‘Burn Order’ executive producers are feted,
as are Teresa Stivers Liong, Wendy Gillespie.

By George Toshio Johnston, Senior Editor, Digital and Social Media

SAN DIEGO — The award-winning “Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order” received yet another accolade for its trophy shelf on Sept. 12 when the San Diego chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League presented the MS Now podcast’s co-executive producers and writers Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz with its 2026 Civil Rights Leadership Award. The presentation was the highlight of an evening filled with highlights and was the climax of the chapter’s Never Forget Gala that took place inside the San Diego Mission Valley Marriott, preceded by a balmy outdoor reception that epitomized Southern California’s classic climate.

For more on “Burn Order,” see related story at tinyurl.com/2php9uwv.

“Burn Order” executive producer Michael Yarvitz and his wife, Kristina Kishimoto (Photo: George Toshio Johnston)

Yarvitz, who had with MS Now colleague Kelsey Desiderio already accepted an award for “Burn Order” on May 30 in Los Angeles from the Japanese American National Museum (see June 19, 2026, Pacific Citizen, tinyurl.com/46a44kfw) was this time joined in person by his producing and writing partner Maddow.

She felt it was important enough to fly in from the East Coast just for the gala (and return on a 4:30 a.m. return flight), despite admitting to being a “socially awkward” type who doesn’t ever “go to things.” Speaking for the “Burn Order” team, Maddow said, “It just means the world to us.”

Yarvitz told the Pacific Citizen that he had remembered reading the “paragraph in a textbook,” like many American school kids did when learning about Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Noting that MS Now spent more than a year producing the six-episode “Burn Order,” he said, “As we started to dig into the research on this, we started to realize that there are all of these stories embedded in the larger story of Japanese incarceration that certainly are not known by the amount of people that should know it.”

Maddow told the Pacific Citizen that there was no “one thing” that made the MS Now team decide to focus on the Japanese American incarceration experience of WWII and that there were actually a couple of other “worthy ideas that we may yet produce.”

“Part of the reason that we decided that this was the one we would do … ahead of those other two ideas is honestly because of the resonance of this before the 2024 election,” Maddow said. “We could sort of see around the corner and see the way that Trump was campaigning and the way that he was talking about immigrants, and we thought there was going to be domestic mass incarceration.”

The sense of urgency to tell the story relayed in “Burn Order” was apparent. “With everything going on in the country right now, it was a story that we needed to tell right now,” added Yarvitz, who also noted that the series has also won the Radio Television Digital News Assn.’s Edward R. Murrow Award in the Network TV-Podcast category, to be presented on Oct. 12 in New York City.

JACL San Diego’s Janet Hamada Kelley (left) with honoree Teresa Stivers Liong, CEO of Walden Family Services (Photo: Scott Norland)

Maddow, Yarvitz and “Burn Order” were not, of course, the event’s only honorees. San Diego JACL board of directors member Janet Hamada Kelley presented the chapter’s 2026 Community Leadership Award to Walden Family Services CEO Teresa Stivers Liong, whose résumé also includes leading the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation and serving as deputy chief of staff to former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding.

“What stands out most are not these titles and accomplishments. It’s the fact that Teresa shows up,” said Kelley, be it for “families navigating incredibly difficult moments,” young people, colleagues, partners and community leaders or the San Diego JACL.

After “so many years of being told I’m too much, I’m too big, I’m too loud,” Liong told the audience that she was thankful for being recognized by the chapter for “using my voice on behalf of children who don’t have a voice.”

Chapter Co-President Michael Kurima introduced the next awardee, theatrical producer Wendy Gillespie, whose credits include “Allegiance: A New American Musical,” which had its pre-Broadway debut in San Diego in 2012. Before presenting Gillespie with the 2026 Media Arts & Culture Award, Kurima noted that she was the chapter’s “only two-time honoree,” having won its Civil Rights Leadership Award in 2015.

“Allegiance” producer and honoree Wendy Gillespie accepts her award from San Diego JACL Co-President Michael Kurima (Photo: Scott Norland)

Gillespie recalled how “Allegiance” came into her life in 2009. “I said, ‘If that show is going to play somewhere, it’s going to be in my town.’ She noted how “30,000 people here in San Diego saw that show in 2012 at the Old Globe.” Later, it would be performed on Broadway (see ‘Allegiance’ to Close on Broadway on Feb. 14, Jan. 14, 2016, Pacific Citizen, tinyurl.com/3rvcdv2p). “We did the show in Japan. We did the show in London in 2023,” she said. “Hard to believe 20,000 people saw it in London.”

Closing on a serious note, Gillespie said, “We’re living in a time where people are trying to erase history. We’re trying to pretend that terrible things didn’t happen, and any great society will recognize that we’ve made mistakes. And how do we move on and create a better world? So, I just want to reiterate: Never forget.”

Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Photo: Scott Norland)

Another highlight of the evening was a speech by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, author of “Love in the Library.” Her 2022 children’s book tells the story of how her maternal grandparents met while incarcerated at Idaho’s Minidoka War Relocation Center. When a major children’s book publisher offered her a licensing deal for it but insisted she remove the word “racism” from her remarks about the book, she refused, finding the mandate “deeply offensive.”

