to associate myself with JACL Chicago because it was always among the most progressive chapters in the organization. Unlike many chapters, the Nisei leadership in Chicago did not stubbornly hold on to the reins of power. Instead, they transferred leadership to the Sansei in the 1970s, which allowed for the dynamism of youth to invigorate the chapter.

This progressivism extended to the issues the chapter pursued. The chapter supported United Farm Workers grape boycott in the 1960s much to the consternation of Nisei farmers in California’s central valley. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the chapter was among the most active in efforts to repeal Title II of the Internal Security Act, which gave power to the government to detain and confine in emergencies. Mayor Richard Daley (the father) kicked JACL Chicago out of the Navy Pier Folk Fest because he thought the chapter was trying to make a political statement with its EO9066 exhibit.

And, JACL Chicago was at the forefront in removing the citizenship requirement for JACL membership.

There are many individuals I met along the way, leaders like Noby Honda, Shig Wakamatsu, and a long and distinguished line of chapter presidents. Among the most memorable were a couple of progressives, Lillian Kimura and Chiye Tomihiro.

Lillian Kimura is the person who persuaded me to become a member of the JACL National staff. The reason for my admiration, however, goes far beyond that not-so-gentle urging, as she was also a great friend and mentor.

Lillian was a singular force in the JACL just as she was in every activity she undertook. As an ardent advocate of the women’s rights movement of the 1970s, she interacted with civil rights icons such as Dorothy Height. Lillian brought that attitude for change to the JACL where she served as its first woman president in 1992 after first failing to win that position in 1980. She defied the gender stereotypes about women in leadership roles during a time when many Nisei men were truly threatened by her assertive nature.

There was an air of flamboyance about Lillian. I vividly recall how she would show up at JACL conventions wearing a fashionable hat, and then proceed to back up that fashion statement with authoritative and compelling statements on the convention floor. No one did it quite like Lillian.

Chiye Tomihiro always answered the call whenever anyone wanted to know about the World War II incarceration. Chiye represented JACL Chicago during the Redress campaign years of the 1980s. She was never without an opinion about the people she worked with or strategies we devised for the campaign. Nor was she ever disheartened, even during the protracted periods when nothing seemed to be happening. So whether it was helping to prepare witnesses for

Americans about the history of Japanese American incarceration, and Our Story, which provides trained speakers to local schools. We have recently run partnership programs with Arab Americans Action Network and often collaborate with other civil rights organizations, including recent efforts to combat anti-Asian American racism in the era of COVID-19.

We will, one day, get together again to celebrate. Until then, thank you for all of your work, donations, and support. We would not have been able to make this anniversary without you.

the Redress hearings at Northeastern Illinois University, lobbying members of the Illinois congressional delegation, or procuring endorsements, she was always there.

As with all Nisei, the incarceration left an indelible mark on Chiye. I often accompanied her when she told her story at schools and other venues. She recalled, as a high school senior, her confinement at the Portland Assembly Center when some of her classmates came to visit her. She recounted this meeting with her on one side of the barbed wire and her classmates on the other. Chiye described it as the most humiliating experience of her life. Her audiences were always spellbound by the stories she told and the lessons she conveyed.

There is nothing to suggest that the social justice mission of JACL Chicago has become irrelevant. Progress in the name of civil rights for communities of color has been disrupted in recent years. What began as attacks against political correctness have become blatant efforts to undermine decades of social justice advancement. The need for JACL Chicago remains now more than ever. VOTE!

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A t the last in-person Nikkei Uprising meeting on March 8, we were busy planning fundraisers and working

out trip details for the Tsuru for Solidarity National Pilgrimage to Close the Camps. Energy was high and everything was falling into place. An intergenerational group of about 50 people (and growing!) from Chicago were committed to going on the Pilgrimage. Many Nikkei leaders, organizations, businesses and faith institutions, and cross-community partners, had supported the Pilgrimage with outreach, fold-ins, and fundraising. It was humbling and inspiring to witness the strength and commitment of the Nikkei community and our allies standing together to say “Never Again” and demand justice in the ways we wished more people had in 1942. At the meeting someone asked, “Has there been any thought to whether the Pilgrimage might be canceled because of the coronavirus?” and, not quite being ready to face this possibility, we decided to revisit the question later.

