In the NJAHS Peace Gallery

Upcoming: Transforming Kami—The Art of ORIGAMI
Saturday, September 6 – Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Opening Reception
Saturday, September 6, 2008
2 – 5 pm

Admission to all workshops and exhibits at the NJAHS Peace Gallery are FREE!

According to Curator Linda Mihara, “Origami is magical. Its appeal is worldwide and spans across the globe to include almost every major city. New origami clubs and conventions are planned and formed, and origami exhibits are taking place in more places than ever before.” The upcoming exhibit Transforming Kami will showcase four key fields of origami as an art form: sculpture, realism, whimsy and fantasy. The exhibit brings forth the talents of current origami pioneers who can transform a simple sheet of paper into a beautiful origami sculpture.

Two of the key participating artists in Transforming Kami are Makoto Yamaguchi of Japan and Dr. Robert J. Lang of the US. Mr. Yamaguchi is the author of numerous Origami books and founder of Origami House in Japan. Dr. Lang is a laser physicist who has bridged Origami with math and science. Both are at the forefront of the current movement—to present Origami as a true art form. Also contributing are members of a newly formed group, Pacific Rim Origami, comprised of professional Origami artists and expert teachers of the art. Many of the models in this exhibit were designed and folded by it’s creators.

Other Transforming Kami Events in the NJAHS Gallery

NJAHS Peace Crane Ornament Workshop
Saturday, October 4, 2008
1 – 5 pm
Space limited—call ahead for reservations at 415.921.5007

Origami Workshop
Saturday, November 1, 2008
3 – 4 pm
Space limited—call ahead for reservations at 415.921.5007

Panel Discussion by Guest Origami Artists
Sunday, November 2, 2008
2 – 5 pm

Mayor’s Tree of Hope Crane Workshop
Saturday, November 8, 2008
3 – 4 pm
Space limited—call ahead for reservations at 415.921.5007

Mixed Race Media
Saturday
May 17, 2008
3 pm – 5 pm

National Japanese American Historical Society
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115

Sponsored by:
National Japanese American Historical Society
Hyphen Magazine (www.hyphenmagazine.com)
Nichi Bei Times (www.nichibeitimes.com/e)

Event is FREE to the public.

A forum on how mass media—print, film, television, advertising, and
the Internet—represents individuals of mixed heritage, and what
these representations reveal about society's attitudes regarding race.

Click to view flyer

In the NJAHS Peace Gallery
April 12 – August 31, 2008
Re-envisioning Community: Hapa Issues Forum 1992-2007
Opening Panel Presentation and Reception:
Sunday, April 13, 2008, 2 pm – 4 pm

NJAHS’ upcoming exhibit “Re-envisioning Community” is a look back at the Hapa Issue Forum’s (HIF) history through photographs, documents, and artifacts. In 1992, HIF was founded as an organization which sought to give individuals of mixed race a more prominent role within the Japanese American community while expanding the very concept of what it meant to be Nikkei. It eventually received nationwide recognition for its efforts, lobbying successfully for a “check all that apply” option in the 2000 U.S. Census, leading a delegation to the International Nikkei Youth Exchange in Peru, and receiving a JACL National Youth/Student Vision Award. In recent years, however, the organization was unable to sustain a desired level of programming and participation, and officially marked its own disbanding with a commemorative event in September of 2007. This exhibit is intended to draw attention to the work of the organization’s members, and to uphold their mission to celebrate the growing diversity within Japanese America and the API community at large.

Click here for more exhibits

SAVE THE DATE!

NJAHS Annual Fundraising Luncheon at Shibata Garden
Sunday, September 21, 2008
11 am – 4 pm

Shibata Mt. Eden Nursery Tea Garden
Mt. Eden Business Park
25941 Industrial Blvd.
Hayward, CA.

$35 per person, $65 per couple. Children 12 and under are FREE.

The Shibata Mt. Eden Nursery Tea Garden in Hayward will once again be the site for the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS)’s annual fall community event on Sunday, September 21, 2008 11am to 4pm.

Grace and Yoshimi Shibata

This year’s theme, Cultural Connections: Global Engagement/Activism pursues a new understanding of the extension and connectivity of the Nikkei diaspora. Cultural Connections: Global Engagement/Activism will also pay tribute to Grace and Yoshimi Shibata and the many flower growing families over the many years who have contributed so much dedicated work and leadership to Northern California’s Nikkei Community and horticultural industry as a whole.

Also featured will be exciting cultural performances by the Berkeley Genyu-kai Okinawan performance ensemble led by Dr. Wesley Ueunten and Tsukimi-kai Intercultural Exchange group featuring taiko (drumming) and the Shisa (lion) dance.

A complete bento (Japanese box lunch) will be available for order for the enjoyment of friends and family. Proceeds of the Garden Party shall benefit NJAHS’ programs and its fiscally sponsored groups, the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project and Tsukimi-Kai. $35 per person, $65 per couple. Children 12 and under are FREE. For more information and reservations, please call NJAHS at 415-921-5007 or email: njahs@njahs.org.

Camp Archives Workshop
Saturday
August 2, 2008
10 am – 1:30 pm

National Archives Records Administration
Pacific Region, San Bruno
1000 Commodore Dr.
San Bruno, CA 94066.

Event is FREE to the public!

This workshop is to introduce participants to the resources held by the National Archives and how to access the files available to help uncover family camp files during World War II. Click here to download flyer.