“Because of the whole Scholastic incident, there was a brief window when my full-time job was speaking about it all around the country, including Idaho,” Tokuda-Hall said. “I was invited there to keynote the Idaho Library Assn.’s conference and speak to donors of Friends of Minidoka. It was there, not two hours from where my grandparents had been wrongfully incarcerated, that I first came face-to-face with the violence of book bans.

“It wasn’t until I got to know the librarians in Idaho that I realized these book bans and the accompanying right-wing frenzy that surrounded them were ruining people’s lives,” Tokuda-Hall added, relating how librarians she spoke with were faced with harassment, doxxing and death threats. “After that, I told myself, ‘I’d be damned if I let them fight alone.’” She co-founded and was the first president of AABB — Authors Against Book Bans.

Tokuda-Hall described it as a “coalition of over 5,000 creators all across the country, united under a single guiding principle that it is not the government’s place to tell us what we are allowed to read.”

Dale Minami (Photo: George Toshio Johnston)

The gala’s other speaker, who introduced Maddow and Yarvitz, was attorney Dale Minami. He led one of the three coram nobis legal teams that in the 1980s revisited and overturned WWII-era Supreme Court cases originally brought — and lost — by Gordon Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu and Minoru Yasui.

Hearkening back to what Japanese Americans faced in 1942, Minami spoke of the ill-intentioned influencers of that era, newspaper opinionists like Walter Winchell and Walter Lippman who advocated that Japanese Americans “be banished from the West Coast and incarcerated.” Lippman went further, Minami said, claiming that Japanese Americans were “prepared to commit sabotage.”

“He made this brilliant argument that the very fact that no sabotage has yet occurred is disturbing evidence that it will imminently occur. . . . In other words, the fact that you didn’t commit a crime means that you’re surely going to.”

Minami also noted how, with the exception of the Quakers and a group of socialists led by Norman Thomas, Japanese Americans in 1942 had no allies. “Nobody stood up for us, and we had a civil rights disaster. So, we hear those echoes of history today,” he said.

Before bringing Maddow and Yarvitz up to the stage to receive their awards, Minami called on someone in the audience to be recognized: “Peter Irons, would you stand up?”

Pictured are Peter Irons (seated) and (from left) Bonnie Irons, Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz. (Photo: George Toshio Johnston)

Irons not only was one of the prominent voices heard in “Burn Order,” as a law professor and legal historian who had researched what had happened to Japanese Americans during WWII, but he also knew the importance of the document Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig stumbled across at the National Archives: the one mislabeled, damning copy of the original “Final Report on Japanese Evacuation From the West Coast” that had been ordered to be incinerated yet had somehow escaped being burned. Minami also related how Irons generously insisted that Japanese American lawyers lead the effort to relitigate the three WWII Supreme Court cases.

On the stage, Yarvitz said, “On behalf of Rachel and myself and our colleagues, Kelsey Desiderio and Jen Mulreany Donovan, we’re just so incredibly grateful for your decision to recognize ‘Burn Order.’ We made this series to try to understand how exactly a country can go down the darkest of dark paths, how we can allow the mass targeting and the mass incarceration of a minority group strictly on the basis of their race.

“What the Japanese American community suffered more than 80 years ago remains a stain on this country that can never be forgotten,” Yarvitz continued. “It can’t be rewritten or sanitized or whitewashed by history or scrubbed from textbooks or taken off of plaques at national monuments. We can’t let any of that happen. It’s a history. It’s a history that needs to be understood by every new generation of Americans, so that it’s never repeated.”

During her turn at the mic, Maddow said, “The whole reason we wrote ‘Burn Order’ was so more Americans will understand what our government did, what Karl Bendetsen and John DeWitt cooked up and why they did it, but also the fight that they had on their hands at the time to get it done, how it might have been stopped, the lies they had to tell, the evidence that yes, they indeed had to burn in order to get away with it.”

Honoree Rachel Maddow with emcees David Ono and Tamlyn Tomita at San Diego JACL’s Never Forget Gala. (Photo: George Toshio Johnston)

In her closing, Maddow said, “The persecution of immigrants today by our government is not the same as the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in 1942, but at MS Now, previously known as MSNBC, today when we cover the protests and the legal challenges and arrests . . . and the venom of our government in deploying a lawless and totally uncontained force against them, as we cover the protests of Americans of every stripe against that abuse, I think every day of the mass protests that never broke out in the spring of 1942, and the hell that might have been avoided if we had had those protests then.

“It is up to us right now in 2026 to learn from what was done right in 1942 and to learn from what was done wrong to make sure we are not going to live through it again,” Maddow concluded. “The work that you do here at JACL helps ensure that Americans know that we can’t take anything for granted. It helps ensure that we never forget.”

