'NEGLECTED LEGACIES' SERIES KICKS OFF WITH PROGRAM PROFILING THREE NISEI WOMEN PIONEERS ON FEB. 2

A three-part series, "Neglected Legacies: Japanese American Women and Redress", will kick off with a panel discussion, "Reconsidering Roots", with three authors of biographies of Nisei women in a public program set for Saturday, February 2, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum. The program is free and open to the public.

This program was organized by the Lane Hirabayashi, George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress & Community, Asian American Studies Center at UCLA in collaboration with the Japanese American National Museum as part of the Museum’s series, "Redress Remembered: A Moment of National Redemption". The redress series commemorates the 20th Anniversary of the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which granted an official apology and reparations to thousands of Japanese Americans unconstitutionally forced from their homes by the United States government during World War II.

The "Reconsidering Roots" panel will consist of Sharon Yamato, who is writing a manuscript on historian Michi Nishiura Weglyn; Joy Morimoto, who has co-authored the autobiography, Birth of an Activist: The Sox Kitashima Story; and Diana Bahr, who just published a book on educator and activist Sue K. Embrey. Tom Fujita Rony, chair of Asian American Studies at the California State University, Fullerton, will moderate the panel discussion.

Weglyn wrote the landmark book, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps, which was published in 1976. Reviewed at the time as "the most thoroughly documented account of WWII Japanese American internment", refuted the idea that a military necessity existed during the war as the justification for the forced removal and mass incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans. This provided a key argument for the advocates of redress.

Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima was a prime advocate in the San Francisco area for redress. She joined the redress campaign in 1980 and personally lobbied members of Congress. When redress became the law of the land in 1988, Sox volunteered with the Office of Redress Administration (ORA) to help make sure every eligible person applied for redress.

Sueko Kunitomi Embrey was a teacher, but she is also remembered as one of the prime organizers for the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, one of the first events dedicated to returning to a government-run camp site each year to memorialize the unlawful incarceration of Japanese Americans. Embrey was known for advocating for the accurate telling of this chapter of U.S. history and when the United States National Parks Service showed interest in the Manzanar site, she and the Manzanar Committee led the fight that it become a recognized historic site. When the Manzanar National Historic Site Interpretive Center opened in 2004, Sue received praise from the National Parks Service for her dedication and leadership.

The "Neglected Legacies" series continues with "Organizing the Community" on Saturday, April 5, and concludes with "Seeking Justice" on Saturday, August 2, all at the National Museum and free to the public. The National Museum continues with its "Redress Remembered" series with the 2008 Day of Remembrance, organized by Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, the Japanese American Citizens League, Pacific Southwest District, and the National Museum, and set for Saturday, February 16, beginning at 2 p.m. This year’s theme is "From the Commission Hearings to the Civil Liberties Act and Beyond. . . Unleashing Community Voices: The Power of Grassroots Activism". The program will look at how grassroots activism helped to make redress a reality and how young people are applying the lessons from the redress campaign to current issues. This program is also free.

Other programs are scheduled at the National Museum. The National Museum’s 2008 Annual Gala Dinner, to be held Saturday, April 19, has the theme, "Fulfilling the Promise of America: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988". Also, the National Museum is organizing a national conference, "Whose America? Who’s American? Diversity, Civil Liberties and Social Justice", in Denver, Colorado, on July 3-6.