2017 Day of Remembrance Events in Boston

 San Francisco, California, 1942.
Exclusion Order posted at First and Front Streets directing removal of persons of
Japanese ancestry from the first San Francisco section to be effected by the evacuation.
Dorothea Lange, National Archives Identifier: 536017

Today is the 75th anniversary of the Day of Remembrance, the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed the US government to incarcerate Americans and foreign nationals during WWII. The largest DOR event being organized in the Boston area by the New England chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and the MIT Center for International Studies is on Saturday. There is also an event at Tufts on Thursday.

If anyone knows of any other DOR events happening later this month, please let me know and I will update this post. You can also submit events to the Never Again Facebook community that was put together by people in the national Japanese American community. The community is public but note that the Events page doesn't seem to be visible if you don't have a Facebook account.

Executive Orders - Past and Present

Please join Tufts Japanese Culture Club and Muslim Student's Association to commemorate Day of Remembrance. Together, we remember the lives affected and lost by Executive Order 9066, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed and authorized the forced removal of 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast during World War II. Through our personal stories of family members interned and Islamophobic violence following 9/11, we strive to illuminate moments in American history in which groups are casted as “enemy alien” and disloyal. We must view today’s Executive Orders against immigration as fully connected to the past.

This evening's event will feature:

- "PILGRIMAGE", a documentary by Tad Nakamura that tells the inspiring story of how an abandoned WWII concentration camp for Japanese Americans has been transformed into a symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races and nationalities in our post 9/11 world.

- PERSONAL STORY SHARING about our families' experiences in internment and following 9/11. Hear from Japanese Culture Club and Muslim Student's Association members, Anna Kimura, Joseph Tsuboi, Chelsea Hayashi, Shaan Shaikh, and Nazifa Sarawat.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Co-sponsored by Tufts University Asian American Center

Date & Time
Thursday, February 23, 2017
8:00 - 9:30pm

Location
Aidekman Arts Center
Alumnae Lounge
40 Talbot Ave., Medford, MA 02155
Directions & Parking

Starr Forum: National Security & Civil Liberties: 1942 & 2017 

(Facebook event page)

The panel will begin with reflections on the 75th anniversary of internment of Japanese Americans, then assess and respond to issues raised by the current wave of Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Invocation: Hoda Elsharkawi, MIT Muslim Chaplain

Moderator: Kenneth Oye, MIT Political Science and NE JACL Co-President

Panelists:
- Paul Watanabe, Director of UMass Institute for Asian American Studies
- Margie Yamamoto, NE JACL Co-President incarcerated as a baby during WWII
- Barbara J. Dougan, Civil Rights Director of Council on American Islamic Relations of Massachusetts
- Nadeem Nazem, Cambridge City Council
- Shannon Al-Wakeel, Executive Director of Muslim Justice League and Massachusetts ACLU Board Member

Refreshments provided.

Sponsors: MIT Center for International Studies; UMass Boston Institute for Asian American Studies; Asian American Journalists Association, New England Chapter; Asian American Resource Workshop; and New England JACL

Date & Time
Saturday, Februrary 25, 2017
2:00 - 4:00pm
Panel will be streamed on the MIT Center for International Studies Facebook page. 

Location
MIT Media Laboratory
Bartos Theater
20 Ames St., E15-070, Cambridge, MA 02142

Parking & Transportation
Two hour metered street parking is limited due to construction and Cambridge tickets aggressively. There are several nearby parking garages, but all are expensive.

The closest T stop is Kendall/MIT.

Follow me on Twitter #MyAsianAmericanStory

I'm of the pre-Twitter generation that remembers life before Twitter. When Twitter was launched I didn't understand why anyone would want to use it. I have much more to say than will fit in 140 characters. I heard about how useful Twitter was during 3.11 and during the Arab Spring but I didn't really understand Twitter until last August during the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown. Before the national and international media started paying attention, Twitter and local St. Louis news outlets were pretty much the only sites on which you could read and watch what was going on there. Even after the story went international Twitter was still the fastest way to find out what was happening and there were many stories I learned about on Twitter the media failed to tell or told a different version of.