Gala Committee Co-Chair and Executive Producer Lane Nishikawa (Photo: Scott Norland)

The gala was emceed by KABC-TV news anchor David Ono and actress Tamlyn Tomita. During the course of the evening, they not only announced that the Pledge of Allegiance would be led by Aiden Yamashiro and that the taiko performances were by UCSD Asa­yake Taiko, but they also recognized special guests in the audience: San Diego County Supervisors Monica Montgomery Steppe and Joel Anderson; San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava and City Council members Henry L. Foster III, Marni von Wilpert, and Kent Lee; Oceanside Mayor Esther Sanchez; Honorary Consul of Japan in San Diego Kate Leonard; San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ai Mori; San Diego County Superior Court Judge Selena Epley; Catherine Carr-Lynch, the granddaughter of Colorado Gov. Ralph Carr; National JACL Executive Director Lilly Simmering; National JACL President Sheldon Arakaki; National JACL VP of Planning and Development Carol Kawamoto; former JACL National Presidents Ken Inouye and David Kawamoto; San Diego Deputy Chief of Police Shawn Takeuchi; San Diego Police Capt. Carissa Doherty Edwards; actor Derek Mio; and director Paul Daisuke Goodman.

The evening ended with words from the event’s co-chair and executive producer, Lane Nishikawa, who showed some footage of his documentary about JACL, “League of Dreams.”

JACL Executive Director Lilly Simmering, JACL National President Sheldon Arakaki and JACL VP of Planning and Development and San Diego chapter member Carol Kawamoto show off their commemorative tote bags. Photo: George Toshio Johnston)

“Burn Order’s” Yarvitz may have best encapsulated why both he and Maddow prioritized attending the gala. “I think the things that are almost more meaningful to us are events like this, where the Japanese American community has embraced us and this series. An honor like this means the world.”

In an announcement today, the Japanese American Citizens League said it “applauds” last week’s decision by U.S. District Court Judge Eumi K. Lee to pause construction on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center proposed to be built in Santa Clara County, near Gilroy, Calif.

The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, and the county filed a lawsuit over the summer to halt construction, claiming the project violated several state and federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act. 

In its statement, JACL commended the county and the state of California for bringing the case, adding: “Detaining people without due process strips individuals both of rights enshrined in the Constitution and of basic human dignity. Japanese Americans were incarcerated by our own government without recourse, and we will continue to demand that no one else suffer that injustice.”

To read the JACL’s entire statement, visit here.

(Editor’s note: The following is a personal essay about the behind-the-scenes actions that went into the passage of R-1, Resolution in Support of Immigrant Communities Targeted by ICE at the 2026 JACL National Convention.)

By Mitchell Matsumura

At the 56th JACL National Convention, the JACL National Council adopted R-1, Resolution in Support of Immigrant Communities Targeted by ICE, co-sponsored by the Greater Los Angeles JACL and the Twin Cities JACL chapters. (see “JACL Is Change,” Aug. 14, 2026, pacificcitizen.org/jacl-is-change/)

In February 2026, after recalling the presence of over 100 ICE officers at the Japanese American National Museum in August 2025, I called the president of Twin Cities JACL, Vinicius Taguchi. Having known Minnesota went through the fatal shootings of Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE, we decided on that first call that a resolution was necessary. We contacted the JACL Social Justice Action Committee and within two weeks they had 18 chapters supporting us. (Thank you to committee members Naoko Fujii, Dan Mayeda, Carol Kawase, Natsu Saito and Peggy Nagae for helping us write the resolution.)

At the place in Little Tokyo where scores of Japanese Americans gathered in 1942 to be bussed to concentration camps, more than 100 ICE officers swarmed the Japanese American National Museum during a news conference by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, which resulted in the arrest of one person. I personally joined protests beginning in August 2025, when ICE began staging on Terminal Island, the site of a former Japanese fishing village where 3,000 Japanese Americans were removed during WWll. After relentless protests, ICE departed Terminal Island in February 2026. Then in January 2026, a brutal ICE arrest occurred in front of the Miyako Hotel on First Street in the heart of Little Tokyo. Residents and visitors watched in horror as ICE forced a man into a van.

From left: Matthew Marumoto, Mitchell Matsumura, Carol Kawase, Vinicius Taguchi, Matt Weisbly (Photo: Courtesy of Mitchell Matsumura)

Vinicius Taguchi and I wanted the best person to present the resolution at the 2026 JACL National Convention in Las Vegas on July 30, 2026. There was only one choice: Don Tamaki, senior counsel at the law firm of Minami Tamaki LLP. He was on the legal team that overturned Korematsu v. United States.

Tamaki made an inspiring plea. “The Twin Cities and Greater L.A. JACL chapters deserve high praise for the resolution before you as does the National JACL for timely condemning the thousands of militarized federal agents descending upon urban and rural America to terrorize law abiding residents reminiscent of what happened to us. As Japanese Americans we have the moral standing to powerfully sound the alarm waking the nation that history is repeating itself. Let’s pass this resolution.”

We received several amendments at the resolution meeting at the convention. This one presented by Sebastian Carbajal, Pacific Southwest youth representative was especially well received, because it’s important that JACL chapters have a plan of action regarding an ICE arrest or deportation: “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in a timely manner, that all JACL Chapters have a plan to follow up if an individual from outside the organization were to reach out to a local JACL chapter for assistance regarding an ICE arrest or deportation. Said chapter would provide support, whether that be in the form of reaching out to a local representative, or reaching out to another organization more prepared to handle said situations.”

