Hot Fun in the Summertime Returns to Little Tokyo With 84th Nisei Week
The annual Japanese cultural festival was set to begin Aug. 15 with the yet-to-be revealed coronation of the Nisei Week queen and her court. Vying for the 2026 top tiara are Kara Kimiko Chu, Emily Kaori Gruhn, Ai Grace Kusayanagi, Jacqueline Fujiko Naito, Meagan Sueko Pham, Kailah Julianne Tokushige and Deena Maiko Umeda. Other Nisei Week events include Aug. 19’s Pioneer Spirit Awards Luncheon, at which Joyce Wakano Chinn, Dan Fukushima, Miyoko Hataye, Kenji Irie, Yuriko Shikai and Nancy Uyemura will each be recognized for long-standing service to Southern California’s Japanese American community. The President’s Award honoree is Alan Miyatake. The recipients of the Frances K. Hashimoto Community Service Award are Erich Nakano, Mutual Trading Co. Inc., Debra Nakatomi and So-Phis. The festival ends Aug. 23. For updates, visit niseiweek.org/.
DoJ: ‘Operation Hard Ball’ Nabs 24 Allegedly Tied to India-Based Gangs
The U.S. Dept. of Justice announced that a coordinated effort among law enforcement in the U.S., Canada and Europe resulted in the arrests of 24 defendants alleged to be connected to three “India-based transnational organized crime groups” involved in several criminal activities, including the June 2023 assassination in Canada of a Sikh religious figure in British Columbia. Eleven of those arrested were in California. Seven fugitives are still being sought. Dubbed “Operation Hard Ball,” the operation was a “years-long federal investigation into Indian crime syndicates that engage in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion, the trafficking of bulk quantities of narcotics across international borders and other crimes around the world.” ¶ The DoJ also announced that Guramrit Sidhu, 63, of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for trafficking $17 million in methamphetamine and cocaine from the U.S. into Canada. ¶ The FBI announced the arrest of South Korean national Kim Myung-jin, 31, who is accused of commiting a pair of murders in the U.S. in 2016 and 2018. ¶ The AP reported that video footage of two masked ICE agents tackling Australian citizen Phu Nguyen, 57, at Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport sparked “public outrage and criticism from elected officicals.” According to the report, the ICE agents walked away when they realized they were being recorded, leaving Nguyen with “a handcuff attached to one arm.” When Las Vegas Metropolitan Police found no outstanding warrants for him, they removed his handcuffs and notified ICE. In a statement, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said, “ICE is continuing to act with impunity — instilling fear in our communities and scaring tourists, which hurts our tourism economy.” According to ICE, Nguyen had overstayed his visa and was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport the next day. ¶ Philippines national Ceasar Tubay Gelacio Jr., 43, an able-bodied seaman on the oil tanker Aquatravesia, pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly bringing nearly 200 kilograms of cocaine on a vessel arriving in El Segundo, Calif., according to the Dept. of Justice.
Duly Noted: JANM Selects 3 New Members for Its Board of Governors
The Japanese American National Museum said that Lori Fogarty, Masaki Ozaki and Ron Tanemura have joined its board of governors. ¶ Journalist Henry Chu was named curator of Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, the university announced. ¶ Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2455, introduced by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), officially designating May 17 as Bruce Lee Day in the state, beginning next year. Lee, who died in 1973 on the cusp of gaining international superstardom in martial arts movies, was born in San Francisco in 1940.
— P.C. Staff