Portland JACL

JACL and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) are inviting seventy-two educators to explore the historical significance and enduring legacy of the World War II Japanese American incarceration experience and the reparations movement. While past participants are primarily social studies and humanities teachers at the K-12 levels, all are invited to apply.

This NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop will be offered twice: June 19-24 and July 10-15, 2022. Participants will be staying in the historic Little Tokyo neighborhood in Los Angeles with the majority of programming being at our host institution, the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), with day trips to Santa Anita Park (a WWII temporary ?assembly center?) and Manzanar National Historic Site (one of the ten permanent WWII ?internment? camps). This will be one of the last times we are able to host a workshop with living camp survivors as the WWII generation passes the torch to future ones.

Learn more and apply here: https//jacl.org/2022-neh-landmarks

NEHgrant#NEHWhyHere#K12#highered

?A phenomenal sequence of lectures and field trips that offered new perspectives on civil liberties? – 2016 Landmarks Participant

JACL is saddened to learn that Holly Yasui has passed away due to complications from COVID-19. While Holly is best known for her father, Min Yasui, who challenged the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II all the way to the Supreme Court, she was also a fierce fighter for civil rights on her own. In the past few years, her passion was bringing to life the film Never Give Up! Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice and telling the story of her father?s crusade and how it applied to the modern struggles of the Muslim Ban and immigrant family incarceration and separation. 

JACL Executive Director, David Inoue fondly recalls Holly, ?When I first met Holly at a rally in Washington, DC, she was especially enthusiastic about JACL?s leadership in fighting on behalf of other communities. This was not only her father?s legacy and his strong belief in JACL?s purpose, but she made fighting for justice her own mission. Her unexpected passing is a shock and tragic loss to us all.?

September 23, 2021

For Immediate Release

Matthew Weisbly, Education & Communications Coordinator, mweisbly@jacl.org

Sarah Baker, VP Public Affairs, sbaker@jacl.org

The JACL stands with Haitian refugees seeking asylum in America and is appalled by the blatantly inhumane immigration policies being conducted by the Biden administration. In the past week, we have witnessed images of the mistreatment of Haitian refugees and inhumane conditions in Del Rio. Many Haitian refugees are seeking asylum from the turmoil in their country after a massive earthquake and tropical storm struck Haiti in August 2021, and the assassination of their president in July 2021. This earthquake itself left over 2,200 Haitians dead and over 12,000 injured. Now, instead of a humane approach towards these refugees and their families suffering, we instead see CBP agents on horseback running after Haitian refugees. 

This shocking imagery is unfortunately just a small part of a much larger and disturbing trend of mistreatment of immigrants by the Biden administration. Despite campaign promises that the new administration?s immigration policy would have humane guiding principles, Haitian immigrants and their families continue to be deported in massive plane flights at alarming rates. The Administration is sending planes full of families to Haiti under Section 42, including children under the age of three, without offering them legal protections and the opportunity to file for asylum. The JACL calls on the Biden administration to end these inhumane practices and to stop abusing the emergency powers granted by Section 42. Our communities have seen how hostility and violence towards immigrants and their descendants are often paired with the abuse of emergency powers granted to government officials in times of crisis, and we can not stand by while it happens again. 

JACL Executive Director David Inoue stated, ?The frightful images of border patrol agents on horseback hunting down Haitian migrants are not what I would expect from our country. They are unfortunately indicative of how the administration continues to reject and expel those seeking escape from the political, earthquake, and tropical storm inflicted upheaval that the Haitian people have been experiencing. The government continues to use the inappropriate application of a so-called public health emergency under Section 42 to expel Haitians much like false security threats were used to incarcerate Japanese Americans during WWII. It is long past time to end these racist and exclusionary immigration policies.?

In 1973, the Supreme Court made the landmark decision that ruled access to abortion and one?s right to choose as protected under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Roe v. Wade has been one of the most contested and debated Supreme Court decisions in recent history. Since the court made its decision, it has come under attack by numerous state and local organizations. Unfortunately, his year has been no different. In the first half of 2021 alone, more than 90 laws restricting abortion access have passed in several state legislatures. Tuesday, Texas enacted the most restrictive abortion law to date; banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. On Wednesday, a narrow majority of the Supreme Court ignored 48 years of precedent in allowing the Texas law to stand.

This six-week number is based on early cardiac activity, which also coincides most often when a doctor is able to confirm someone is pregnant. This means it is not nearly enough time for someone to not only confirm they are pregnant but to also schedule an appointment. The law also includes provisions to ?reward? bystanders for tipping off the local government to anyone who is attempting to aid in an ?illegal? abortion. This could include not only doctors but also family and friends of someone who is attempting to seek an appointment.

