Pinned
Alma
@almadavid.bsky.social
· May 10
I requested my great grandfather’s alien enemy file from the National Records Archive. 300ish pages arrived in parts. Some is just paperwork- immigration forms, the alien enemy questionnaire, etc. Parts feel too personal to share here- letters from his young daughters, pleading for his release.
I wear a few somewhat incongruent hats these days. I am proud that, wearing one of them, I was fortunate enough to play a tiny part in bringing this phenomenal team effort to fruition.
This report is hard to read because it’s heartbreaking.
But please do read it - and share it widely 🙏
This report is hard to read because it’s heartbreaking.
But please do read it - and share it widely 🙏
📢READ our new report:
“'When They Came to Take Our Children': China’s Colonial Boarding Schools and the Future of Tibet”
👉https://tibetaction.net/when-they-came-to-take-our-children/
👉Press release: tibetaction.net/boarding-sch...
“'When They Came to Take Our Children': China’s Colonial Boarding Schools and the Future of Tibet”
👉https://tibetaction.net/when-they-came-to-take-our-children/
👉Press release: tibetaction.net/boarding-sch...
Boarding Schools Threaten Tibet’s Children, Future
May 28, 2025
Contact: Lhadon Tethong, Tibet Action Institute +1 (917) 418-4181
Children Face Abuse, Loss of Language and Culture in Chinese Government Boarding School System
DOWNLOAD PDF REPORT HERE
...
tibetaction.net
May 29, 2025 at 3:00 AM
I wear a few somewhat incongruent hats these days. I am proud that, wearing one of them, I was fortunate enough to play a tiny part in bringing this phenomenal team effort to fruition.
This report is hard to read because it’s heartbreaking.
But please do read it - and share it widely 🙏
This report is hard to read because it’s heartbreaking.
But please do read it - and share it widely 🙏
I requested my great grandfather’s alien enemy file from the National Records Archive. 300ish pages arrived in parts. Some is just paperwork- immigration forms, the alien enemy questionnaire, etc. Parts feel too personal to share here- letters from his young daughters, pleading for his release.
May 10, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I requested my great grandfather’s alien enemy file from the National Records Archive. 300ish pages arrived in parts. Some is just paperwork- immigration forms, the alien enemy questionnaire, etc. Parts feel too personal to share here- letters from his young daughters, pleading for his release.
I’ve lived in Quebec for like 8 years now and this is still how I feel most days haha
i don’t fully understand what happened in canada but happy for you guys
April 29, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I’ve lived in Quebec for like 8 years now and this is still how I feel most days haha
This is his letter to his family when they were “interned.” It makes me both sad and angry how accepting he and many were of all of this. In a sense, we have come a long way since then- with the ACLU et al jumping into action at the first hint of the AEA invocation. If only the courts could save us.
April 24, 2025 at 3:16 AM
This is his letter to his family when they were “interned.” It makes me both sad and angry how accepting he and many were of all of this. In a sense, we have come a long way since then- with the ACLU et al jumping into action at the first hint of the AEA invocation. If only the courts could save us.
I found part of my great grandfather’s alien enemy file online at the National Records Archive today (ordered the rest). I noticed right away that he got a hearing notice and there were Board decisions in his case. At least, minimum due process seems to have been given.
April 24, 2025 at 1:29 AM
I found part of my great grandfather’s alien enemy file online at the National Records Archive today (ordered the rest). I noticed right away that he got a hearing notice and there were Board decisions in his case. At least, minimum due process seems to have been given.
Reposted by Alma
Join @aiisforg.bsky.social and Densho to learn more about the history of the Alien Enemies Act and Angel Island’s role as a WWII detention site, and make connections between past and present.
📅 Tuesday, May 13, 12:00-1:00pm PST
💻 Virtual Event
📋 Register: bit.ly/angel5-13
📅 Tuesday, May 13, 12:00-1:00pm PST
💻 Virtual Event
📋 Register: bit.ly/angel5-13
April 23, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Join @aiisforg.bsky.social and Densho to learn more about the history of the Alien Enemies Act and Angel Island’s role as a WWII detention site, and make connections between past and present.
📅 Tuesday, May 13, 12:00-1:00pm PST
💻 Virtual Event
📋 Register: bit.ly/angel5-13
📅 Tuesday, May 13, 12:00-1:00pm PST
💻 Virtual Event
📋 Register: bit.ly/angel5-13
Matter of W-G-R- was my case, so I feel like I know an intellectually dishonest and contrived BIA decision when I see one … Today’s decision in Matter of A-A-R- is definitely both of those things.
www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
April 23, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Matter of W-G-R- was my case, so I feel like I know an intellectually dishonest and contrived BIA decision when I see one … Today’s decision in Matter of A-A-R- is definitely both of those things.
www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
❤️🩹
One of the most incredible protest signs I've ever seen. A Japanese American woman folded a huge origami crane to honor the children of Japanese American internment camps & protest current ICE camps.