I’m very proud of all the convention delegates that voted unanimously to pass the resolution. JACL now has a resolution that takes a stance on this critical immigration issue. As the resolution states: “We remember that during World War II, over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry—immigrants as well as United States citizens—were detained and incarcerated for years without individualized charges, hearings, or meaningful due process under the Alien Enemies Act, Executive Order 9066, and related authorities.”

In closing, I’d like to quote a couple of excerpts from the resolution.

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the National Council of the Japanese American Citizens League that we issue a statement calling on the Congress of the United States to ensure immigration enforcement practices that are accountable, transparent, and consistent with constitutional and human rights standards, including specifically the establishment of a clear, enforceable national use-of force standard governing the actions of immigration enforcement agents, as well as state or local officers enforcing immigration law, and imposing civil and/or criminal liability for agents and officers who violate such standard or the Constitution; requiring officers to display visible identification, use body cameras, and prohibit masked enforcement, absent documented necessity to ensure officer safety in particular situations; and prohibiting immigration enforcement entry onto private property without a judicial warrant; and

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the statement to Congress issued by the National JACL call for the prohibition of detention or searches based on race, ethnicity, national origin, language ability or accents, workplaces, or perceived immigration status; and the protection of detainee rights through individualized judicial hearings, adequate medical and mental health care, appropriate language assistance, elimination of family separation, public reporting of deaths and abuses, and independent inspections of all facilities;”

(Note: The entire text of R-1 may be read here.)

Mitchell Matsumura is the president of the Greater Los Angeles JACL and a member of the Pacific Citizen editorial board.

By Allison Haramoto, P.C. Executive Editor

At its San Francisco headquarters building, newly elected JACL National President Sheldon Arakaki recently bestowed the organization’s Diamond Pin to Larry Oda, the only president to serve a total of eight years in office.

The Diamond Pin is “presented to individuals and organizations in recognition of special meritorious service to National JACL and/or outstanding contributions to the welfare of persons of Japanese ancestry in the United States.” It is given with “approval by the National Awards and Recognitions Committee with approval of the National Board” and is given to the JACL national president “upon completion of term of office.”

Larry Oda (right) receives his Diamond Pin from newly elected JACL National President Sheldon Arakaki at the organization’s San Francisco headquarters
Photo: Susan Yokoyama

Oda’s second-consecutive biennial term ended Aug. 1 at the JACL’s National Convention in Las Vegas upon the election of Arakaki. Oda is the first JACL member to hold the distinction of having served eight years at the helm of the 97-year-old civil rights organization.

“JACL is 97 years old, and Larry Oda was president for eight of those years,” said Arakaki to the Pacific Citizen. “These were not the redress years but just as impactful. His two administrations saw the hiring of two executive directors, guided the organization through the financial fallout of the housing bubble bust, saw the executive director sited in Washington, D.C., and begin the process of building a post-Covid foundation for JACL’s 100th anniversary.”

Oda first served as president from 2006-08 and again from 2008-10. In 2022, he ran from the floor of the organization’s National Convention in a year that saw no candidates running for the position. Despite challenges then, Oda ran again in 2024.

“JACL has been an important part of my life for many years,” Oda told the Pacific Citizen. “Along the way, I have had the privilege of meeting, working with and learning from extraordinary people across the country. I do not view my service as national president as a personal achievement but as a reflection of the collective efforts of the national board members who served alongside me, as well as the many JACL members, leaders, staff and friends who shared in this work. . . . JACL’s strength comes from the people who live its mission and carry out its work every day. . . . Every leadership position brings challenges, but it also brings moments that remind you why the work matters and why the organization is worth preserving.”

As for words of wisdom for Arakaki as he leads JACL toward its centennial, Oda offered, “My advice to Sheldon is simple: Stay focused on the mission and make the presidency your own. Every national president brings a different set of experiences, strengths and perspectives to the role. He does not need to replicate what previous presidents have done. Instead, he should build on the foundation that exists today, look toward the future and lead JACL in the direction he believes is best for the organization. . . . Our responsibility is to leave JACL stronger than we found it and prepare it for those who will lead it in the years ahead.”

As for Oda? His involvement with JACL has not ended, rather it has evolved into a new chapter.

“I plan to remain engaged and contribute wherever I can be helpful,” said Oda. “. . . I have often described JACL as the keeper of the Japanese American legacy flame. The person carrying that flame may change, but the responsibility does not. I look forward to carrying it in a different role and helping the next generation keep it burning for years to come.”

Matthew Marumoto, JACL Daniel K. Inouye 
Policy Fellow

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander voters are the fastest-growing voter demographic in the U.S. (see https://tinyurl.com/mszth8wb). However, AANHPI voters are the least likely to be contacted by anyone about voting.

According to AAPI Data (see https://tinyurl.com/22ukz335), there are 16 million eligible AAPI voters in 2026, including 1.6 million newly eligible voters since 2022. The data shows potential, and JACL wants to turn those numbers into real voter turnout.

