Saving Riverside’s Chinatown and funding for camp sites

Vol. 148, No. 5, March 20, 2009. 16 pages. View this issue

The fight to save the artifacts of Riverside’s historic Chinatown from development led this issue, with Lynda Lin reporting on a coalition that included the Riverside JACL. Preservation ran through other pages too. President Obama signed a funding bill with $1 million for the Confinement Sites Preservation Program, a visitor’s center was being considered at Honouliuli, and work neared completion on the first phase of the Heart Mountain interpretive center. Commentary included Americo Bugliani’s account of a kindness shown to him by Paul Sakamoto of the 100th Battalion in wartime Italy, and Harry Honda’s recap of the JACL Tri-District Conference.

Also inside are news of the Minidoka Internment National Monument, the JACL’s marriage equality efforts, San Jose Japantown’s stalled development plan, and a profile of actress Lynn Chen. The Pacific Citizen’s own New America Media Award is reported on page 2.

What’s in this issue

Commentary

• A Debt of Gratitude, by Americo Bugliani, page 2. The author recounts how, as a 12-year-old boy in wartime Italy, a Nisei soldier named Paul Sakamoto from the 100th Battalion showed him kindness and gave him gifts before heading into combat. Decades later, after moving to the U.S. and joining the Chicago Nisei Post, he tracked down and reunited with Sakamoto in Hawaii in 1995.
• Mochi, Tweeting and ‘Top News’, by Margie Yamamoto, page 2. The author reflects on food fusion trends like chocolate peanut butter mochi and Korean kalbi tacos discovered via Twitter in Los Angeles, contrasting it with her preference for traditional, detail-oriented Japanese cuisine. She also describes how the Pacific Citizen’s new e-mail and web updates exemplify effective use of technology, urging readers to support the Spring Campaign that funds these improvements.
• Thumbs Up for CCDC’s Tri-District, by Harry Honda, page 8. Harry Honda recaps the JACL Tri-District Conference hosted by the Central California District Council, highlighting sessions on internment and redress, a Fresno Bee tribute to the Pinedale Assembly Center memorial, and remarks by keynote speaker Norman Mineta on the ongoing relevance of internment-era civil rights lessons. He also praises panel discussions with figures like Justice James Ardaiz and ambassador Phillip Sanchez.
• Twitter-pated: It’s a Hyper-Broadcasted Life, by Peter Shigeki Frandsen, page 8. The author humorously reflects on the pervasiveness of blogging and Twitter culture, from personal relationship blogs to politicians tweeting during closed-door negotiations. He questions whether society’s growing appetite for hyper-broadcasting personal minutiae is sustainable or healthy.

JACL

• P.C. Wins New America Media Award, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The Pacific Citizen won first place at the New America Media Awards. Assistant editor Lynda Lin won in the Arts category, as recognized by the awards’ directors.
• Taguba to be Honored for Courage, Inspiration, by Pacific Citizen Staff, page 7. Major General Antonio Taguba, known for his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, will receive the Special Recognition Honor at the Sixth Annual Asian Heritage Awards. He is only the second Filipino American to reach the rank of major general in the U.S. Army.
• Norimoto Receives Human Relations Award, by Pacific Citizen Staff, page 7. Tamon Norimoto received the Santa Clara County Human Relations Award for his leadership with South Bay First Thursdays, a forum for APA professionals. Norimoto serves as development director for Asian Americans for Community Involvement.
• Taubkin Receives High JAVA Award, Honorary Life Membership, by Pacific Citizen Staff, page 7. The Japanese American Veterans Association honored Kiyoko Tsuboi Taubkin with its ‘Honor, Courage, Patriotism’ Award for her work preserving the legacy of the WWII JA experience. She donated New York Times stock to JAVA and received a lifetime membership and commemorative coin.
• Mori Receives Diversity Award, by Pacific Citizen Staff, page 7. Cheryl Miyuki Mori, a Utah Bar member and JACL member, received the Raymond S. Uno Award for the Advancement of Minorities in the Legal Profession. She was recognized for her work promoting racial and ethnic diversity within the legal profession in Salt Lake City.
• APAICS Creates Marumoto Memorial Fund, by P.C. Staff, page 11. The Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies established a memorial fund honoring its late president William H. ‘Mo’ Marumoto, who passed away last November. The fund aims to raise $50,000 by May and $100,000 by year’s end in recognition of his decades of public service and volunteerism.
• JACL, OCA Host Reception for White House Staffer Tina Tchen, by P.C. Staff, page 12. JACL and OCA hosted a reception for Tina Tchen, the newly appointed director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, at the OCA National Center. Tchen said the White House is making a concerted effort to reach out to the APA community.

