2011 Honorees
Manzanar Committee - Grateful Crane Ensemble, Inc. - Japanese American Living Legacy
LA Councilmember, Jan Perry - Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress
Manzanar Committee
- Manzanar Committe Blog
Our MIssion Statement:
The Manzanar Committee is dedicated to educating and raising public awareness about the incarceration and violation of civil rights of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II, and to the continuing struggle of all peoples when Constitutional rights are in danger.
About the Manzanar Committee…
In December 1969, a group of about 150 people, mostly young, mostly Japanese Americans, drove by car and bus to a place between Lone Pine and Independence, California. The place we had come looking for was Manzanar, one of ten concentration camps in which Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.
This was, we thought, our first Manzanar Pilgrimage. The bitter cold and biting wind gave us our first lesson on how life must have been for the internees. Our humility was reinforced when we learned that what we had brashly called our “first” pilgrimage was for two Issei ministers, their 25th—Rev. Sentoku Mayeda and Rev. Shoichi Wakahiro are gone—but their spirits live on.
In 1972, after a year-long campaign led by the Manzanar Committee and the Japanese American Citizens League, Manzanar was designated California State Historic Landmark #850.
In April 1985, the National Park Service, Department of Interior designated Manzanar as a National Historic Landmark. The plaque was presented to the City of Los Angeles during the pilgrimage program on April 27, 1985.
H.R. 543, introduced by Congress member Mel Levine, received considerable support in Congress. The bill passed on February 19, 1992, the 50th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, designating Manzanar as a National Historic Site. The 23rd Annual Pilgrimage, held on April 25, 1992, brought more than 2,200 participants to celebrate the designation.
The original auditorium was restored by the National Park Service as a state-of-the-art Interpretive Center, which had its grand opening in 2004. In addition to telling the story of the concentration camp experience, the exhibit covers the history of pre-camp communities which lived on the land, such as the Owens Valley Paiute, farmers, rancher and miners.
The Manzanar Committee, which has sponsored the pilgrimage going on 42 years, is an all-volunteer committee, incorporated under the laws of the State of California as a non-profit educational organization. We invite your support, your energy, and your participation as a Manzanar Committee member. All donations are tax-deductible.
Grateful Crane Ensemble, Inc.
“Performing Out of Gratitude”
gratefulcrane.com
For the past ten years, the mission of the Los Angeles-based Grateful Crane Ensemble (GCE) has been to present educational and theatrical programs in appreciation for the unique hardships and inspiring contributions of Japanese Americans in our country’s history.
In 2004, GCE’s Camp Dance: The Music & The Memories began its journey of taking audiences back to the floor of the high school dances young Nisei held behind barbed wire in America’s concentration camps. Through entertaining vignettes and the singing of classic songs from the 1940s, the show has educated and entertained the public across the country about camp life in ways that can’t be done by reading a book or listening to a lecture.
In 2010, GCE produced The Betrayed by Nisei playwright Hiroshi Kashiwagi, a two-act play that deals with two highly controversial “loyalty” questions that were imposed upon Japanese Americans as they were being held in camps across the country. These questions—and the subsequent split they caused within the Japanese American community—is a subject once thought “untouchable” to discuss. However, by fairly presenting both sides of the argument in the context of a love story, GCE has and continues to tackle this difficult subject through the power of live theater.
Through storytelling, music, drama and humor, GCE is committed to telling the camp story to educate and remind ourselves of this dark chapter in American history, and to remain vigilant so it never happens again.
Japanese American Living Legacy
www.jalivinglegacy.org
Japanese American Living Legacy is committed to educating the general public about the roles of immigrant Japanese and Americans of Japanese ancestry in American history. Our goal is to use oral histories as the primary means to capture and convey the lives, experiences and memories of these people and to promote the education of all Americans by engaging the general public in community enrichment programs.
Jan Perry, LA Councilmember
Whether implementing cutting edge improvements or ensuring delivery of fundamental services, Jan Perry is making a positive change in the lives of her constituents. Now in her third term as Councilwoman of the Ninth District, Perry represents some of the most diverse and vibrant communities in Los Angeles including Bunker Hill, Little Tokyo, and South Los Angeles.
Before Perry began her first term, the basic services available in other Los Angeles neighborhoods were being neglected in parts of her district. Perry's commitment to change that, along with her untiring efforts in working with public agencies and environmental groups, has resulted in major improvements in the district's operations and infrastructure. Her success in responding to the district's needs has been dramatically demonstrated by the increase in trash capture devices, resurfacing of streets, repaving of streets, repair of sidewalks, and the increase in the number of streetlights.
