Since 2010, Hawai’i, Virginia, Florida, New York City, Arizona and now New Jersey have also established a day of recognition every year in honor of Fred Korematsu’s fight for justice and the importance of upholding our civil liberties and the Constitution. JACL DC was honored to sign the letter to Congressional leaders in support of legislation to recognize Fred Korematsu’s legacy as a civil rights hero:
(1) Fred Korematsu Congressional Gold Medal Act (2) Recognizing the importance of establishing a national “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” (3) Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act
JACL DC expresses our deepest condolences to those who lost a loved one in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay and the communities that must face the aftermath in the days to come.
#HalfMoonBay #MontereyPark
To read JACL National’s statement, please click HERE.
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!
JAVA, along with the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF), will hold its annual Veterans Day Program on Friday, November 11th at the National Japanese American Memorial in Washington, D.C. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Monica C. Williams, will be the keynote speaker for the Veterans Day Program.
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.
“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.
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.
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!
JACL DC 