Dear Friends,

Looking back on Densho’s 20th Anniversary Gala, my heart is filled with gratitude. The Densho community showed up in so many ways to make the celebration a success, and I owe you all a huge thank you. The community support and appreciation we saw on September 24th combined with the congratulatory messages we’ve received from afar underscored the value of all the work we’ve done.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend the gala in person, we’ve curated some of the highlights from the evening and want to share them with you here. We hope these videos offer a brief respite from the ugliness of this election cycle, and a reminder of the importance of using the Japanese American legacy to speak out against the injustices we see today. As Dale Minami put in his keynote address at the gala:

“We marry activism with the knowledge of history because justice is not self executing. It is not a gift, it's a challenge. And we cannot rely just on our institutions to protect us, we need allies of all colors and races like we had for the redress movement. We should understand that dissent is not the enemy of patriotism.”

Densho will be reflecting on these inspiring words as election day draws nearer and as we close out a year of anniversary celebrations. We hope they inspire you too.

Sincerely, 

Tom Ikeda