- Frank Abe
helped spark the popular campaign for redress by staging the first
"Days of Remembrance" events in Seattle and Portland in 1978-79. For PBS he
produced and directed "Conscience and the Constitution," revealing the full
story of the largest organized resistance to Japanese American
incarceration. Frank has worked as Senior Reporter for KIRO Newsradio 710,
Communications Director for King County Executive Gary Locke, and now serves in the same capacity for the Metropolitan King County Council.
- Roger Daniels
is Charles Phelps Taft Professor Emeritus of History in the University of Cincinnati. He has written widely about both American Immigration and Asian American history, and particularly about the incarceration of Japanese Americans He served as the historical consultant to the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians and now lives in Bellevue.
- Tom Ikeda
is the founding Executive Director of Densho: The Japanese
American Legacy Project. Using the internet, Densho provides access
to video testimonies, historical documents and photographs, and
teacher resources to explore principles of democracy and promote
social justice. Densho seeks to educate young people and inspire them
to act in defense of liberty and the highest values of our country.
Densho presents a thorough accounting of what happened to Japanese
Americans during a time of war and in doing so contributes to the
current debate about civil liberties during times of national
emergency.
- Pramila Jayapal
is the founder and Executive Director of Hate Free Zone Washington, a grassroots nonprofit organization that was created in November 2001 in response to the backlash against immigrant communities of color. Since its creation, HFZ has grown into a leading voice for its courageous and ground-breaking work on behalf of immigrant and refugee communities targeted post-9/11. Pramila and HFZ have received several awards and recognitions for its work, including the City of Seattle’s 2002 Civil Rights Award, the Washington Bar Association’s Access to Justice Community Leadership Award, the Japanese American Citizens League Leadership Award, the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation’s Community Leaders Award, a leadership award from Congressman Jim McDermott, and the Ecumenical Leadership Award from the Washington Association of Churches. In January 2004, Pramila was named one of the top ten Puget Sound regional leaders by the Seattle Times Editorial Board. In September 2004, The Seattle Magazine named Pramila as one of 25 Most Influential People in Seattle for her work on behalf of civil rights and immigrant communities.
An activist and writer, Pramila has been actively involved in international and domestic social justice issues for over 12 years, working across Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as domestically with immigrant and refugee communities in Washington state. From 1991-95, she was the Director of the Fund for Technology Transfer at PATH Seattle, overseeing a $6 million revolving loan fund for socially responsible health projects in developing countries. From 1995-97, Pramila was awarded a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in India and write about development and societal issues. From 1997-2001, Pramila was a consultant to several organizations on immigrant and refugee issues, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections Initiative. She speaks frequently at universities and community events on issues of gender, globalization, development and community. She currently serves on the national board of The Interfaith Alliance and Hedgebrook Women Writers’ Retreat, as well as Advisory Boards and Steering Committees for University of Washington’s South Asia Center, Detention Watch Network, The Rights Working Group, and Northwest Workers Justice Project.
Pramila has a Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and a B.A. from Georgetown University in English and Economics. She is also the author of Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland (Seal Press, 2000). She is currently working on a second book about immigrants in America. Her articles and essays have been published widely, including in Orion, Yes! Magazine, The Seattle Times, and Gray’s Sporting Journal. She was born in India, and raised in India, Indonesia and Singapore. She is the proud mother of a 9-year old child.
- Moon-Ho Jung
teaches U.S. history at the University of
Washington, with a particular focus on race, politics, and Asian American
history. His book, Coolies and Cane: Race, Labor, and Sugar in the Age of Emancipation, was published recently by Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Tetsuden (Tetsu) Kashima
was born in Oakland, California and as an infant,
with his family, in 1942, taken to the Tanforan Assembly Center and the
Topaz, Utah, WRA camp. At Topaz, they were incarcerated until 1945. Tetsu received his B.A. from the University of California [UC], Berkeley, and his Ph. D. in Sociology from UC, San Diego. He came to the University of Washington as the Director of Asian American Studies in 1976. He has been an invited professor at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, and the Yamaguchi
National University in Yamaguchi, Japan. He has published two books:
Buddhism in America: The Social Organization of an Ethnic Religious
Institution and Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II. Tetsu is a Professor in the University of Washington's Department of American Ethnic Studies and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology.
- Chuck Kato
was born in Seattle, WA. Sep. 1933 and lived and attended school there until
1942. Incarcerated in Camp Harmony, Puyallup and later in Minidoka Idaho,
until 1945. Returned to Seattle and attended Beacon Hill School,
graduated from Franklin High School. Served in the US Army for 2 years, later attended and graduated from the University of Washington in 1958 (B.S. in Civil Engineering). Worked for the Federal Government for 30 years and 2 years with the Seattle School District. Retired in 1992.