This fall, JACL is partnering with APIAVote and Power the Polls to engage JACLers and help turn out voters for the midterm elections. With APIAVote, we are holding two JACL phone banking sessions on the evenings of Oct. 14 and Oct. 28.

Throughout September and October, JACL is also looking for volunteers to staff the APIAVote Multilingual Voter Hotline, where voters can find their polling place, get information about voter registration or report problems at the polls. Both phone banking and hotline shifts can be done entirely remotely and last about three hours, with training provided.

Along with its partners at Power the Polls, JACL is also recruiting members to serve as poll workers to fill staffing gaps in polling locations across the country. There is no better way to learn how elections are administered and see democracy in action than from right where it’s happening. Most jurisdictions pay poll workers for training and work on Election Day.

Lastly, JACL is recruiting chapters to host voter registration drives at chapter events or in their local area. Third-party registration rules vary significantly by state, and JACL can provide information on how to set up a drive in your area.

The most important way to engage during the midterm election is to check your voter registration and make a plan to vote. Even if you’re sure you are registered, inactivity, address changes, list maintenance and voter roll purges can quickly turn Election Day confidence into dread.

Voter registration deadlines vary by state, with many falling in early October. If you are not already registered, register today!

Make a plan for how you are going to vote. If you are voting at the polls, note where the polling place is located, what hours it will be operating and what documentation you may need when you arrive.

If you are voting by mail, know your return deadline and whether your state’s deadline is by postmark or receipt, and ensure you mail your ballot or drop it off at a collection box by then. A ballot left on the dining room table is not a counted vote.

Finally, remind your friends, family, fellow JACLers and neighbors to check their voter registration and plan how they will vote. A reminder from someone you know will always be the most effective way to get your community to the polls and ensure their voices are heard.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, but the work of getting people to the polls starts now.

Sign-ups for every opportunity mentioned above and voting resources can be found at jacl.org/gotv.

The Japanese American Citizens League is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse, support or oppose any candidate for public office or political party. All voter engagement activities are open to eligible voters.

Today, we honor all those who lost their lives, those who answered the call to serve and everyone whose life was forever changed y the events of 9/11.

‘Reclaiming the Future: The Legacy of Japanese American Incarceration’ Runs Through May 31

By Aiko Allen

Educational outreach continues in New Mexico in the form of New Mexico Living History Readers Theatre productions under the creative directorship of Nikki Nojima Louis (Minidoka camp survivor) to Victor Yamada’s coordination of the Confinement in the Land of Enchantment programs focused on the Department of Justice internment camps in the state. Both Louis and Yamada are members of the New Mexico JACL.

The “Reclaiming the Future: The Legacy of Japanese American Incarceration” at Vladem Contemporary Art Museum in Santa Fe adds to ongoing efforts by bringing together a multigenerational group of Japanese and Japanese American artists whose works confront one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history: the forced incarceration of more than 125,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II, including at four DOJ camps in New Mexico. Machiko Harada, who has served as chief curator at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village, curates the exhibition. Harada is a writer and cultural mediator based in Santa Fe.

“This exhibition brings together contemporary artists who transform the legacy of Japanese American incarceration into urgent reflections on memory, justice and our shared future,” said Harada. “The show invites us to confront the past as a way of reimagining a more responsible tomorrow.”

From Ruth Asawa’s delicate wire sculptures to Patrick Nagatani’s photographic meditations and new works by contemporary voices, the exhibition examines displacement, resilience and intergenerational memory. These artists reimagine the landscapes of confinement and give form to stories long silenced. Through acts of remembrance and speculative imagining, the exhibition calls on viewers to recognize injustice’s enduring impact while envisioning a more just and inclusive future.

Community collaboration through fundraising is requested to support the catalog, printed in both English and Japanese, that is accompanying the exhibition. The production goal is $20,000. Why is the catalog important? The publication is a lasting resource that endures long after the exhibition concludes.

It documents and contextualizes the artworks featured in the exhibition, as well as contributes to the growing body of literature that ensures our histories are written from our perspectives and cultural values.

To donate online, visit: GIVE NMMOA – MNMF. Select “Exhibition Development Fund. In the box below Name of Exhibition or Education Program, type in “Reclaiming the Future Catalog.” For more information, contact Angelique Kuenstler, director of leadership giving at the NM Museum Foundation, at angelique@museumfoundation.org.   

 JACL joins thousands at the Lincoln Memorial as part of
National Action Network’s March on Washington, themed ‘Defend the Vote.’

By Matthew Marumoto, JACL Daniel K. Inouye Fellow

On Aug. 28, I stood with fellow JACL members and friends from Asian Americans Advancing Justice and APIAVote in front of the Lincoln Memorial, carrying signs that read “Our Voice, Our Vote, Our Future.”

Sixty-three years ago, JACL members stood on the same ground carrying signs demanding civil rights, a higher minimum wage and first-class citizenship for all.

Thousands gathered on the National Mall for the 2026 March on Washington, and the crowd kept growing through the heat into the afternoon. At the original march in 1963, JACL was the only Asian American organization to formally join, standing in solidarity with the African American community to fight discrimination and segregation. In 2026, we came back to defend the right to vote and stand in solidarity.

