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From Executive Director Tom Ikeda
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Dear Friends,
Over the past couple of months I crisscrossed the country from Seattle to DC, Honolulu, Puyallup, Chicago, and LA with speaking engagements about the importance of remembering the World War II Japanese American incarceration story. During these travels, I also met with leaders of Japanese American organizations and talked about the unique voice and role Japanese Americans have today because of our community’s history.
As leaders of Japanese American organizations, we understand at a personal and community level the painful realities of what a toxic mixture of fear, racism, and a failure of political leadership can do to vulnerable people
. Our conversations often revolved around how to prevent similar tragedies from happening to others and how we need to work together as individuals and organizations to be more effective.
We also talked about how much the world and especially baby boomers need to listen and learn from the activists and thought-leaders in their 20s and 30s who are fighting for their lives and futures in today’s streets and campuses. We are not in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s anymore, and
today’s problems need new ideas
. To help us understand these new perspectives we asked some young leaders
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including my own daughter whose accomplishments have made me so proud
—
to share their thoughts at next month’s
Densho Dinner
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Please join us on
Saturday, November 18th
with a sushi and sake reception to get to know each other better, a sit-down dinner with a program to hear from these inspiring thought-leaders and raise some money for Densho, and then stay around for coffee and cookies to talk with me and others about your own ideas. Our futures depend on it!
Sincerely,
Tom Ikeda
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Introducing Our Densho Dinner Speakers
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Civil rights scholar
Megan Ming Francis
will join us as the evening's keynote speaker. Dr. Francis will address the role of public silence in the erosion of democracy and the vital need to make connections between the past and the present. This Garfield High School alumna is now an accomplished member of the UW Political Science faculty whose work has been featured on MSNBC, The New York Times, BBC, Al-Jazeera, NPR, Democracy Now, PBS, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, and TEDx Talks.
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In a multimedia presentation, filmmaker and activist
Tani Ikeda
will address the urgent need to combat racial injustices in America today. This Emmy-winning director's work has been recognized in The Hollywood Reporter, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan magazine and has screened internationally at festivals around the world, including the Sundance Film Festival. She will discuss her film work and activism with Black Lives Matter and other movements in hopes of inspiring others to use storytelling as a tool for social justice.
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Saturday, November 18
5:00-8:30 p.m.
Ticket price: $125 (fair market value is $75)
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October is American Archives Month!
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Be Your Family's History Keeper
As we continue our work to digitize and share Japanese American history, we also want to help YOU be your own historians and archivists. Check out our new
Create Family Archives
web page for simple steps you can take to ensure that family photos, letters, and other documents are kept safely for decades to come.
We're also looking for new material to add to the Densho Digital Repository. Learn more
here
.
This outreach effort was funded by our supporters and, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Program.
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Behind the Scenes: Unboxing History
Have you ever wondered what happens to the photos, letters, and other materials sent to Densho for digital preservation? Watch our collections team give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of the Densho Archives!
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This is What We Talk About When We Talk About Community Archives
Densho Assistant Digital Archivist Cameron Johnson reflects on the principles of community engagement and sharing that drive Densho's digital archiving program.
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Blog Highlight: How the U.S. Government Turned Japanese Americans Into Enemies of the State
In the weeks following Pearl Harbor, FBI raids of Japanese American homes became such a regular occurrence that many men began to keep a suitcase by the door, awaiting their turn to disappear. But this was much more than simple hysteria. For years, the government had prepared for the detention of prominent Issei, made contingency plans for the systematic removal of Nikkei communities, and even toyed with the idea of holding Japanese Americans as wartime hostages.
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Join Us at The Wing Luke Museum on October 28
Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi, co-authors of the new biography for young readers "Fred Korematsu Speaks Up," will be in Seattle to discuss their book and sign copies. Korematsu challenged all the way to the Supreme Court the government's World War II orders forcing Japanese Americans from their homes. The lessons from his life and the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans are relevant now for all people in America, especially young ones, to understand.
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Thank you, City of Seattle!
The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture is generously providing support for Densho’s monthly eNews and other core programs this year. We were also the recipients of a Cultural Facilities grant, which helped us to upgrade our aging digital production network. This allows our collections staff to process and webhost photos and documents more quickly and efficiently as they continue to add rich primary source materials to the online collections. Thank you!
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