- Rodney Kawakami
is a noted civil rights lawyer. He was lead attorney in Hirabayashi v. US case regarding the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during the World War II period. Honors over the years include the ABAW Presidential Civil Rights Award (2000) and
Top Contributor of the Year by Northwest Asian Weekly (2001). He as served on the board of the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project and as a trustee of Renton Technical College.
- Cherry Kinoshita
was interned with her family in Minidoka, Idaho, where she lived for 2 1/2
years. She first became involved in the redress movement when she was
president of the JACL Seattle Chapter in 1977, and she continued her
involvement over the next 15 years. She organized and founded the
Washington Coalition on Redress with Gordon Hirabayashi as co-chair.
On the local level she was instrumental in obtaining redress for former
Nisei employees of Washington State and the Seattle School District.
On the national level she served as vice chair of the Legislative
Education Committee, the lobbying arm of National JACL which
spearheaded the national effort to win passage of the Civil Liberties
Act of 1988.
- Mike Lowry
and his wife Mary live in Renton. He is a former
Washington State Governor, former Member of the United States
Congress, and is now the probono executive director of a farmworker
homeownership non-profit; on the board of the National Alliance to
End Homelessness, the governing board of the Committee to End
Homelessness in King County, and co-chair with former Governor Dan
Evans of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition.
- Henry Miyatake
was one of the moving forces behind the Seattle redress movement and one of the original members of the Seattle Evacuation Redress Committee. He was born, raised, educated in his primary years in Seattle,Washington. Received his education in mechanical, electrical and aerospace engineering at
U of W, UCLA, and other US and foreign universities. Has been
involved over his career in the design of aircraft and weapon systems
for major aerospace companies.
- Mako Nakagawa
is a past president of the Seattle Chapter of the JACL and supported the redress effort on behalf of the 27 school clerks forced to resign from the Seattle Public Schools in 1942. Currently she facilitates workshops for teachers and students on the Japanese American experience during World War II and compares the events following Pearl Harbor with the post 9/11 experience.
- Gail M. Nomura
is Assistant Professor of American Ethnic Studies and
adjunct assistant professor of History and Women Studies at the
University of Washington. Her recent publications include
Asian/Pacific Islander American Women, A Historical Anthology
(co-edited with Shirley Hune, New York University Press, 2003) and
Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest, Japanese Americans and Japanese
Canadians in the Twentieth Century (co-edited with Louis Fiset,
University of Washington Press, 2005). She is completing a book on the
prewar history of Japanese Americans on the Yakama Indian Reservation
in Washington State. She is a past president of the Association for
Asian American Studies.
- Chizu Omori
was an activist in the Redress Movement here in Seattle and also
as a named plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the National Council for
Japanese American Redress, a lawsuit which went up to the Supreme Court for
a hearing. Her interest in the Internment resulted in a documentary, Rabbit
In the Moon, co-produced with her sister, Emiko Omori. She is a free lance
journalist and writes a column for the San Francisco Nichi Bei Times.
- Joy Shigaki's
passion for social justice, community empowerment, and
civil engagement has been a common thread in her professional and
community life. She currently works for the Wing Luke Asian Museum
as the Capital Campaign Manager and previously served a short stint
as a Field Organizer with the Howard Dean Presidential Campaign in
Washington State, four years with King County Executive Ron Sims'
Office, and nearly years in Cape Town, South Africa involved in
community development and democracy work with the St. George's
Cathedral Foundation. Joy has been involved with various
organizations including the Japanese-American Citizens League Seattle
Chapter, the Church Council of Greater Seattle Commission on Racial
Justice, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church of Western
Washington's Commission for Ethnic Ministries, the Desmond Tutu
Peace Center, and others.
- Bob Shimabukuro
is a writer, historian and author of Born in Seattle: The Campaign for Japanese American Redress.
- Ron Sims
has been King County Executive since 1996. As Executive, he oversees the 13th largest county in the nation. Previously he served on the King County Council.
- Alan Yabui
is presently an Instructor in the Speech Department at Bellevue Community College (BCC). His prior teaching experiences include teaching Geography at the United States Air Force Academy for six years (1967-69, 1972-76) and Speech Communication at Montana State University (1989-93).
He presently teaches Intercultural Communication, Small Group Communication, an American Studies class on the Japanese American Internment, and an Ethnic Studies class on “Hawaii: The Center of the Pacific.”
Alan served in the United States Air Force for 25 years and retired with the rank of Lt. Colonel in 1989. He earned is ED.D. degree at Montana State University in 1993. He is originally from Lahaina, Hawaii.
He is married to Carolyn Yabui and has five adult children.