The “March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote” was convened by the National Action Network, led by Rev. Al Sharpton, and the Drum Major Institute, led by Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King.

The morning program that preceded the march offered an opportunity to hear from speakers representing faith groups, advocacy organizations, trade unions and several members of Congress, including Congressman Mark Takano of California, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

A common theme among the speakers was that the march continued what originally started in 1963, carrying the work forward rather than just commemorating the occasion.

Nearly every speaker discussed the decision in Louisiana v. Callais that was handed down in late April. The decision severely weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), making it much harder to challenge district maps that may discriminate on the basis of race.

Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who argued the case for Black voters in Louisiana before the Supreme Court, told the crowd that the high court “adopted a vision that silences Black voices and suppresses Black votes.”

Breaking with the norm of redistricting only after the census, 10 states have drawn new voting maps through legislation or litigation in the lead-up to the 2026 midterm election.

Following the decision in Callais, both Louisiana and Alabama eliminated one of two majority-Black districts, while Tennessee eliminated its only majority-Black district.

The gutting of Section 2 of the VRA was one of the sharpest rollbacks of voting protections in decades and was one of the primary reasons people were called back to the Lincoln Memorial to march.

Takano, representing California’s 39th district, reminded the crowd that the late Congressman John Lewis stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 63 years ago when he was 23 years old to demand that America live up to its promise. Just two years later in 1965, Lewis was badly beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge while making the same demand.

“He knew what awaited him on the other side of that bridge. Yet, he crossed it anyway because America was worth fighting for,” Takano said.

Two years after the original march, a member of JACL also went to Selma. Todd Endo, born less than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, spent his first three years of life in the Rohwer Incarceration Camp. In March of 1965, following the beating and death of Rev. James Reeb, with whom Endo had worked in Washington, Endo joined the civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Ala.

The next month, Endo wrote in the Pacific Citizen, “Both as Americans, who sought to work to bring the American ideal and the American reality closer together, and as Japanese, who have a stake in this minority struggle, we should be lining up actively alongside the Negro against the ‘keep America white’ bigots” (see April 16, 1965, Pacific Citizen, https://tinyurl.com/2xnx7uur).

Solidarity between the Japanese American and African American communities during the civil rights movement ran in both directions. Months after the brutality in Selma, and under the same Congress that passed the Voting Rights Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended the national origin quota system that excluded Asian immigrants from coming to America for decades.

JACL DC fellows Matt Marumoto and Katie Masano Hill hold a banner for the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans.

In 1967, JACL submitted an amicus brief in support of Mildred and Richard Loving, a couple challenging Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage. JACL’s counsel, William Marutani, was given leave to argue before the Supreme Court in support of the Lovings.

The decision in Loving v. Virginia ended anti-miscegenation laws that had also prohibited Asian Americans from marrying white people. And in 1988, with significant support from the Congressional Black Caucus, the Japanese American community secured a formal apology for the wartime incarceration and redress under the Civil Liberties Act. These memories and a continued commitment to solidarity are what brought JACL back to march shoulder to shoulder 63 years later.

In 2026, we find ourselves in a consequential political moment. Threats to the right to participate in our democracy are being aimed right at our community and the communities with which we stand in solidarity.

Proof-of-citizenship requirements like those in the yet-to-be-passed SAVE Act create burdens that fall hardest on naturalized citizens. According to Pew Research data, 58 percent of eligible Asian American voters (https://tinyurl.com/3m8rz8y6) are naturalized citizens. Restrictions on mail-in voting threaten ballot access for millions of Americans. And voter intimidation, including the prospect of immigration enforcement being present at polling locations, further discourages people from engaging in elections.

The stakes for the upcoming midterm elections could not be higher. In 1965, Endo wrote, “So, the question is not, ‘What is there for us to do?’ Rather, the question is, ‘Do we care enough to rise from our complacency and comfort?’”

Today, the question is the same. Answering the question starts with checking your voter registration, confirming your polling place and district, making a plan for when and how you will vote in the upcoming election and ensuring your friends, family and community do the same.

To become more involved, sign up to be a poll worker or poll monitor in your community. JACL will continue to share resources to help get the AAPI community to the polls. Sixty-three years later, JACL still marches. This November, we vote.

Participating in the panel were (from left) Carol Kawase, Don Tamaki, Masumi Hayashi-Smith and Peggy Nagae. (Photo: Gil Asakawa)

The National Convention panel focused on Black reparations.

By Gil Asakawa, P.C. Contributor

One crowded panel during the recent JACL National Convention at the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas covered the issue of reparations for African Americans through the historical lens of the Japanese American community.

Moderated by newly elected VP for Public Affairs Carole Kawase, who was still NCWNP vice governor during the panel on July 31, the lively discussion invited interaction from the audience and responses from panelists attorney Donald Tamaki of Minami Tamaki and Peggy Nagae and Masumi Hayashi-Smith, co-chairs of Tsuru for Solidarity Black Reparations and Solidarity Campaign.