While I don't expect any of my tweets to change the world, I've been thinking about setting up an account to share things that aren't really worth doing a whole blog post about. Sometimes I hear about events at the last minute and don't have time to write it up for the blog or I see articles that would be worth sharing but don't want to spend the time writing commentary. I'll probably share pictures of tasty food I eat. :)

The thing that finally pushed me over the edge to finish setting up my account and go public was #MyAsianAmericanStory. The hashtag was created on Monday by 15-year-old Jason Fong in response to presidential candidate Jeb Bush's appalling remarks accusing "Asian people" of "coming into our country -- having children in that organized effort, taking advantage of a noble concept, which is birthright citizenship". @#$%! Pitting minorities against each other is the oldest trick in the book. He threw us under the bus so he could make nice to the Latinos so they wouldn't think he was referring to them in a previous comment on so-called anchor babies. Bush has since suggested that we "chill out a little bit."

When I looked through Jason's tweets I noticed that a couple of hours before he created #MyAsianAmericanStory he tweeted California Rep. Ted Lieu, asking where the AAPI response to Bush's remarks was. No reply. So he took matters into his own hands.
 
Jason Fong on Twitter
That's what's great about Twitter. Anyone of any age or class can make their voice heard and start a national conversation. AAPIs are always complaining about our lack of representation in the media, in politics, in national conversations on race. I've certainly done it. Something I figured out a few years ago is that if you're not out there making your voice heard, then you're part of the problem. I think it's awesome that Jason didn't wait for the adults in the Asian American community to come up with a carefully crafted response. There was no guarantee that his hashtag would go viral but he made an effort, which is more than I can say for a lot of AAPIs. Thanks to Jason, a couple of big media outlets have started sharing these stories. Once upon a time Asian American reaction would not have been covered by the media. Now, a 15-year-old with an Internet connection can make a difference.

I've written before about how there comes a time when all your teachers cease to be older than you and you start learning from people younger than you. We can all learn a lot from Jason.

"[Jason] said he did not create the #MyAsianAmericanStory hashtag to exclude anyone. Instead, the hashtag is an opportunity to share stories that are not often seen in the media. “I hope that people can look at this tag, and know that Asians and Asian Americans are part of the American narrative,” he said." – "Student starts #MyAsianAmericanStory in response to Bush remarks," Los Angeles Times, August 25, 2015

On the blog I try to keep my focus pretty narrow and write primarily about Japanese and Japanese American stuff rather than Asian American stuff. I do this because there are a lot of other Asian American bloggers who are writing more broadly about Asian American experience but very few Japanese Americans who are writing about our experiences. As other Asian American populations are growing, we're shrinking. Where we used to be a majority among Asian Americans, at around 1.3 million we're now the smallest among the six largest Asian American populations. I'll probably have more Asian American content on Twitter but I'm planning to keep the blog focused on Japanese and Japanese American stuff.

I don't think Twitter is for everyone. I'm not even sure it's for me. There's a lot about the site that I find annoying and problematic. I don't promise to stick with it. But I'm giving it a try and we'll see how it goes. You can follow me @keikoinboston.

Update 9:25pm: The JACL has issued a statement on Jeb Bush's remarks and Donald Trump disparaging Japanese and Chinese businessmen he's negotiated with.

Mazie Hirono and Mark Takano make history

Japanese Americans Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Mark Takano (D-California) made history in yesterday's elections.

Hirono is making history on multiple fronts:

• Hawaii's first female senator.
• First Japanese American female senator.
• First Asian American female senator.
• First person born in Japan (or anywhere in Asia) to be elected to the Senate.  She is also the first foreign-born Asian woman to be elected to the House of Representatives.
• First Buddhist senator. She is also one of two Buddhists who were the first to be elected to the House of Representatives.

Takano is making history as the first openly LGBT Japanese American, Asian American, and person of color to win a Congressional seat. He was one of eight LGBT candidates running for Congress this year. Of the 8, 6 have won and 1 is too close to call 7 won. Two other LGBT candidates also made history: Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), as the first openly gay person to be elected to the Senate, and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), as the first openly bisexual member of Congress. Takano was recently featured in The Huffington Post's list of The Most Influential LGBT Asian Icons at #38.

Hirono and Takano join four other Japanese Americans in Congress. Omedetō gozaimasu!

List of Japanese American Senators and Representatives:

• Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) | Official Site | Wikipedia 
• Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) | Official Site | Wikipedia
• Rep. Mike Honda (D-California) | Official Site | Wikipedia
• Sen. Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii) | Wikipedia
• Rep. Doris Matsui (D-California) | Official Site | Wikipedia
• Rep. Mark Takano (D-California) | Official Site | Wikipedia

Update 12/18/12: Sen. Dan Inouye passed away yesterday. Gov. Neil Abercrombie will appoint a successor who will serve until 2014, at which time they'll have an election for someone to fill the remainder of Sen. Inouye's term (until 2016). Sen. Inouye wanted Rep. Colleen Hanabusa to succeed him.