A campground to be named for Gordon Hirabayashi

Vol. 129, No. 11, September 10, 1999. 8 pages. View this issue

A Forest Service campground near Tucson was set to be named for Gordon Hirabayashi, who served his sentence at a federal honor camp in the area after resisting curfew orders. Martha Nakagawa reported on the Nov. 7 dedication, and a page 8 feature recounted life at the Catalina Federal Honor Camp, where Noboru Taguma and other Nikkei resisters from Amache and Topaz also served time. Sus Satow, who was held at Poston, wrote a column on the draft resisters and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

The issue also reported on 1999 JACL Legacy Fund grants, a veterans tribute planned at the Western Washington Fair, and Department of Justice grants on immigration-related workplace rights. Bill Hosokawa questioned what the JACL U.S.-Japan Relations Committee does, Bill Marutani wrote about the word “Oriental,” and Hank Sakai made the case for the Pacific Citizen. Community notices covered reunions in Utah and Portland.

What’s in this issue

National

• Arizona’s Camp Hirabayashi Dedication Set for Nov. 7, by Martha Nakagawa, page 1. A Forest Service campground near Tucson will be named in honor of Gordon Hirabayashi, who resisted internment curfew orders and served time at a federal prison camp in the area. Farrell and Burton, who researched the site’s history, discovered the Nikkei connection and proposed the naming despite some negative feedback.
• DOJ Funds Community Groups to Prevent Immigration-Related Unfair Practices, page 1. The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices awarded grants to 12 community and professional organizations across several states to educate workers and employers about their rights. Grant recipients include Asian Law Caucus of San Francisco, Catholic Charities of Dallas, and Korean American Coalition of Los Angeles, among others, with grants ranging from $38,000 to $90,000.
• Manzanar-Style Dialogue Brings Tears More Than Solutions in Santa Fe, page 1. Participants at a Santa Fe gathering shared stories of internment sorrow rather than anger, realizing that WWII internment victims were not limited to one ethnicity. Attendees broke into small groups facilitated by the Institute of Intercultural Communication to discuss the pain and legacy of wartime incarceration.
• Inadequate Counseling Blamed for Low Minority Transfer Rates to Four-Year Universities, by Associated Press, page 3. A California postsecondary education commission report found that black and Hispanic students transfer from community colleges to UC campuses at far lower rates than white and Asian students, partly due to inadequate counseling. Counselors, overwhelmed with high student-to-counselor ratios, often push students toward Cal State or vocational tracks rather than UC transfer paths.
• The Pill Faces Uphill Battle for Acceptance in Japan, page 4. Despite legalization, many Japanese women remain hesitant to use oral contraceptives due to fears about health dangers and lack of awareness. Widely available and socially accepted abortion in Japan, unlike in the U.S., is cited as a competing factor limiting the pill’s adoption.
• JACL Announces Legacy Grant Winners, page 5. The 1999 national JACL Legacy Fund grant winners were announced, including chapters pursuing documentary films, oral history projects, youth recruitment initiatives, and educational exhibits about the Japanese American incarceration experience. A total of $22,700 was distributed among 16 applicants, with selection committee members deciding to spread smaller amounts across many projects rather than concentrate funds on a few.