The session wasn’t a “sermon from the mount” about reparations, but rather a primer for where the effort currently stands, with printed information for attendees to take with them, including ’zines to explain the topic for younger readers.

Tamaki, whose “almost retired” law partner Dale Minami was the lead attorney that overturned the incarceration case of Fred Korematsu and who was on the Korematsu v. United States team, is still very much active in the civil rights field.

In 2021, he was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve on the nine-member California Reparations Task Force that produced the groundbreaking Final Report comprehensively documenting the cumulative impact of slavery, Jim Crow oppression and decades of segregation.

In response to a question from the audience about how the African American community saw the Japanese American support, Tamaki noted, “First of all, as far as advocates for Black reparations, they welcome the support of Japanese Americans.

“When I was asked by the governor to participate in the task force, my first reaction is, ‘Who, me?’ You know, I mean, far be it for me to tell Black Americans what’s good for them, and so I was very reluctant,” Tamaki recounted. “Ultimately, you know, I agreed to be on this, and you’d be surprised how much it is appreciated that this group, JACL, was in support of reparations. When you look at the numbers, Black Californians constitute 6 percent of the population, 14 percent nationwide. It ain’t going to happen without us and without coalitions of non-Black people who recognize that this involves everybody, and once you deal with Black reparations, it’s a rising tide that lifts all boats. So, it’s for the country. It preserves democracy.”

This movement, Tamaki added, isn’t just a reaction to the current national political climate. “I think historically, of course, the most outrageous disparities now are rooted in not something that happened, you know, with the Trump administration, or 20 years ago, or Jim Crow. This is 1619 stuff. It’s just never been reconciled, and so it keeps on repeating,” he said. “It keeps on getting recycled. How otherwise can the president tell the nation that Haitian immigrants are eating your dogs and cats or basically take an image of, you know, cartoon apes and transpose the faces of the Obamas. I mean, this is Jim Crow antebellum stuff, and it’s a racial pathology that keeps getting recycled.”

Tamaki noted that one thing that helped Japanese American redress was the bipartisan support for the effort. “If you look at and compare the conditions that gave rise to redress and the possibility of getting reparations, one thing that happened during redress, and it seemed improbable at the time, was that you had some Republican conservatives joining in seeking redress. The question is, how do you broaden the coalition in support of reparations to include more than folks like us and our usual or customary norms?”

Kawase agreed on the need for broad support.

“Yeah, great question,” she said. “I do know that when Tsuru for Solidarity went into the offices of senators and asked for them to support HR 40, we did go into the offices of Republican senators as well. So, we’re not counting these people out just you know by party lines.”

Nagae, a former trial attorney herself as well as assistant dean of the University of Oregon Law School and a consultant, has served on JACL’s National Redress Committee, the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund Board and was president of NAPABA. She was lead counsel for Minoru Yasui when his WWII Supreme Court case was reopened in 1983 and his conviction subsequently overturned. She also spearheaded Yasui’s nomination for a Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded posthumously in 2015. Because of Nagae’s efforts as co-chair honoring Mitsuye Endo’s successful WWII challenge of Executive Order 9066, Endo was posthumously awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal in 2025.

Tsuru for Solidarity was laser-focused on its educational mission.

Nagae spoke on the rise of ’zines in the media culture and how they can carry a message to different (younger) audiences than traditional communication platforms. She pointed to ’zines in front of her and told the audience to take copies with them. “’Zines historically were created by dissident, underrepresented and marginalized groups, and especially during the 1920s and ’30s Harlem Renaissance, they were little packaged, easily published or like a roadmap. You can go on our website and make a copy, print out a copy, fold it, come to our table, learn how to fold it and cut it and put it together. So, that’s what we’re doing at our table. We have the larger toolkit conversations. We have the ’zines, all for your use and edification as you go forward.”

Masumi Hayashi-Smith, a queer biracial facilitator, writer and musician originally from Coast Salish land in Tacoma, Wash., added additional information about Tsuru’s campaign, showing a QR code for people to learn more about Tsuru’s Reparations program. She also urged everyone to look close to home as well as at national campaigns.

“Find out about your own local reparations efforts. There are things happening on the ground, and it’s inspiring,” Hayashi-Smith said. “Like I think that sometimes national reparations is an overwhelming idea, but on the micro level, things are happening everywhere, so you know that’s a great source of hope to see what’s happening hyperlocally. Ask your congressman representative to co-sponsor HR 40. I have my computer at our table. I have a website set up. You can actually come to our table and look up your representatives on the spot and see if they have signed on, and actually, on a similar note, you can also, if you’re Californian, see if your representative has supported AB 2599, which is the Truth and Disclosure Act.”

Kawase promised that JACL will review any lawsuit or legislation about reparations that comes before her. “I will review a lawsuit. I will see what the connections are for between the AAPI community and whatever is happening on the Hill because it’s so confusing and so fast and furious that we really need instantaneous response or reviews.”

Nagae noted that Kawase and JACL have been important promoters of Black reparations. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart what you contribute to JACL. I want to put a plug in for Carol because she is the person that does this monthly report. She is the person that put the resolution through so that our committee could be in action.”