📸 permission at the Vigil to Stop ICE Expansion in Dublin, CA 4/16/25
✊🏻 NEVER AGAIN IS NOW ❤️
📸 permission at the Vigil to Stop ICE Expansion in Dublin, CA 4/16/25
✊🏻 NEVER AGAIN IS NOW ❤️
April 18, 2025 at 1:01 AM
❤️🩹
Japanese American history is more important today than perhaps ever
We are deeply committed to our mission of preserving this history, building bridges across communities and divides, and ensuring that America remains a nation where all people can thrive.
Read JANM's full statement: www.janm.org/press/releas...
Read JANM's full statement: www.janm.org/press/releas...
April 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Japanese American history is more important today than perhaps ever
Yes. It’s horrifying on a very visceral level, even to those of us in following generations. We grew up hearing these stories.
Japanese American survivors of US internment camps say invocation of 1798 wartime law “reopens deep wounds and inflicts new ones.”
“I hate the fear that is rampant, hurting people just like in (the 1940s),” said US internment camp survivor Kyoko Oda: americasvoicecnn.substack.com/p/japanese-a...
“I hate the fear that is rampant, hurting people just like in (the 1940s),” said US internment camp survivor Kyoko Oda: americasvoicecnn.substack.com/p/japanese-a...
Japanese American Survivors of U.S. Internment Camps Say Trump’s Invocation of Wartime Law ‘Reopens Deep Wounds and Inflicts New Ones’
Survivors and experts warn Trump's actions “could be the first step in a dangerous progression that mirrors the blueprint of the gradual expansion of arrests and detentions during World War II."
americasvoicecnn.substack.com
March 31, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Yes. It’s horrifying on a very visceral level, even to those of us in following generations. We grew up hearing these stories.
Reposted by Alma
How do I know the Alien Enemy Act will be applied to people who are no one’s enemy at all? It was applied to my great grandpa, Issei Matsuura, a Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest. He immigrated from Japan in 1915, and he and his wife saw the Japanese community in Guadalupe, CA through so much.
March 16, 2025 at 4:35 AM
How do I know the Alien Enemy Act will be applied to people who are no one’s enemy at all? It was applied to my great grandpa, Issei Matsuura, a Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest. He immigrated from Japan in 1915, and he and his wife saw the Japanese community in Guadalupe, CA through so much.
Reposted by Alma
Left: government declaration filed yesterday in the Alien Enemies Act case.
Right: Lt General John DeWitt, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942
Sometimes history rhymes damn near *perfectly*.
#LawSky #Skystorians
Right: Lt General John DeWitt, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942
Sometimes history rhymes damn near *perfectly*.
#LawSky #Skystorians
March 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Left: government declaration filed yesterday in the Alien Enemies Act case.
Right: Lt General John DeWitt, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942
Sometimes history rhymes damn near *perfectly*.
#LawSky #Skystorians
Right: Lt General John DeWitt, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942
Sometimes history rhymes damn near *perfectly*.
#LawSky #Skystorians
Reposted by Alma
“Without due process, Trump’s sweeping allegations are unproven,” San Jose Nikkei Resisters told AsAmNews, “and to impose detention and deportation without evidence or lawful charges are the actions of a police state.”
March 17, 2025 at 7:24 PM
“Without due process, Trump’s sweeping allegations are unproven,” San Jose Nikkei Resisters told AsAmNews, “and to impose detention and deportation without evidence or lawful charges are the actions of a police state.”
How do I know the Alien Enemy Act will be applied to people who are no one’s enemy at all? It was applied to my great grandpa, Issei Matsuura, a Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest. He immigrated from Japan in 1915, and he and his wife saw the Japanese community in Guadalupe, CA through so much.
March 16, 2025 at 4:35 AM
How do I know the Alien Enemy Act will be applied to people who are no one’s enemy at all? It was applied to my great grandpa, Issei Matsuura, a Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest. He immigrated from Japan in 1915, and he and his wife saw the Japanese community in Guadalupe, CA through so much.
This a thousand times. “Why don’t they just apply for citizenship?” Well, do I have a story for you… 🫠
I have seen so many friends and acquaintances just mouth agape in shock and horror as I explain very basic facts about the U.S. immigration system (which, unlike pretty much every other federal system, they have never had to interact with)
One of the reasons we're in this mess is because Americans really don't understand immigration and how the system works in the US. And in that vacuum of knowledge the right has been able to conjure up so many fears that continue to perpetuate themselves.
March 13, 2025 at 9:01 PM
This a thousand times. “Why don’t they just apply for citizenship?” Well, do I have a story for you… 🫠
A propos nothing in particular…
The “enemy alien” in my family was my great grandfather, Issei Matsuura. He was a Buddhist priest, who immigrated from Japan to Guadalupe, CA. With his wife, he ran a children’s home for the kids of Japanese migrant workers during the Spanish Flu Pandemic.
www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/p...
March 13, 2025 at 4:01 PM
A propos nothing in particular…
The “enemy alien” in my family was my great grandfather, Issei Matsuura. He was a Buddhist priest, who immigrated from Japan to Guadalupe, CA. With his wife, he ran a children’s home for the kids of Japanese migrant workers during the Spanish Flu Pandemic.
www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/p...