In-Depth

• Fight to Save Riverside’s Chinatown Is a Pan-Asian Effort, by Lynda Lin, page 3. Preservationists and community members, including the Riverside JACL, are fighting to save a 4.2-acre site containing artifacts from Riverside’s historic Chinatown from being developed into a medical building. The controversy has galvanized a broad coalition of residents and organizations who argue the site represents important shared American and Asian Pacific American history that must be protected rather than excavated for development.
• Austin’s Local Asian American History Comes to Life, by Caroline Aoyagi-Stom, page 4. The Austin History Center is working to document and archive the rich history of Austin’s Asian American community, including pioneering Chinese American families like the Sings and Wongs and the legacy of Japanese American gardener Isamu Taniguchi. Neighborhood liaison Esther Chung is collecting oral histories and artifacts to ensure Asian American contributions to the city are not forgotten.
• SFSU Web Video Honors Famed JA Artist Ruth Asawa, by P.C. Staff, page 13. A new nine-minute web video, ‘Ruth Asawa: Community Artist,’ celebrates the legacy of the San Francisco artist and former WWII internee, known for her wire sculptures and creation of SFSU’s Garden of Remembrance honoring interned JA students. The project was funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, which also supported a related multimedia piece, ‘Transcending Generations.’
• Work Wrapping Up on Phase 1 of Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, by P.C. Staff and Associated Press, page 13. Construction is nearing completion on the first phase of a $5.5 million interpretive center at the Heart Mountain WWII internment camp site in Wyoming, with a grand opening planned for summer 2010. A section will be named the Mineta/Simpson Friendship Hall honoring former internee Norman Mineta and Sen. Alan Simpson’s decades-long friendship.

Community

• Update: San Jose Japantown, by P.C. Staff, page 3. A $200 million mixed-use development plan for San Jose’s Japantown has stalled after the Exclusive Negotiations Agreement between developer Williams & Dame and the city expired. The Japantown Community Congress of San Jose will hold an April 4 town hall meeting to discuss community priorities.
• Livingston-Merced JACL to Host Teacher-Training Workshop, by P.C. Staff, page 10. The Livingston-Merced JACL is sponsoring an April 4 teacher-training workshop as part of the Merced Assembly Center Project to educate current and future teachers about the WWII Japanese American internment and the Redress Movement. The workshop will be filmed for broader educational use and aims to expand the chapter’s speaker’s bureau to include Sansei voices.
• JACL, OCA Hold Successful Leadership Conference, by P.C. Staff, page 11. JACL and OCA hosted their 11th annual joint D.C. Leadership Conference, training community members through sessions with national experts, lawmakers, and community leaders including Sen. Daniel Inouye and Congressman Mike Honda. Participants also visited the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II.
• College of San Mateo to Award Honorary Degrees to Former JA Students, by Pacific Citizen Staff, page 11. The College of San Mateo will award honorary associate degrees on May 29 to former Japanese American students whose education was interrupted by WWII internment, though organizers are still seeking addresses for many of the 45 identified students. The effort parallels California legislative pushes like AB 37, which would mandate similar honorary degrees statewide.
• Miyatake Photos That Tell Nikkei Story Are Now Online, by P.C. Staff, page 12. The Japanese American National Museum added 500 more images from its Toyo Miyatake/Rafu Shimpo Collection to its website and is asking the community to help identify people, places, and events in the photos. The collection spans decades of Southern California Nikkei community history captured by Toyo Miyatake Studios for the Rafu Shimpo.
• JANM to Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Pavilion Opening, by P.C. Staff, page 12. The Japanese American National Museum will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its pavilion’s opening with a year of programs, beginning with an April 25 gala dinner recognizing major donors and former president Irene Hirano. The pavilion, which opened in 1999, has welcomed a million visitors and Hirano will be honored for her 20 years of leadership.
• UCLA Receives Grant to Revive Oldest Student-Run API Magazine in Nation, by P.C. Staff, page 12. UCLA student journalists received a $1,500 grant from Campus Progress to continue publishing Pacific Ties, the nation’s oldest student-run Asian American Pacific Islander magazine, founded in 1977. The magazine covers campus life, politics, arts, and cultural issues relevant to the AAPI community.