Just a week later, schools and businesses

Nikkei Activism and Solidarity in a PandemicBy Anne Watanabe, Next Generation Nikkei Board Member

rapidly closed down and states issued stay-at-home orders. As we struggled to make sense of this new reality, we realized that for many people trapped in detention centers, jails and prisons, this pandemic was akin to a death sentence

- in these places, social distancing is impossible and basic

sanitation supplies like soap are scarce or not being provided. We looked to our history for what this could mean.

The harsh climate, poor sanitation, crowding and lack of medical resources in the Japanese American WWII camps contributed to many outbreaks of infectious disease: polio, dysentery, mumps, valley fever, measles, chicken pox. Satsuki Ina, one of the co-chairs of Tsuru for Solidarity, recounted her own experience getting chickenpox: “sickness was a familiar way of life for many of us inside the prison camp.” As Jewish activists at Never Again Action

have said, “Anne Frank didn’t die in a gas chamber. She died because she caught an infectious disease in a concentration camp.” In recent years, children in ICE custody have died of preventable causes like dehydration, infections, or the flu. If these were the conditions

already, what do they look like during a pandemic?

These realities are difficult to look at and the conditions are challenging, but many are finding creative ways to support each other and fight for the world that we want. On April 7, several Nikkei Uprising members joined a “car rally” at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, ICE Headquarters and Cook

top: Youth pArtiCipAted in A “foLd-in” At Christ ChurCh of ChiCAgo eArLier this YeAr.

Bottom: in JAnuArY, CommunitY memBers gAthered At the ChiCAgo nikkei And ALLies get on the Bus: nAtionAL piLgrimAge info session.

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Follow Next Generation Nikkei Online!

www.facebook.com/NextGenNikkeiwww.instagram.com/NextGenNikkei

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County Jail, organized by the Chicago Community Bond Fund and partner organizations. We demanded a mass release, especially of the elderly and immunocompromised, children and youth, and those with unaffordable money bonds. Cook County Jail, one of the epicenters of COVID-19 in the US, already has over 500 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 7 deaths. Thousands of people are incarcerated pre-trial, without having been sentenced—many simply because they cannot afford to pay their bond.

In March, Nikkei Uprising members joined Tsuru for Solidarity, Detention Watch Network, and local groups such as Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) in digital action days, calling and emailing governors and ICE Field Directors to demand the release of immigrants. In April, we joined an OCAD press conference in support of Francisco Torres, drawing connections between the WWII incarceration and the detention of Francisco and other immigrants today. Francisco, a former Buddhist Temple of Chicago member, spent nearly two years in ICE detention even after he was granted relief twice by an immigration judge. After much dedicated organizing by OCAD

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In a May 18 hearing before the Arizona House Rules Committee, Chairman Anthony Kern took the stand-alone bill to honor civil rights advocate, Fred Korematsu (SB 1352),

and moved it into a legislative package titled, “COVID-19 Enforcement, Action and Liability.” In his explanation, Mr. Kern equated the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans and the struggles of Fred Korematsu with Arizona’s COVID-19 safer-at-home order. Mr. Kerns proceeded to dismiss any relationship between the rhetoric of COVID-19 and an uptick in violence against Asian Americans. JACL rejects the initial comparison as an insult to both the legacy of Mr. Korematsu and to the Japanese Americans who suffered the unconstitutional injustices of incarceration. Moreover, JACL reaffirms the power of words to unite, divide, heal, or to incite. Words have consequences.

JACL Rebukes Arizona Legislator’s Comparisons of COVID-19 Quarantine to Japanese American Experience

JACL Arizona Chapter President Donna Cheung states, “As an Arizonan who experienced the safer-at-home order, I was free to move about without threat of arrest or incarceration. Unlike the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes during World War II and made to endure sweltering deserts, freezing winters and/or treacherous swamplands, with only bare-bone shelters and supplies at hand, while under the constant watch of armed guards, unlike them, I continue to enjoy the privilege of returning to my home and sleeping in my bed under air conditioning. To equate the hardships and trauma of our Japanese American elders with COVID-19 orders is beyond false equivalency. It is obscene.”

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During this time while we are spending more time inside, we can use this opportunity to learn new things or explore topics in more depth. Because of the circumstances, our

speakers have not been able to provide in-person Our Story presentations this spring as we had hoped. But we encourage you and your families to continue exploring Japanese American stories, history, and legacy today—check out some of these great free resources that are available online!

The Orange Story www.theorangestory.org

The Orange Story is a digital history project that teaches the history of Japanese American WWII confinement through narrative, cinematic storytelling. The film, from Chicago-based Full Spectrum Features, focuses on Koji Oshima, a grocery store owner, when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Koji must leave nearly everything behind as he reports to an assembly center.