In addition to understanding and meeting the needs of the communities within her district, Perry recognized the special relationship between her constituencies in South Los Angeles and downtown, and she is putting in place the mechanisms that will enable the sectors to benefit each other. Perry is also involved in planning strategies that will maximize opportunities for development in South Los Angeles and share in downtown's job opportunities resulting from its increase in housing and entertainment centers. One of these initiatives is her proposed one-year moratorium on new fast food outlets in South Los Angeles. This measure, together with a grocery store and sit-down restaurant incentive package that she spearheaded, will provide opportunities for new businesses to invest in South Los Angeles.
In order to reduce crime, Councilwoman Perry is supporting programs for at risk youth, employment opportunities, and after-school programs that serve as an alternative to gang life. She also is putting into place aggressive crime stopping measures and is working for stronger deployment of LAPD personnel and resources in high crime areas.
Central City East, an area known by many as Skid Row, has been a community that Perry has worked passionately with to improve, outreaching to the homeless, fighting for permanent supportive housing, and working with local agencies to create programs that truly help those in need. Perry has earmarked funds to establish the city’s first year-round Emergency Homeless Shelter Program. She is spearheading integration of vital services for shelter cases in a multi-pronged effort to meet the challenge of homelessness in Central City East and throughout the region.
Perry co-authored and is widely credited with passage of Proposition O to clean Los Angeles water. The Augustus Hawkins Wetland is one of Perry’s most inspiring initiatives. The nation’s first man-made wetland in a highly urban area is part of Augustus Hawkins Park. Perry initiated the project, and it is due in large measure to her unwavering tenacity that it came to fruition. The project is an ecological wonder in its own right, and it also serves as a demonstration project for Perry’s proposed 9-acre South Los Angeles Wetlands Park that will simultaneously improve water quality and provide much-needed park and recreation space to the South Los Angeles community.
Perry currently chairs the Energy and the Environment Committee; vice-chairs the Information Technology & Government Affairs Committee; Ad Hoc on Economic Recovery & Reinvestment; and Ad Hoc Committee on Recovering Energy, Natural Resources, and Economic Benefit from Waste for LA (RENEW LA) Committee. She is a member of the Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee and Public Safety Committee. She was appointed by the mayor to represent LA as governing board member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and was re-elected in 2006 by the Western cities to serve another 4-year term. Perry also serves on the Exposition Light Rail Authority and is president pro tempore for the Los Angeles City Council.
Perry earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California School of Journalism, cum laude. She received a master’s degree from USC in public administration.
Nekkei for Civil Rights and Redress
www.ncrr-la.org
NCRR was founded in 1980 as the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations by Nikkei (Japanese Americans) from across the country. The members were united around 1) Individual compensation of $25,000 for each Japanese American who suffered deprivation of liberty during the War; 2) A community trust fund; 3) Overturning the wartime court cases of Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Min Yasui; 4) Education of the general public about the incarceration of Japanese Americans; and 5) To support similar campaigns against injustice. The successful grassroots campaign culminated in President Ronald Reagan's signing of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act, which provided compensation and an apology to the more than 82,000 survivors of the concentration camps.
In 2000, the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations decided to adopt its non-profit name, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, with the same acronym, NCRR. The new name better reflected NCRR's work which continues today: active participation in the broad areas of civil rights as well as continued commitment to education about the Japanese American incarceration.
NCRR supports minorities such as Muslims, Arabs and Southeast Asians who have become targets of racism and intolerance after the events of 9//11/01. NCRR is an active participant in efforts to make Little Tokyo a thriving community, which includes the campaign for a recreation center. NCRR is a voting member of the Little Tokyo Community Council. NCRR has been a sponsor of the annual Day of Remembrance program in Los Angeles for more than 20 years. The DOR program commemorates the February 19, 1942 signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. EO 9066 enabled the U.S. government to imprison 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry into American concentration camps. NCRR is one of the sponsors of the Summer Activist Training which is an intensive four-day program for young people who want to make a difference in their communities but who lack the skills to organize campaigns.
NCRR's membership meets regularly at monthly "general" meetings. NCRR's most active committees are the Education, "9/11," Archive, Web, and DOR committees.
NCRR has no paid staff and volunteers do all the work.
