For immediate release:
Contact: Stacy Kono, Nosei Network
(510) 325-8913
February 13, 2003
MEDIA ADVISORY
Japanese
Americans call for Wartime Justice and Education
WHO: Speakers will include:
- Congress
Member Mike Honda (D-San Jose), who has sponsored a resolution
to establish a National Day of Remembrance on February 19,
2003.
- Members
of Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and the Nosei Network.
- Richard
Konda, Executive Director of Asian Law Alliance.
- Jimi
Yamaichi, former Tule Lake detention center internee
WHERE:
Japanese American Resource Center/Museum, 535 North
5th Street, San Jose
WHEN:
Tuesday, February 18, 2003, 9:30-10:30 AM
WHAT:
In light of the impending
war with Iraq, and post-9/11/01 attacks on civil liberties
that specifically racially target Arab, Muslim and South Asian
communities, the Nosei Network, Nihonmachi Outreach Committee
and members of the Japanese American community feel it imperative
to protest Representative Howard CobleÕs (R-N.C.) recent
statements justifying Japanese American internment.
On Tuesday, February
4, 2003, Congressman Howard Coble publicly supported Japanese American
internment in a radio interview, implying that Japanese American
internment was for their own ÒsafetyÓ and protection. Our community
is outraged because his comments discredit and distort our communityÕs
history. His statements are dangerous, and taken as truth, groups
of innocent people can be targeted and detained without due process
for crimes they did not commit, as is the case with the current
racial profiling of Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities after
9/11/01.
We call for:
- an immediate apology from Congressman Coble;
- removal of Congressman Coble from the position
of chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism
and Homeland Security;
- re-establishing the Civil Liberties Education Fund
to ensure the continued education and awareness of Japanese
American internment; and
- supporting the redress and reparations for Japanese
Americans and Japanese Latin Americans who were not included
in the original Civil Liberties Act of 1988
We express our outrage on the day prior to the
61st Anniversary of Franklin Delano RooseveltÕs signing
of Executive Order 9066, which incarcerated over 120,000 men,
women and children of Japanese descent behind barbed wire and
under armed guard. The Nosei Network is
comprised of communities of socially conscious, young people
and adults of Japanese descent, both here in the United States
and in Japan. Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) is a Japanese
American community organization in San Jose and a founding member
of the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations (NCRR). |
