Japanese American community orgs to rally at 5 sites
to support NPCA’ s push to protect national parks.
By P.C. Staff
The Japanese American Citizens League has thrown its support behind the National Parks Conservation Association’s National Day of Action.
In its statement issued Aug. 22, JACL said it was “honored” to join the NPCA, several Japanese American organizations and individual supporters that will gather at five historic sites of importance to the Japanese American community, with most of the gatherings scheduled to take place Saturday, Aug. 23. All gatherings are free and open to the public.
The times and locations for the five sites of importance to the Japanese American Community gatherings are:
- 10–11:30 a.m. PDT at the Japanese American National Museum’s Norman Y. Mineta Democracy Plaza in Little Tokyo
- 10–11:30 a.m. PDT at the Seattle Waterfront’s Overlook Walk
- 2–4 p.m. PDT at the Manzanar National Historic Site
- 10–11:30 a.m. PDT at the Tule Lake National Monument
- 11 a.m. on Aug. 25 at on at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif.
“Our Japanese American community knows the importance of protecting historic sites firsthand,” the JACL said in its statement. “Several former incarceration sites now fall under the banner of the National Park Service, who help to steward, preserve, and honor these sites of shame. These centers include Manzanar, Tule Lake, Amache, Minidoka, Bainbridge Island and Honouliuli. It would be impossible to upkeep these historical sites and share our history with the broader American public without the support of the NPS.
These events are not sponsored or organized by the National Park Service.
Scheduled to speakers at the Los Angeles Day of Action include:
- Dana Fujiko Heatherton, Emcee/Chair, Japanese American Confinement Site Consortium
- Ann Burroughs, president and CEO, Japanese American National Museum
- Dennis Arguelles, National Parks Conservation Association
- Glen Kitayama, Manzanar Committee
- Kyoko Oda, World War II camp survivor who was incarcerated at Tule Lake
- Tak Hoshizaki, World War II camp survivor, incarcerated at Heart Mountain
- Abigail Chung, Nikkei Progressives (youth perspective)
- Yoshi Kuramoto, clergy and laity United for Economic Justice
- Pedro Trujillo, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
A map showing all the locations where other Day of Action gathering are taking place can be viewed at npca.org/campaigns/day-of-action.
The NPCA’s call for the Day of Action came after President Trump earlier this year issued a decree titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” an executive order that seeks to “ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”
According to JACL, Trump’s executive order is a “blatant attack on American history” that “has already led to the erasure of historical information at some National Park sites.” The civil rights organization is troubled also by the “appearance of QR codes at nearly every location within the NPS system” that visitors might use to report wording or information that might be deemed “disparaging,” even if historically factual or accurate.
The JACL also stated: “For those who are able to join in person, we urge you to attend one of the actions happening in your local area. It is a vital time to ensure that our histories, our parks, and the people who care for them to ensure the parks are not erased or forgotten.”
Organized in conjunction with NPCA, other organizations participating in the Day of Action in addition to JACL include:
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, CLUE Justice, Florin JACL, Go for Broke National Education Center, Great Leap, Japanese American Bar Association, Japanese American Confinement Site Consortium, Japanese American National Museum, Little Tokyo Community Council, Little Tokyo Historical Society, Little Tokyo Service Center, Los Angeles Conservancy, Manzanar Committee, National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, Nikkei Progressives Scout Troop 719 and Tuna Canyon Detention Station.
The JACL also shared the following Action Alert link in its statement: jacl.salsalabs.org/protect_our_parks/index.html
The entire JACL statement may be read at here.