National

• President Signs Funding Bill for Confinement Sites Program, by P.C. Staff, page 5. President Obama signed the Omnibus Appropriations Act, which includes $1 million for the Confinement Sites Preservation Program to help preserve WWII Japanese American incarceration sites. The Japanese American National Heritage Coalition, including JACL, had worked for years to secure this funding after it was authorized in 2006 but delayed under the Bush administration.
• Hope for a Visitor’s Center at Honouliuli May Become Reality, by Pacific Citizen Staff, page 5. Community leaders and the JACL are working with landowner Monsanto Corp. to establish a visitor’s center at Honouliuli, a lesser-known WWII internment site in Hawaii. The site is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, and advocates hope it will be designated a historic site managed by the National Park Service.
• VA Hospital Permanently Replaces WWII Display, by Associated Press and P.C. Staff, page 5. A VA hospital director in Indianapolis permanently replaced a framed newspaper display with the headline ‘Japs Surrender’ with one reading ‘Peace!’ after complaints about the offensive term. Veterans groups have vowed to continue fighting for the original headline’s return, while others, including family of a 442nd veteran, supported the change.
• Groups Still Pushing for Marriage Equality, by P.C. Staff and Associated Press, page 6. Asian Pacific American groups including the JACL continue efforts to overturn California’s Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban, supporting a ballot measure to replace the term ‘marriage’ with ‘domestic partnership’ while preserving equal rights. JACL has a long history of supporting marriage equality, including amicus briefs dating back to the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case.
• Support for Hawaii Civil Union Vote Wavering, by Mark Niesse, Associated Press Writer, page 6. A bill to make Hawaii the fifth state to allow same-sex civil unions is at risk of failing despite majority support among lawmakers, after a tie committee vote and opposition rallies from religious groups. Senate leaders remain divided on whether to use a rare constitutional provision to bring the bill to a full vote.
• National Newsbytes, by P.C. Staff, page 6. Brief news items include a memorial fund for slain San Francisco restaurateur Ryosuke Yoshioka, a legal challenge to Omaha’s minority contractor preference rules, community aid for Myanmar refugees in Frederick, Md., a wave of home invasion robberies targeting APAs in Philadelphia, and a Twitter exchange between Sen. John McCain and Rep. Mike Honda over funding for the San Jose Japanese American Museum.
• EPA to Withdraw from Idaho Feedlot Agreements, by P.C. Staff and Associated Press, page 7. The EPA is withdrawing from agreements with Idaho regulating animal feedlots, asserting more direct federal oversight amid a lawsuit to block a large dairy from being built near the Minidoka Internment National Monument. Officials say the change will have limited practical impact but reflects a shift toward increased federal enforcement.
• After Years in the Brig, Al-Marri Gets His Day in Court, by P.C. Staff and Associated Press, page 7. Ali al-Marri, held for years as an enemy combatant without charge, appeared in a U.S. criminal court after President Obama ordered him transferred to civilian authorities and indicted on terrorism-related charges. JACL, drawing parallels to WWII Japanese American incarceration, signed on as amici in al-Marri v. Spagone challenging indefinite military detention of legal U.S. residents.
• Dartmouth Students Send Racist E-mail About School’s Next President, by Associated Press and P.C. Staff, page 10. Dartmouth students apologized after sending a racist e-mail mocking incoming college president Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the first Asian American to lead an Ivy League school, using slurs and stereotypes. JACL condemned the incident and offered to meet with Dartmouth administrators to discuss the impact of such racial slurs on APA communities.
• APA Journalist Being Held in Iran Is Not Being Tortured, by P.C. Staff and Associated Press, page 10. American journalist Roxana Saberi, born to an Iranian father and Japanese mother, showed no visible signs of torture during a prison visit from her lawyer while detained in Iran. Media and journalism groups, including the Asian American Journalists Association, are calling for her release amid concerns about press freedom in Iran.

Arts & Entertainment

• Los Angeles Theatre to Honor APA Entertainers, by Pacific Citizen Staff, page 7. East West Players will honor filmmaker Jessica Yu, actor John Cho, dance group Quest Crew, and the California Community Foundation at its 43rd Anniversary Visionary Award Dinner. The April 27 event at the Hilton Universal City will benefit the theatre’s educational and artistic programs.
• Purely a Struggling Artist Thing, by Lynda Lin, page 9. Actress Lynn Chen, known for her role in ‘Saving Face,’ discusses stepping back from mainstream Hollywood to focus on independent APA film projects like ‘White on Rice’ without an agent or manager. She reflects candidly on the emotional highs and lows of pursuing an acting career and her interest in music and writing as alternative creative outlets.
• Snapshot: Dave Boyle, 27, by Lynda Lin, page 9. A brief profile reveals lesser-known facts about filmmaker Dave Boyle, including his fluency in Japanese learned during a Latter Day Saints mission to Australia, his childhood dream of being a comic strip artist, and his first film job as a security guard.

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