JACL DC

JACL Members get 24-hour early access to 2023 Kakehashi Program Applications!

JACL National is excited to announce the return of their in-person Kakehashi project trips! This year’s program will be from March 6 – March 14, 2023. This year’s cohort will consist of 37 participants who will travel to Japan with the purpose of enhancing their understanding of the Japanese economy, society, history, diverse culture, politics, and diplomatic policies of Japan through people-to-people exchanges. Participants are expected to play an active and important role in the future of U.S.-Japan relations.

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this year’s program will consist of a smaller number of participants. Please be very thorough in your application. They are limiting the number of applications they will receive to 225. Individuals who participated in their virtual program in 2021 will be eligible to participate in this year’s trip, however, they will need to reapply!

Some changes to this year’s program include an increase in the age requirements; participants can be up to 27 years old when they leave for the trip. All participants who attend will also need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as defined by CDC guidelines. All other requirements are laid out in the Kakehashi applications and online at jacl.org/kakehashi.

Applications will close on Sunday, December 11th at 11:59 pm Hawaiian Standard Time or after they have received 225 applications total. 

The JACL Kakehashi Program is 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. 

The JACL DC Chapter is hosting our annual Mochitsuki on Saturday, December 3 at North Bethesda Middle School, 8935 Bradmoor Drive, Bethesda, MD 20817 starting at 12:00 PM. Come join us for a fun-filled, Japanese American community event where people of all ages can take part in pounding rice, and making their very own mochi!

Registration closes on Wednesday, November 30th. Register today and place your pre-order bentos & mochi HERE.

*This will be an indoor event, and we ask that you continue to take necessary precautions to keep yourself and others healthy.  Masking is encouraged.

The JACL DC Chapter is hosting our annual Mochitsuki on Saturday, December 3 at North Bethesda Middle School, 8935 Bradmoor Drive, Bethesda, MD 20817 starting at 12:00 PM. Come join us for a fun-filled, Japanese American community event where people of all ages can take part in pounding rice, and making their very own mochi!

To register and learn more, click HERE. 

Date: Friday, November 11^th 2022

Time: 7:00 pm

Place: Northwest High School, 13501 Richter Farm Rd, Germantown, MD

Theme: “Honoring and Thanking our Beloved Veterans for their Service to our Country”

Guest Speaker: CAPT (Dr) Cynthia Macri, MC, USN (Ret) 

The Ceremony will start at 2:00 pm EST / 1:00 pm CST /11:00 am PST / 9:00 am HST rain or shine. All are invited to attend in-person or virtually.

The program will be live-streamed via Facebook. Viewers can go to the JAVA website at JAVA-US.org and watch from JAVA’s Facebook page or directly to JAVA’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Nonprofit-Organization/Japanese-American-Veterans-Association-201704733192222/.

“One of the last, great untold stories of World War II—kept hidden for decades—even after
most of the World War II records were declassified in 1972, many of the files remained
untouched in various archives—a gripping true tale of courage and adventure from Bruce
Henderson, master storyteller, historian, and New York Times best-selling author of Sons
and Soldiers—the saga of the Japanese American U.S. Army soldiers who fought in the

Pacific theater, in Burma, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, with their families back home in America,
under U.S. Executive Order 9066, held behind barbed wire in government internment
camps.

After Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military was desperate to find Americans
who spoke Japanese to serve in the Pacific war. They soon turned to the Nisei—first-generation
U.S. citizens whose parents were immigrants from Japan. Eager to prove their loyalty to
America, several thousand Nisei—many of them volunteering from the internment camps where
they were being held behind barbed wire—were selected by the Army for top-secret training,
then were rushed to the Pacific theater. Highly valued as expert translators and interrogators,
these Japanese American soldiers operated in elite intelligence teams alongside Army
infantrymen and Marines on the front lines of the Pacific war, from Iwo Jima to Burma, from the
Solomons to Okinawa.

Henderson reveals, in riveting detail, the harrowing untold story of the Nisei and their major
contributions in the war of the Pacific, through six Japanese American soldiers. After the war,
these soldiers became translators and interrogators for war crime trials, and later helped to
rebuild Japan as a modern democracy and a pivotal U.S. ally.”

—
BRUCE HENDERSON is the author of more than twenty nonfiction books. He is an award-
winning journalist who has taught reporting and writing at USC School of Journalism and
Stanford University. Henderson lives in northern California.

Website: https://brucehendersonbooks.com/

Twitter: @BHendersonBooks

A gentle reminder to please register for our annual Keiro Kai and Family Day that will be taking place this Sunday, September 18th, from 12:00 – 2:30 PM.

Join us for a fun-filled afternoon including a delicious meal, games for all ages, and connect with old friends and meet new ones! There will be a special flag signing opportunity as well, in which Japanese American camp survivors are invited to sign. The WWII-era, 48-star, American flag will travel the East Coast through November 2022.

To learn more about the project, please click here: http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2021/5/27/flag-signing-project/

To register for Keiro Kai, please click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jacl-dc-keiro-kai-family-day-tickets-397953408357?fbclid=IwAR2YLIR0BUpLncWYPZb4yyyQchS-z16U-F8gf8fRKw0JDY5lscZLZo_G228

We hope to see you all there!

The DC Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (MOAPIA) is hosting an outdoor movie night next Friday, September 9th, to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinatown Park. They will be showing Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings this year!

To learn more, please click the following Eventbrite page. 

Help us make this year’s Keiro Kai and Family Day a total success!

On the day of the event (Sunday, September 18) we need some more volunteers to help with the following tasks: 

1. Helping direct cars and parking as people arrive in the parking lot

2. Serving food on the food line

3. Being a floating “goodwill ambassador” who checks on our seniors at the event to make sure they are feeling celebrated and having a good time. 

These tasks will not take the entire event time, so you will still have time to eat and mingle and enjoy the event.  Please e-mail us at keirokai2022@gmail.com if you are willing to volunteer for one of these roles (please indicate which one).

You may also contact Janet Nuzum or Michelle Amano, Keiro Kai’s Co-Chairs.

Thank you for your support of our senior community!

Mark your calendar! On Sunday, September 18 from 12:00 – 2:30 PM, JACL DC Chapter will be celebrating Keiro Kai and Family Day! Join us for a day outdoors at the Cabin John Group Picnic Area (the same place as where we had this year’s picnic in June).

We are fortunate to have three JACL DC Top Chefs for the day:

• Top Sushi Chef: David Inoue,
• Top Teriyaki Chicken Chef: Janet Nuzum
• Top Kalua Pork Chef: Michelle Amano.   

Plus more food and games for all ages, as we honor the senior members of our community. There is a large grassy area for families to bring balls or outdoor equipment for games. 

Please RSVP HERE no later than Tuesday, September 13.  If you have questions, need help with transportation or would to volunteer for the event, please contact us at keirokai2022@gmail.com.

All are welcome!  JACL members & their families are free as well as our 65+ community. Non-members under 65 years old can pre-register for $10, pay $20 on-site, or become JACL members & receive all the JACL membership perks!