Redress support grows as JACL weighs a loan for the LEC

Vol. 102, No. 24, June 20, 1986. 8 pages. View this issue

Redress filled the front page of this June 20, 1986 issue. New York Mayor Edward Koch wrote to LEC executive director Grayce Uyehara in support of redress bills H.R. 442 and S. 1053, and Rep. Eugene Chappie announced he would co-sponsor H.R. 442. The JACL Endowment Committee, chaired by Tomio Moriguchi, offered a loan of $25,000 per quarter in place of the grant the JACL-LEC had asked for. Roy Nishikawa’s column on page 4 argued against using the Endowment Fund principal for the LEC, and Grayce Uyehara’s LEC update followed on page 5.

Also inside: a profile of Yori Wada, the only Asian American appointed a University of California regent, continued on page 8, and coverage of a Los Angeles program on the Navajo relocation at Big Mountain, Arizona. A memorial at the Amache camp cemetery honored 31 Nisei soldiers, and the paper noted the burial of astronaut Ellison Onizuka in Hawaii. Columns by Bill Marutani and Bill Hosokawa round out page 4 and page 5.

What’s in this issue

National

• N.Y. Mayor Supports Financial Compensation, by P.C. Staff, page 1. New York Mayor Edward Koch sent a letter to LEC executive director Grayce Uyehara expressing support for redress bills H.R. 442 and S. 1053. Koch acknowledged the enormous cost but argued that the wartime injustice committed against Japanese Americans warranted monetary redress.
• JAs Asked to Fight Navajo Relocation, by J.K. Yamamoto, page 1. Over 650 people attended a NCRR program in Los Angeles featuring the documentary ‘Broken Rainbow’ about Navajo and Hopi resistance to a law requiring Navajo relocation from Big Mountain, Arizona. Speakers urged Japanese Americans to help repeal Public Law 93-531, drawing parallels between the Navajo relocation and the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
• Calif. Republican to Co-Sponsor Redress Bill, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Rep. Eugene Chappie, a California Republican, announced he will co-sponsor redress bill H.R. 442, becoming the ninth co-sponsor since the April 28 hearing. Rep. Norman Mineta praised the grassroots lobbying efforts that led to the growing list of co-sponsors, including Marysville JACL’s outreach to Chappie.

JACL

• Endowment Committee Proposes Alternative Plan, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The JACL Endowment Committee declined to endorse a grant application from JACL-LEC and instead proposed a loan at $25,000 per quarter, with repayment due Sept. 1, 1989. Committee chair Tomio Moriguchi said the recommendation would preserve the National Council’s authority on the matter while keeping the JACL Headquarters building unencumbered.
• Chapters to Receive Tax Survey, by P.C. Staff, page 6. Accounting firm Arthur Young & Co. designed a survey for the JACL National Board to review chapter compliance with IRS tax-exempt regulations. The survey will be distributed to all chapter presidents to identify areas needing adjustment, with results due back to National Headquarters.

Community

• Davis Professor Wins Human Relations Award, by P.C. Staff, page 1. UC Davis professor Isao Fujimoto received the city of Davis’s first Human Relations Award for his work improving human relations, an honor established after the stabbing death of Thong Hy Huynh. Fujimoto credited his parents’ example of community service, recounting how his father used money raised after a family tragedy to establish a scholarship fund.
• Owners to Change Salon’s Name, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The owners of the JAPSS hair salon in West Hollywood told NCRR they are changing the controversial name after 18 months of petitions, protests, and a City Council resolution urging the change. NCRR campaign co-chairs commended the owners while reiterating that the name was considered derogatory regardless of its origin as an acronym of the owners’ initials.
• Asian Video Festival Coming to L.A., by P.C. Staff, page 2. Asian Cinevision’s Fourth Annual Video Festival will screen documentary and experimental works from the U.S., Canada and Japan at the American Film Institute June 25-27. Each evening’s program will be followed by discussions moderated by Visual Communications members.
• Salinas/Poston Reunion Planned, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Former Nikkei residents of Salinas and the Poston Block 213 Reunion Committee are combining efforts for an all-day gathering at Toro Park on Aug. 30. The event includes a Japanese-style box lunch and steak barbecue dinner, with registration due by June 30.
• Topaz Jr. High Reunion Set, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The first reunion of Topaz Jr. High students who would have graduated between 1946 and 1950 will be held Sept. 19-21 at the Hyatt International Hotel near the Oakland airport. Interested attendees were directed to contact organizer Tomi Gyotoku.
• Wada: ‘Best and Worst of Times’, by Edna Ikeda, page 2. Yori Wada, the only Asian American ever appointed as a University of California regent, spoke to a UC San Diego Asian American studies class about his experiences growing up as a Nisei in Hanford during the Depression, facing prejudice, and later becoming a coalition-builder among Asian American and other minority communities. He described his wartime Army service, visiting his family in the Jerome, Ark. camp, and his understanding of those who answered ‘no-no’ on the loyalty questionnaire.
• JACCC Honors ‘Pacific Pioneers’, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Japanese American Cultural and Community Center celebrated its sixth anniversary by honoring three ‘Pacific Pioneers’ for promoting cultural ties across the Pacific: Mazda’s Yoshiki Yamasaki, SoCalGas’s Robert MacIntyre, and former JACCC president Frank Kuwahara. Guests included Japan’s consul general and Sen. Pete Wilson, with entertainment by the Bobby Walters Orchestra and Fujima Kansuma Dancers.
• Minority Bar Assn. Honors Attorney, by P.C. Staff, page 6. Attorney Leslie Furukawa was honored with the first-ever Presidential Service Award by the Minority Bar Assn. of Los Angeles at its installation dinner. Rose Ochi, representing Mayor Tom Bradley’s office, presented Furukawa with a commemorative certificate.
• Kikkoman Donates $10,000 to JACL, by P.C. Staff, page 6. Kikkoman International executive Yoshihiro Nagayama presented a $10,000 check to JACL for general support, with participants recalling Kikkoman’s wartime donations of soy sauce, medicine and clothing to incarcerated Japanese Americans through the Red Cross. The donation was noted to align with JACL’s goals of providing long-term community benefits.