The JACL unequivocally supports the right to decide whether and when to become a parent. The National Council officially adopted a resolution, titled Family Choice, at the 1992 convention supporting a person?s right ?to choose and determine the course of their lives.?

JACL Executive Director, David Inoue stated ?This law serves as a dangerous precedent for not only the State of Texas but many others that are currently looking to enact similar laws. While the law should be unable to withstand court challenge, that the Supreme Court has declined to block its enactment is not encouraging. This signifies a clear shift of the court away from upholding what has been considered the settled law of the land and allowing the creation of new and dangerous policies infringing upon individual rights and encouraging reckless vigilantism.?

The scenes that have come out of Afghanistan in the last few days are all too familiar to many within the Asian American community, with many people noting the eerie similarity to images from the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Then, just as now, the United States has a duty to help those scared and vulnerable civilians who are attempting to evacuate in order to protect themselves and their families. The time for debate about the war and its impacts will continue to happen, but now the priority must be to protect those who are at risk and give them refuge.

When the United States left Vietnam in 1975, over 130,000 civilians and refugees were evacuated as part of the withdrawal process, albeit by supposed ?rogue? civilian and military personnel. Currently, under a special visa program for Afghan citizens, less than 2,000, of 20,000 who applied, have been evacuated. Many more still have not had the chance to apply and are still searching for a way out. The top priority for evacuation should be given to those most at-risk members of Afghan society such as women and girls who are targeted by the Taliban, the LGBTQ community, the disabled community, interpreters, and others who supported the United States in Afghanistan.

The JACL has long supported the immigration of refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Four different administrations have been in power during the War in Afghanistan, and now it is on the current administration and Congress to ensure that our Afghan allies that have stood by us throughout the conflict are not abandoned. We call on the Biden administration and Congress to accept as many refugees as possible; through expanding the resettlement limit, increasing the number of Special Immigrant Visas and Priority 2 status refugees, as well as designate Afghanistan as Temporary Protected Status. It should also ensure that there are sufficient transportation sites for refugees seeking to leave the country.

The US should ensure that there is adequate assistance in areas such as housing, healthcare, and other basic necessities and that these immigrant communities are not targeted for deportation in the same fashion that many other post-war immigrant communities were treated. We are still seeing the struggle of Vietnamese, Hmong, and Cambodian refugees who came in the wake of the Vietnam War and who are now at risk of being deported and are incarcerated at higher rates than many other Asian American communities. We cannot allow any incoming refugees to suffer this same fate in the future.

Slots for the 2021 Kakehashi trip remain available. Applications will be accepted until Sunday, June 13 at 11:59 HST or until slots are full. Applications will be accepted on a first come first accepted basis.

Each year, between 100 and 200 participants are selected to participate in the JACL Kakehashi Program, coordinated by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE), and supported by funding from the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These participants travel to Japan in the spirit of cross country and cultural exchange, with the added component of connecting Japanese American young adults with their Japanese family’s heritage.

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this year’s program will consist of a smaller Virtual Exchange of 92 participants with Japanese college students from the prefectures of Gifu, Okinawa, and Wakayama. If conditions permit, and a trip to Japan becomes possible during this current funding year, participants accepted to the virtual program will be automatically eligible to participate in the physical trip.

There is no guarantee of a physical trip and participants in a virtual-only program this year will remain eligible to apply to a future Kakehashi trip or similar program sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For answers to these questions, please refer to the Kakehashi Program information page and FAQs linked HERE.

Submit your application as early as possible but no later than Sunday, June 13 at 11:59pm Hawaiian Standard Time for acceptance to the 2021 Kakehashi Program.

June 13, 2 p.m.
RSVP Marleen@pdxjacl.org

Join us for a screening of Lauren Yanase’s film about exploring her family’s past. She reflects upon how she decided to develop this documentary.

Shikata Ga Nai: An Inconvenient American, started out as a hint of an idea in the back of my mind almost four years ago. Since first grade, I have been a Girl Scout and had always wanted to get my Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive. Most Scouts who earn this award do so with very hands-on, tangible service projects, refurbishing a church, founding a STEM robotics club for girls, etc. I figured I, too, would do something of a similar nature. However, in my junior year of high school, I was faced with an uncomfortable reality. What I took for granted–an innate knowledge of the horrors my Japanese American family faced during World War II–others (intelligent, empathetic people) were ignorant to or didn’t appreciate the full consequence. So began the most ambitious, emotionally grueling project I had ever attempted: making a documentary.