Community

• Former Marine Returns Flag, Photo Album of Japanese Soldier, by Associated Press, page 3. A former Marine who killed a Japanese soldier on Guam in 1944 kept the soldier’s photo album for decades before deciding to return it to the man’s family. He described his experience landing on the war-torn island and the long journey to track down the soldier’s descendants through television stations in Milwaukee and Japan.
• Small Business Administration Signs Historic Agreement with Asian Minnesotan Community, page 3. The U.S. Small Business Administration and the Policy Roundtable signed a historic agreement in St. Paul to encourage business development within Minnesota’s estimated 136,000 Asian American community. Officials noted rapid growth in Asian-owned businesses nationally and hope to establish a national memorandum of understanding in the coming year.
• Box Elder County Nikkei to Hold Reunion on Oct. 23, page 4. The Japanese American community of Box Elder County, Utah, will hold its second reunion since 1990 at the Marriott Hotel in Ogden, featuring a breakfast buffet, banquet, raffle, silent auction, poster contest, photo exhibit, taiko performance and karaoke. Organizers Frank Nishiguchi and Ann Nisogi, along with a 20-member committee, spent hundreds of hours planning the event, open to all interested attendees.
• Typhoon Anniversary Bash Lacks Wind, by Steven Tanamachi, page 4. The writer attends the 8th anniversary party for Typhoon restaurant at Santa Monica Airport, an ‘Asian night market’ event featuring food, kimono-clad hostesses, helicopter rides, and taiko performances. He reflects critically on the commercialization and conflation of distinct Asian cultures for what seemed a predominantly non-Asian audience, though he found joy in the taiko drumming and an origami lesson from a volunteer.
• Eldore Spiegelberg Receives 1999 George Sakaguchi Community Service Award, page 5. Eldore Spiegelberg of the Women’s International League for Peace & Justice received the 1999 George Sakaguchi Community Service Award for her peace work in the Bi-State area, presented at the Japanese Festival at Missouri Botanical Garden. Health complications prevented her from accepting in person, so Mary Jane Schutzius accepted on her behalf.
• Washington Fair to Honor Nikkei Vets on Sept. 19, page 5. The Western Washington Fair, held at the site of the former Puyallup Assembly Center (Camp Harmony), will honor Nikkei veterans of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War on Sept. 19. More than 200 Nikkei veterans are expected to march onto the stage led by a color guard, honoring the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and Military Intelligence Service.
• Nikkei Futures 2000 to Be Held in Portland, Oregon, page 6. The Greater Portland Reunion Committee will host Nikkei Futures 2000, a reunion for pre-World War II Portlanders and their descendants, scheduled for Aug. 11-13, 2000, following successful reunions in 1990 and 1995. Organizers especially hope to attract Sansei and Yonsei attendees through mixers, tours, a golf tournament, and a picnic.

Commentary

• JACL’s U.S.-Japan Relations Committee, by Bill Hosokawa, page 6. Hosokawa examines the obscure and rarely active U.S.-Japan Relations Committee of the JACL, questioning what concrete role it plays given its broad mission statement. Committee chairman Ed Mitoma admits the group struggles to determine how to act on or disseminate its monitoring of U.S.-Japan news, given its lack of organizational structure for timely recommendations.
• The Orient(al) Express(ion), by Bill Marutani, page 6. Marutani revisits his past use of the term ‘Oriental,’ defending it as historically and geographically accurate despite a reader’s objection that it is a racist label. He also criticizes Asian Americans who unconsciously use ‘American’ as synonymous with ‘white American,’ arguing this self-destructive habit reinforces exclusionary racism.
• Nisei Draft Resisters of Conscience, by Sus Satow, page 7. Satow recounts his experience at Poston internment camp, describing the loyalty questionnaire turmoil and defending the JACL’s wartime cooperation policy and the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team over draft resistance. He argues that had internees broadly resisted the draft as the ‘Resisters of Conscience’ did, redress and postwar standing for Japanese Americans might never have occurred, and no apology is owed to either side.
• Pacific Citizen, JACL and Membership, by Hank Sakai, page 7. Sakai, a former P.C. board chair and JACL national treasurer, discusses member willingness to pay for the Pacific Citizen and questions how many would renew JACL membership without it. He argues the P.C. remains a valuable and singular national JA publication worth building upon.

In-Depth

• Catalina Federal Honor Camp Held Nikkei Draft Resisters, page 8. The article details Gordon Hirabayashi’s ordeal serving his sentence at the Catalina Federal Honor Camp near Tucson, along with fellow resisters of conscience Noboru Taguma and others from Amache and Topaz. Taguma recounts daily life building the Catalina Highway, harsh transport conditions in shackles, and his lack of regret over his resistance stance.

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