In addition to this film, The Orange Story website also serves as an educational resource. You may either watch the film in full or alongside archival documents, images, and oral histories that are built into the website.

Densho - Core Story www.densho.org/core-story/

Densho is a great resource containing an extensive encyclopedia and digital archives that include oral histories, photos, and documents regarding Japanese American history. Through the

Staying Connected to History at HomeBy Mari Yamagiwa, Programs Manager

“Core Story” module, visitors learn the basics of WWII Japanese American incarceration through the use of short essays and videos. Topics include the pre-war Japanese American community, the concentration camps, redress efforts, various community responses to incarceration, and the relevance of this history today.

After gaining an understanding of the core story of the Japanese American incarceration, I encourage you to explore topics that piqued your interest more in-depth in the Densho Encyclopedia and Digital Archives.

TADAIMA! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage June 13 – August 16, 2020 www.jampilgrimages.com

Annual pilgrimages to Japanese American WWII incarceration sites provide educational, reflective, and community-building opportunities for descendants of incarcerees, the larger Japanese American community, and general public. Due to canceling of all annual pilgrimages to Japanese American incarceration sites this year, TADAIMA! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage is a virtual event that will take place from June 13th to August 16th.

Through this virtual event that will be hosted on the Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages website, participants will be able to engage with programming including online exhibits, workshops, performances, film screenings, panel discussions, and more.

Other helpful resources:

Densho Learning Center www.densho.org/learning-center/

A resource for people who are teaching WWII Japanese American incarceration utilizing primary sources.

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Discover Nikkei www.discovernikkei.org/en/resources/lessonplans/

A lesson plan database for educational resources on topics related to Nikkei.

PBS - Asian Americans www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/

PBS is airing its five-hour documentary series, in three parts, that delivers a new perspective on Asian American history. Each episode of the film series will be available online until early June.

There is also a curriculum that draws from the content and themes of the documentary and presents it in 36 lesson plans. You may find the curriculum that goes with the documentary series here:

www.advancingjustice-la.org/what-we-do/curriculum-lesson-plans/asian-americans-k-12-education-curriculum

We wish you the best as you continue to learn and grow during this time!

Follow Kansha Project!

www.facebook.com/KanshaProjectwww.instagram.com/KanshaProject

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and Francisco’s community, we received the beautiful news that he was finally released on bond on March 8. He was able to surprise his mother by coming home for Mother’s Day.

Nikkei Uprising is still trying to understand what our next steps are in this new climate. The National Pilgrimage will now be held virtually on June 5-6, with online healing circles and virtual/social-distancing actions, and we invite you to join us. We plan to organize a Nikkei #ShareMyCheck campaign, joining the call for those who have financial security to share part or all of our stimulus checks with frontline communities and relief funds. As a community that has fought for and

received reparations for injustice, we will share our stimulus checks as an act of solidarity, a recognition of the reparations still needed for so many other communities, knowing that undocumented and incarcerated people will not receive checks at all. We will continue building partnerships with local organizations working to free immigrants from detention and inviting our communities to support their work.

My grandparents were incarcerated in Tashme and Lillouet in Canada during WWII, and my father, who passed away in 2012, was incarcerated in a Philadelphia jail when I was a teenager. At the Cook County Jail, I wondered what it would

have been like if my Sansei dad were still alive, and how maybe he would have joined me at a car rally or to make phone calls for decarceration. I felt his presence with us as we circled the jail, honking our horns, seeing people on the inside holding signs from their cell windows saying “Help us”. While the work can feel heavy, we are always standing on the shoulders of our elders and ancestors.

Although we may not be able to gather in person for months, we have deep kansha (gratitude) for the Nikkei community’s beautiful support for the National Pilgrimage over the past 6 months. We especially thank our formerly incarcerated elders for their leadership and support for

Nikkei Activism and Solidarity continued

this work. It was truly inspiring to see Nikkei powerfully come together across geography and generations. We want to continue this work with you, and are figuring it out as we go.

To donate to OCAD’s COVID-19 support for undocumented families fund, visit www.donorbox.org/sponsor-a-case. Their fund supports families like Francisco’s who are fighting deportation cases while also often losing income due to the COVID crisis.