Kawase closed the session by nothing that the word “reparation” carries an important meaning within it. “I always like to talk about the word ‘repair,’ which is where reparation comes from,” she said. “If we think about it, we’re talking about the work of repair, and the UN has a very really useful way of talking about reparations, where it isn’t just about money; it’s about so many other things.”

Sacramento JACL completes
the Nisei War Memorial Community Center restoration.

By Sacramento JACL

In November 2024, the Sacramento JACL chapter made a commitment: to take on a Capitol Project to restore the Nisei War Memorial Community Center at 1515 4th Street in Sacramento.

For the Japanese American community there, the building represents far more than bricks and mortar. It is a place rooted in the history, resilience and determination of Japanese Americans who returned home after World War II and faced continued prejudice and discrimination.

A Legacy Born From Adversity

When Japanese American WWII veterans returned home, many were not welcomed into local Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts because of lingering racism and prejudice. Determined to establish a place where they could gather and support one another, these veterans formed their own organization, VFW Post 8985.

Initially, the veterans held their meetings at the Sacramento Buddhist Church. Eventually, they set their sights on purchasing a hall of their own. When the veterans did not have sufficient funds to purchase a building, the Sacramento JACL stepped forward and purchased the property with them.

The building soon became an important gathering place for VFW Post 8985, Boy Scout Troop 250, the Ladies Auxiliary and numerous other community organizations. For generations, it served as a home for meetings, celebrations, activities and community connections.

A Building in Need of Help

In October 2024, Sacramento JACL learned that the building’s roof had been leaking for more than 20 years. The roof was only one of the many problems facing the aging facility. It became clear that significant work was needed to preserve this important piece of Sacramento’s Japanese American history.

Sacramento JACL accepted the challenge.

Fundraising began in March 2025, with the sale of plaques for a Memorial Plaque Wall serving as the first major fundraising effort. The community responded enthusiastically, and orders came in quickly. By June 2025, Sacramento JACL had raised enough money to begin repairs to the roof.

California Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi stands in front of the Memorial Wall.

Once the roof was addressed, attention turned to the floors, ceilings, lighting and HVAC system. As the scope of the project became clearer and fundraising began to slow, Sacramento JACL began exploring grants and other sources of financial assistance.

Sacramento JACL VP Debbie Eto reached out to then Pacific Northwest District Gov. Sheldon Arakaki, now the newly elected president of JACL. He suggested applying for a grant from the Japanese American Community Foundation. While noting that the maximum award was $50,000 — and joking that no one ever received the full amount — he encouraged Sacramento JACL to apply anyway.

The chapter did.

In November 2025, Sacramento JACL received the news it had hoped for: The organization had been awarded the entire $50,000 grant.

A Community Comes Together

The grant provided critical support for the restoration. The funds helped Sacramento JACL repair and restore two bathrooms, replace four broken fire doors and have new window coverings made for the facility.

The restoration became a true community effort. Sacramento City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, whose district includes the building, recognized the importance of preserving the historic facility and assisted with valuable contacts and support. Bill Burg of Preservation Sacramento also provided assistance and guidance.

Together, community members, organizations, supporters and volunteers demonstrated what can happen when people come together to protect an important part of their shared history.

A New Chapter

On Aug. 23, Sacramento JACL hosted an “In Gratitude” special event at the Nisei War Memorial Community Center to honor the many individuals whose time, dedication, kindness and commitment continue to make a meaningful difference in the Japanese American and greater Sacramento communities.

Sacramento JACL honored individuals making a meaningful difference in the Japanese American and greater Sacramento communities at the Nisei War Memorial Community Center on Aug. 23.

Recognized at the event by Sacramento JACL were Thaya Craig, Geno Endo, Allyn Green, Esther Hokama, Peter Kassel, Tiffany Kelly, Paul Kitagaki Jr., Charles Kobayashi, Kent Nakashima, Joyce Ng, Susan Nonaka, Russell Okubo, Lester Ouchida, Priscilla Ouchida, Dave Sakauye, Kaori Sakauye, Glenn Sapaden, Eddy Shimizu, Genevieve Shiroma, Keiji Takagi, Christine Umeda and Hach Yasumura.

For many attendees, it was the first opportunity to see the building after the extensive repairs and improvements.

The reaction was overwhelming.

Comments ranged from “breathtaking” and “beautiful” to “I can’t believe it’s the same building.”

Those words reflected not only the physical transformation of the building, but also the pride of a community that had come together to preserve a place with such deep historical significance.

The Nisei War Memorial Community Center stands as a testament to the perseverance of the Japanese American veterans who created VFW Post 8985, the vision of the Sacramento JACL and the generosity of a community committed to preserving its history for future generations.

Sacramento JACL extends its deepest gratitude to the Japanese American Community Foundation for its extraordinary generosity and support. The $50,000 grant made an important difference in bringing this historic building back to life.

The restoration is more than a renovation. It is a commitment to remember the past, honor those who came before us and ensure that the Nisei War Memorial Community Center continues to serve the Sacramento community for generations to come.