 We Hereby Refuse is a new graphic novel from authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura, with illustrations by Ross Ishikawa.
Japanese Americans complied when evicted from their homes in World War II -- but many refused to submit to imprisonment in American concentration camps without a fight. Based upon painstaking research, We Hereby Refuse presents an original vision of America’s past with disturbing links to the American present. Join Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle Public Library Foundation, and The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience on June 14 for an event featuring the book's authors and illustrator in conversation with Densho's Tom Ikeda. Register online by following this link to the official event page. The virtual book launch event with Daniel James Brown and Densho Executive Director Tom Ikeda is now available online. Click here to watch a recording on Densho's website. Please share with your friends and family! You can purchase Facing the Mountain from one of Densho's partner booksellers (shipping options available): Seattle, WA | Elliott Bay Book Company Seattle, WA | University Book Store Honolulu, HI | Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i San Francisco, CA | Book Passage Los Angeles, CA | Vroman’s Bookstore 
Kiku Hughes is a cartoonist and illustrator based in the Seattle area. Her critically-acclaimed first graphic novel "Displacement" explores her late grandmother's experience of being forcibly relocated to a Japanese American internment camp during WWII.
On April 18th she was joined by author and WSU Professor John Streamas for an enlightening discussion about the lasting intergenerational impact of an oft-overlooked period of U.S. aggression against its own citizens. The Spokane Chapter JACL-sponsored event was streamed live for Eastern Washington University's Get Lit! Festival and is now available for viewing online.  Thurs April 29, 2021 from 06:30 - 08:00 PM
Seattle art historian and curator Barbara Johns shares stories from her book "The Hope of Another Spring, Takuichi Fujii, Artists and Wartime Witness", which focuses on this Japanese artist who lived in Seattle in the 1940s and was later incarcerated during World War II, first in the Puyallup state fairgrounds and then in a permanent camp in Minidoka, Idaho. This webinar complements the Museum exhibit "Witness to Wartime: The Painted Diary of Takuichi Fujii", which Ms. Johns curated and will also discuss. $10 suggested donation. Click the link below for more information: https://stayhappening.com/e/the-hope-of-another-spring-E2ISTG3CUSQ  This commemorative stamp is the culmination of over 15 years of efforts by the Stamp Our Story campaign founders and the many people who supported the effort.
The U.S. Postal Service has announced that the first day of issue is Thursday, June 3rd, 2021. The first city of issue is Los Angeles, California, where the Go For Broke veteran widows and their friends first started to campaign for the stamp in 2005. Customers will be able to pre-order the stamp online only, starting in late May, prior to the official release of the stamp. For more information, click the link below: https://niseistamp.org/  Join Densho on May 11 for the official book launch of Facing the Mountain, a new book about WWII Japanese American incarceration and the 442nd RCT by Daniel James Brown, NY Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat. The virtual event will feature a conversation between Brown and Densho Executive Director Tom Ikeda, who has conducted oral histories with many of the men highlighted in the book. Facing the Mountain grew out of conversations Brown had with Ikeda in 2015.
ABOUT THE BOOK Facing the Mountain is an unforgettable chronicle of wartime America and the battlefields of Europe. Based on Brown’s extensive interviews with the families of the protagonists as well as deep archival research, it portrays the kaleidoscopic journey of four Japanese American families and their sons. While some fought on battlefields as members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, others fought to defend the constitutional rights of a community. Regardless of where their battles played out, these individuals were exemplifying American patriotism under extreme duress by striving, resisting, standing on principle, and enduring. Facing the Mountain embodies the sort of far-reaching creative work that we dreamed would be possible when Densho was founded 25 years ago. The book draws upon the stories and words of Japanese American elders and ancestors to tell this history in a way that can reach vast audiences. Daniel James Brown has an exceptional ability to tell compelling, people-centered stories. He humanizes this part of history for a population of readers that may be learning about it for the first time. “Facing the Mountain comes to us during a time of deep unrest, a time when our empathy for others is so needed to guide the choices we will make. This book will open hearts.” - Tom Ikeda, Densho Executive Director. ABOUT DENSHO Founded in 1996, Densho is a trailblazer in the use of digital technology to preserve and share the first-person story. Today, Densho hosts the largest online archive of oral histories and family collections on the Japanese American experience, in addition to a wealth of educational resources to help every American know the history and understand the lessons of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans.  JACL responds to incidents of defamation and hate directed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through direct intervention or by providing assistance to JACL chapters to confront incidents in their local areas.
For resources, toolkits, articles, and more about anti-hate programs and hate crimes, you can visit our page on JACL.org by clicking the link below. https://jacl.org/antihate-program
More about Get Lit!: The Get Lit! Festival began in 1998 as a one-day marathon of literary readings sponsored by Eastern Washington University Press and EWU’s Department of Creative Writing. Then The Spokesman-Review lovingly called it “the little literary festival that could,” and they were right. By 2004, the festival had become a community tradition that thousands of people from Spokane and the surrounding region enjoy every year.
Indoor dining at our local restaurants is off-limits at the time of this news posting, amid rising COVID-19 cases. We encourage your help in supporting these local restaurants (like Ming Wah, Frankie Doodle's, Dick's Hamburgers & the Sukiyaki Inn) who have supported our Japanese community for many, many years. Support them by ordering takeout or delivery food.
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