Military & Veterans

• Home at Last, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Astronaut Ellison Onizuka, killed in the Jan. 28 Challenger explosion, was laid to rest June 2 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. About 700 people attended the service, including fellow astronaut Loren Shriver, with additional services held the day before in his hometown of Kealakekua.
• Memorials Held for Internees, Vets, by P.C. Staff, page 6. Members of the Optimists Club of Denver and more than 40 former Amache WRA camp inmates held a memorial ceremony at the camp cemetery, followed by a monument dedication at the Prowers County Court House honoring 31 Nisei soldiers from Amache killed in WWII. Rep. Hank Brown spoke at the ceremony and was urged by local JACL leaders to support redress bill H.R. 442.

Arts & Entertainment

• New Asian Anthology Available, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Echoes 4, a showcase for Asian American literature, photography and artwork, is now available as an independent 32-page publication continuing the Echoes from Gold Mountain series. The issue includes visual art, poetry, an interview with a Hiroshima survivor, a short story by Hisaye Yamamoto, and an excerpt from a Philip Gotanda play.
• Filmmaker Wins Tatsukawa Award, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Filmmaker Christine Choy will receive the 1986 Steve Tatsukawa Memorial Fund Annual Award for her contributions to Asian American media arts at the Asian American International Film Festival. Choy, born in Shanghai to Chinese and Korean parents, has produced award-winning documentaries on topics including domestic violence, refugee communities, and race relations.

Commentary

• East Wind: A Parking Ticket Dispute, by Bill Marutani, page 4. Columnist Bill Marutani recounts contesting a parking ticket in traffic court after misjudging a parking meter’s hours in the dark, observing the diverse defendants and cases around him while awaiting his turn. He successfully argued his case, keeping his wife’s car’s record clean, and includes a humorous anecdote about an immigrant street vendor in night court.
• Is There an Emergency?, by Roy Nishikawa, page 4. Former National JACL President Roy Nishikawa argues against a National Board resolution to grant up to $200,000 from the JACL Endowment Fund principal to the LEC, citing bylaws restricting such use to true emergencies. He contends that the fund’s founders intended ’emergency’ to mean something akin to the WWII incarceration, not current financial difficulties in fundraising for redress.
• A Worthwhile Effort, by K. Patrick Okura, page 4. A letter thanking the Pacific Citizen staff for the Aging and Retirement Supplement published May 23, noting the committee’s ongoing work to raise awareness of services for the older Nikkei population. The author mentions a related workshop planned for the National Convention in Chicago.
• Letter on Aging and Retirement Supplement, by Bertram S. Brown, page 4. A letter praising the May 23 Aging and Retirement Supplement and commending co-chairs K. Patrick Okura and Ford Kuramoto for their continued service to the community. The author congratulates the Pacific Citizen for its attention to the needs of the aging Nisei population.
• From the Frying Pan: Alabama’s New Role with Japan, by Bill Hosokawa, page 5. Columnist Bill Hosokawa describes how the University of Alabama’s Capstone International Program Center is building academic and cultural ties with Japan, including language courses and preparation programs for incoming Japanese families associated with a new Japan Victor Co. plant in Tuscaloosa. He highlights an Alabama-Japan leadership program sending local opinion leaders to Japan, illustrating a modernizing South eager to engage with Japan economically and culturally.
• LEC Update: Vital Links, by Grayce Uyehara, page 5. LEC executive director Grayce Uyehara outlines efforts to secure additional gubernatorial and congressional support for redress bills H.R. 442 and S. 1053, including targeting Republican governors and forming a new National Coalition for Redress with civil rights organizations. She also reports on lobbying against the judicial nomination of Jefferson Sessions and announces a revised congressional calendar for district lobbying work.
• Who’s Qualified to Help?, by Sue Kunitomi Embrey, page 6. Manzanar Committee chair Sue Kunitomi Embrey responds to criticism of Go For Broke, Inc.’s involvement in developing a Smithsonian Japanese American exhibit, questioning critics’ authority to judge who is ‘qualified’ to help. She urges community members to contribute materials and stories to the Smithsonian rather than engage in infighting over the exhibit’s development.
• Wada’s Wartime Reflections Continued, by Edna Ikeda, page 8. Continuing the Yori Wada profile, the article describes his overseas Army service in Okinawa during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his service alongside No-No Boy author John Okada. Wada expressed understanding for those who answered ‘no-no’ on the loyalty questionnaire and went on to a career in social work after the war.

Incarceration & Redress

• Relocation: JAs Urged to Oppose Navajo Removal, by P.C. Staff, page 7. Continuing coverage detailed opponents’ claims that the Navajo-Hopi land dispute was fabricated by energy companies seeking access to coal and uranium resources, with Aki Maehara reporting on a unified Navajo and Hopi elder stance against Public Law 93-531. Speakers urged attendees to lobby Reps. Mineta and Matsui and Senators Inouye and Matsunaga to help repeal the law.

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