Feb 26th 2017 O.A.
New Officers Installation
Sunday, February 12th was the New Year’s gathering for the Japanese Prefectural Association of Southern California at the Quiet Cannon in Montebello. JPASC is a nonprofit organization founded in 1964 and 39 prefectural association participates. They support one another and do volunteer works for the US-Japan friendly relation as well as disaster support. The volunteer staff of each prefectural associations prepared for this party and 150 representatives of major organizations were invited. First, a minute of moment of silence was held to honor the pioneers. California State Assembly, Al Muratsuchi who was re-elected in last year’s state election, was invited as a guest and thanked the community supporters. After the inauguration, Kazuhiko Nishimoto was announced as the new president of the JPASC, taking over George Mori. Nishimoto is from Amami Oshima. He has been actively involved in the organization for succeeding cultural heritages as the chairman of the Southern California Amamikai.
The Executive Order 9066 Exhibit
An exhibit of the Executive Order 9066 was held at the Little Tokyo JANM on February 18th. The Executive Order 9066 was the order that authorized the Secretary of War to put 120,000 Japanese Americans to i nternment camps during WWII. This February marks the 75th year since the order was issued. At the JANM, documents at the time were displayed to the public so the mistakes of the past will not be repeated. Actor, George Takei, Interim President and CEO of the museum, Ann Burroughs and Mayor, Eric Garcetti attended the press conference that was held before the opening day. Manager of the Arab American National Museum, Matthew Stiffler commented that we must not repeat the shameful history, facing the ongoing racism towards Arabic individuals. George Takei stated “Racism has not changed in this 75 years.” This exhibition will be held until August 13th. The actual document signed by President Roosevelt will be on display until May 21st for 3 months.