To connect with Nikkei Uprising, email us at nikkeiuprising@gmail.com or follow our facebook page at www.facebook.com/NikkeiUprising/

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Join or Renew Your Membership to JACL Chicago Today!The JACL is a community organization that ensures the protection of your rights. Help us continue to be a strong voice for you and your family by supporting us with your membership.

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In April, JACLers across the country mourned the loss of the first and second female JACL National Board presidents.

Lillian Kimura was a true trailblazer in JACL as the first woman to be elected JACL National President. Her election did not come easily but was hard-fought and a result of years of advocacy led by her and others within the organization.

Throughout her career, Kimura was a tireless advocate for civil rights through all of her work at the YWCA where she rose to the position of Associate Executive Director. The year of her election

heralded JACL resolutions condemning sexual harassment, supporting family leave, and supporting a woman’s right to choose abortion. Over the next two years, JACL increasingly supported gay rights including the right to serve in the military, culminating in a 1994 resolution supporting gay marriage.

Just before Kimura’s passing, JACL also lost Helen Kawagoe. Kawagoe, the second woman to be elected as JACL National President, ran unopposed at the San Jose Convention and served two terms from 1996 to 2000. Upon entering her presidency, she wanted to focus on re-engineering JACL. She accomplished this perhaps best through the influence she had on many younger JACLers who have now moved up to positions of leadership in the organization including future chapter presidents and national presidents.

Though she was the second woman to the JACL Presidency, Kawagoe had already been the first Japanese American woman in the continental United States to hold a municipal office when

elected City Clerk to Carson City in 1974, a position she would hold until 2011 when she retired due to declining health. Shortly after retiring, the Carson City Council Chambers were named for her.

JACL Chicago Remembers Lillian Kimura and Helen KawagoeBy Lisa Doi, President

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As JACL continues to caution against the use of the Japanese American experience in comparisons with COVID-19, Cheung adds: “The hijacking of the Korematsu bill, for purposes other than its original intent, erodes trust between elected officials and public citizens. It undermines the integrity of the Arizona legislative process. Ironically, as the chairman demonstrated, the history of Japanese Americans is deemed valuable enough to exploit, but the protection of Asian Americans, from rhetoric-induced violence, remains a non-existent afterthought. However, just as

JACL Rebukes Arizona Legislator’s Comparisons continued

Fred Korematsu encouraged us to speak plainly about injustice, he also emphasized the need to educate. In that spirit, should any Arizona legislator wish to learn more about the Japanese American experience, I am open for such a discussion.”

David Inoue, Executive Director dinoue@jacl.org, 202-607-7273

Donna Cheung, President, Japanese American Citizens League, Arizona Chapter, ArizonaJACL@gmail.com

Sarah Baker, VP Public Affairs sbaker@jacl.org

If there are community members whose lives we can remember, you may submit a remembrance of no more than 150 words to info@jaclchicago.org for publication in future issues of the JACLer.

Please note that submissions may be edited for length, grammar, and content.

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Thank You to Our Donors and Advertisers! (Donors as of 4/27//2020)

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General

Nancy KondoBenjamin TaniHarriet ItanoNancy ToyamaChristine MunteanuJohn Lovestrand

Kansha Project

Fumiko Matsushita

Education

Bob Brown and Phyllis Tamada-Brown

Tsuru For Solidarity

Reuben Balik Laurie Hogetsu Belzer Allison Bernstein (In honor of Michelle Anne and all she does for the community)

Christ Church of Chicago Judith Dixon (In honor of Sherwood Dixon)

Michael Frankenstein Neil Kanemoto Edward Koizumi (In honor of Seiichi Koizumi)

Cori Lin (In honor of Eva Long)

Rebecca Reber (In honor of Sam Koizumi)

Patty Reilly-Murphy (In honor the birthday of Lourdes Nicholls and her dedication)

Dawn Yone OkamotoBrian Ozaki Diane Sakai-Furuta David Y. Ueunten JJ UeuntenAaron Wolfson

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Calendar of Events

Wednesday, May 13 7:00pm – 9:00pm JACL Chicago Board Meeting

June 6 - 7 Tsuru for Solidarity: Virtual Protest to Close the Camps Registration is available at www.tsuruforsolidarity.org/tsururising

Wednesday, June 10 7:00pm – 9:00pm JACL Chicago Board Meeting

June 13 - August 16 TADAIMA! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage More information on www.jampilgrimages.com

Wednesday, July 8 7:00pm – 9:00pm JACL Chicago Board Meeting

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