NCRR's website is: ncrr-la.org and email address is:ncrrla@yahoo.com
2010 Honorees
Asian American Drug Abuse Program, Inc. (AADAP)
www.aadapinc.org
AADAP CHANGING LIVES AND SAVING FAMILIES
In 1971, 31 Asian American youths died from drug overdoses. Community leaders largely in denial about the problems of substance abuse in the so-called “model minority” were shocked and dismayed by a growing crisis. An epidemic of drug abuse was underway while many in the Asian Pacific Islander American community believed, “our kids do not do drugs.” Fortunately, leadership recognized the consequences for the community as a whole and decided to make a difference.
People organized and talked to the youth to figure out the underlying causes of substance abuse and addiction in the Asian Pacific Islander American community. The organizers discovered that users both young and old in this ethnic enclave had no where to go for help. Asian Pacific Islander drug users needed someone and some place that understood the ethnic, cultural and family nuances of what they were going through with their drug use and addiction.
The organizers drafted a proposal and submitted a request to the federal government for funding to provide a substance abuse program targeting Asian Pacific Islander Americans. In 1972, the proposal was funded for a nonprofit organization and the Asian American Drug Abuse Program (AADAP) came into existence. Today, AADAP remains one of the leaders in the nation with a mission to target and design services for Asian and Pacific Islanders with substance abuse problems. (more)
Japanese American Medical Association (JAMA)
 
The Japanese American Medical Association was established in 1947 and is the oldest Japanese American professional group in Southern California. JAMA was founded to create a social and professional network for members to share information, to establish referrals or patients, and to socialize with other physicians and spouses. At the time of JAMA's establishment, Japanese physicians were not permitted to practice in most Los Angeles hospitals, making cooperative communication imperative.
Today, JAMA plays a vital role in our community and has expanded the needs and challenges of its members. JAMA is proud to sponsor the Fourth Medical Student Scholarship program, the mentoring program for physicians-in-training, and the oral history book, "Silent Scars of Healing Hands."
On June 10, 1997, JAMA received the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center's President's Award for fifty years of distinguished service to the community.
On April 10, 2010, JAMA will be honored by receiving the Senator Daniel Inouye Cherry Blossom Leadership Award for sixty-three years of outstanding leadership and contribution to the community.
JAMA has enjoyed a significant history, reflective of its members and their achievements, and looks forward to continued growth in its organization.
Nisei Week Foundation
NISEI WEEK FOUNDATION
BACKGROUND www.niseiweek.org
The Nisei Week Foundation is a501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that oversees and organize the Nisei Week Japanese Festival. The Foundation’s mission is to promote Japanese and Japanese American heritage and traditions while bringing together the diverse communities of Southern California through arts and cultural education. It does this by producing the Nisei Week Japanese Festival, a nine-day event that is the longest running ethnic festival in the United States.
In 2010, the Nisei Week Japanese Festival will celebrate its 70th year. The festival was established by the Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) in 1934 during the Great Depression. It was originally created to attract business to the Little Tokyo area and to promote goodwill. This first festival included a poster contest, an essay contest, radio broadcasts, a fashion show, various cultural exhibits and demonstrations and an “ondo” or “traditional Japanese street dancing” parade.
A queen pageant was added in 1935 with Alice Watanabe as the first Nisei Week Queen. Candidate selection was by nomination and the queen was selected by popular vote. Friends could cast a vote for their favorite candidate when making a purchase at one of the many businesses in Little Tokyo. Today, queen candidates are selected by various Japanese American community organizations. The Nisei Week Queen is selected and crowned at the Coronation Ball, which is held the first day of the festival.
The festival continued for only seven years before World War II intervened and the Japanese Americans were incarcerated for the duration of the war in U.S. concentration camps located in remote areas of the United States. In 1945, Japanese Americans began to return to Los Angeles, but it was not until 1949 that the community was able to restart the Nisei Week.
With the Foundation’s leadership and through solid support from local businesses and corporations and a growing number of Japanese firms doing business in the U.S., the Nisei Week Japanese Festival has grown in size and scope into one of the most recognized ethnic festivals in the United States today.
The most unique aspect of the festival is that it is completely planned, organized and run by hundreds of volunteers from the Japanese American community. Members from businesses and corporations, community-based and religious organizations, college groups, fraternities and sororities volunteer thousands of hours each year.
The Nisei Week Foundation depends on and appreciates the generosity of its volunteers and donors to continue the important Nisei Week Japanese Festival tradition. For more information on the Nisei Week Foundation, festival or to become a volunteer or donor, please visit www.niseiweek.org or call (213) 687-7193 or email at info@niseiweek.org.
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