Youth Bridging Communities
presented by the Enemy Alien Files Consortium
Friday, August 8, 2008
5 pm – 8 pm in the NJAHS Gallery

Youth networking, performances, discussion of future collaborations between youth interns from NJAHS and Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Screening of Digital Stories
Saturday, August 9, 2008
2 pm in the NJAHS Gallery

Short videos created by 2008 NJAHS interns.

NJAHS’ Japantown Heritage Tourism Initiative Summer Internship hopes to foster leadership and greater historical and cultural understanding for San Francisco Japantown to a broader audience from the perspective of the youth interns. This summer’s interns are Annie Kim Noguchi, Kevin Young Inouye, Rika Murase, Mark Rosenberg, Scott Yamada and Michelle Yonemoto. Led by filmmaker Lina Hoshino (“Caught in Between”), the NJAHS interns will create their own short films using pictures, video and narrative. The focus of the films is on an aspect of life and identity as a Japanese American youth and were completed over a three-day intensive workshop.

Reading of The Master Tailor’s Wife by NJAHS Interns

Sunday, August 10, 2008
1 pm in the NJAHS Gallery

A one act play by John Christgau.

Reading of The Betrayal by NJAHS Interns
Sunday
August 10, 2008
2 pm in the NJAHS Gallery

A play by award-winning author Hiroshi Kashiwagi from his recently published Shoe Box Plays. Mr. Kashiwagi will be available to sign copies of his book and share reflections.

Alert!

The National Japanese American Historical Society has again submitted a request for $2,000,000 to the House of Representatives and the Senate to support the MIS Historic Learning Center in Fiscal Year 2009. Help us realize the dream of a facility dedicated to preserving the legacy of the MIS!

Your voice in expressing grassroots support for the MIS Historic Learning Center must be heard. YOU can make a difference by printing out this downloadable pdf flyer, signing and mailing to:

Senator Daniel Inouye
United States Senate
722 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1102
Phone: 202-224-3934
Fax: 202-224-6747

Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1102
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954

Senator Daniel Akaka
United States Senate
141 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1102
Phone: (202) 224-6361
Fax: (202) 224-2126

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
US House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. Office
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4965

The Honorable Michael Honda
US House of Representatives
1713 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2631

Thank you for making it happen!
For donor or other opportunities, click here (www.njahs.org/640).

INALIENABLE: IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
Youth Voices from

INALIENABLE will be a multicultural, intergenerational gathering featuring personal stories, video, cultural performances and speakers. Listen to the stories of civil liberties and human rights violations experienced by immigrants of Japanese, Italian, German and Latin American descent, identified as "enemy aliens" during World War II -- as well as stories by Arab, South Asian, Muslim and Latino youth today, impacted by post-9/11 policies and practices. Learn about the hidden internment stories of World War II and post 9/11. Participate in current efforts to resolve unfinished World War II redress issues; and challenges to current, post 9/11 civil liberties violations.

Enemy Alien Files Consortium - Members: American Italian Historical Association, German American Internee Coalition, Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, National Japanese American Historical Society. Partners: American Muslim Voice, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Council on American-Islamic Relations and National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. For information, contact NJAHS: (415) 921-5007 or email: njahs@njahs.org

$800,000 APPROVED FOR NISEI VETERANS CENTER
President Signs Bill; Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Honda, Key Sponsors

San Francisco – On Tuesday, November 13, President Bush signed legislation that provides $800,000 toward the establishment of a Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Historic Learning Center in the Presidio of San Francisco. The provision was included in the 2008 Defense Appropriations bill at the request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA). Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) were also credited with supporting the funding. Read more…

Building 640 Website Updated!

NJAHS is pleased to announce a major update to its Building 640 website! Titled Building 640 Communique: Information Source for the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center, the website features project updates, background information, MIS news, and ways to support the realization of a permanent home for the MIS story. Building 640 is at a critical juncture; work to preserve the building and begin planning the interpretive components of the Center will be underway in the coming year due to a $1 million federal appropriation. At the same time, NJAHS is in the process of consolidating its core donors as a means to match this tremendous support from the Federal government. »Visit the site!

Click here for more news and events

NEW DVD Release & Screening of
UNCOMMON COURAGE
Patriotism and Prejudice
Thursday
May 29, 2008
7:00 pm

Moraga Room
Presidio Officers’ Club
Presidio of San Francisco
50 Moraga Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94129

Co-sponsored by NJAHS, Presidio of San Francisco/NPS/GGNRA and The Presidio Trust

Event is FREE to the public.

Uncommon Courage: Patriotism and Civil Liberties tells the story of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) during World war II and the Occupation of Japan. Thousands of MIS soldiers, primarily Japanese American, fought for United States in the Pacific interrogating Japanese prisoners, translating documents, intercepting communications, and infiltrating enemy lines. Ironically, at the same time, many of their families back in America were locked behind barged wire in isolated imprisonment camps, stripped of their civil rights. A dramatic and moving personal saga, these soldiers showed Uncommon Courage as they fought to overcome fear, discrimination, and racial prejudice in the land of their birth.

For more information call NJAHS at 415.921.5007

Hello Maggie! Book signing with Author Shigeru Yabu and Illustrator Willie Ito
Saturday, April 19, 2008 1 - 3 pm
NJAHS Peace Gallery
1684 Post St. San Francisco, CA
Admission Free!

Hello Maggie! is a children's book about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, published by Yabitoon Books. Internees were not allowed to take their pets with them to camp. The book's protagonist, a young boy, adopts a magpie, Maggie, who has fallen out of its nest. The bird becomes the boy's friend and is embraced by his family and the larger camp community - ironically enjoying freedom within the confines of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

Click here for more publications and videos