February 27, 2025 at 12:11 AM
The “enemy alien” in my family was my great grandfather, Issei Matsuura. He was a Buddhist priest, who immigrated from Japan to Guadalupe, CA. With his wife, he ran a children’s home for the kids of Japanese migrant workers during the Spanish Flu Pandemic.
www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/p...
83 years since EO 9066. Here is my mom with her parents - she was born into imprisonment at Gila River Relocation Center. She spoke kind and firm words of encouragement to me this past week when I told her of my efforts to get immigration lawyers to Guantánamo.
www.newsweek.com/guantanamo-b...
www.newsweek.com/guantanamo-b...
February 20, 2025 at 2:11 AM
83 years since EO 9066. Here is my mom with her parents - she was born into imprisonment at Gila River Relocation Center. She spoke kind and firm words of encouragement to me this past week when I told her of my efforts to get immigration lawyers to Guantánamo.
www.newsweek.com/guantanamo-b...
www.newsweek.com/guantanamo-b...
👀
I went to post about the National Japanese American Memorial in D.C., which is beautiful but usually missed by tourists. It is a deeply staggering admission of guilt and a warning to future Americans. I went to link to the inscriptions and-
Well, they took the site down. www.nps.gov/places/japan...
Well, they took the site down. www.nps.gov/places/japan...
January 31, 2025 at 8:26 PM
👀
Reposted by Alma
Today in the Michigan Senate, I shared reflections on Fred Korematsu Day and the importance of courageous Americans standing up against unjust executive orders, then and now. #fredkorematsu
Watch here: youtu.be/-q02Mw8xpRA?...
Watch here: youtu.be/-q02Mw8xpRA?...
Senator Chang on Fred Korematsu Day
YouTube video by Senator Stephanie Chang
youtu.be
January 30, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Today in the Michigan Senate, I shared reflections on Fred Korematsu Day and the importance of courageous Americans standing up against unjust executive orders, then and now. #fredkorematsu
Watch here: youtu.be/-q02Mw8xpRA?...
Watch here: youtu.be/-q02Mw8xpRA?...
Reposted by Alma
Today we honor Fred T. Korematsu.
During WWII, the U.S. gov’t forcibly incarcerated 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry (many U.S. citizens). Fred defied the gov’t’s orders & refused to report to the camps. He challenged the incarceration’s constitutionality & lost before SCOTUS in 1944. 1/2
During WWII, the U.S. gov’t forcibly incarcerated 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry (many U.S. citizens). Fred defied the gov’t’s orders & refused to report to the camps. He challenged the incarceration’s constitutionality & lost before SCOTUS in 1944. 1/2
January 30, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Today we honor Fred T. Korematsu.
During WWII, the U.S. gov’t forcibly incarcerated 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry (many U.S. citizens). Fred defied the gov’t’s orders & refused to report to the camps. He challenged the incarceration’s constitutionality & lost before SCOTUS in 1944. 1/2
During WWII, the U.S. gov’t forcibly incarcerated 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry (many U.S. citizens). Fred defied the gov’t’s orders & refused to report to the camps. He challenged the incarceration’s constitutionality & lost before SCOTUS in 1944. 1/2
Reposted by Alma
I love America, and because I do we CANNOT forget that the US forcibly relocated & incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in 10 concentration camps.
About two-thirds were U.S. citizens.
About two-thirds were U.S. citizens.
BREAKING: Donald Trump says he's directing the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 migrants in the U.S. illegally.
Trump directing the opening of Guantanamo Bay detention center to hold migrants in US illegally
President Donald Trump says he’s directing the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 migrants who are living illegally in the United States.
apnews.com
January 30, 2025 at 3:09 AM
I love America, and because I do we CANNOT forget that the US forcibly relocated & incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in 10 concentration camps.
About two-thirds were U.S. citizens.
About two-thirds were U.S. citizens.
One of the Chinese government’s best kept secrets is the vast system of colonial boarding schools in Tibet, eerily reminiscent of the residential schools in the US and Canada.
“Different time, different place, different government, but same impact, in the sense of breaking cultural and familial bonds and roots, and psychologically damaging and traumatizing kids at their foundation.” @lhadon.bsky.social
Read this @nytimes.com exposé:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Read this @nytimes.com exposé:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
In Tibet, Chinese Boarding Schools Reshape the ‘Souls of Children’
Across China’s west, the Communist Party is placing children in boarding schools to assimilate a generation of Tibetans into the national mainstream and mold them into loyal citizens.
www.nytimes.com
January 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
One of the Chinese government’s best kept secrets is the vast system of colonial boarding schools in Tibet, eerily reminiscent of the residential schools in the US and Canada.
This is what I have always assumed and why it’s important to get a variety of narratives out there in the open, not just the ones that suit a narrow agenda.
Now out on FirstView: "Immigration is difficult?! Informing voters about immigration policy fosters pro-immigration views"
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Immigration is difficult?! Informing voters about immigration policy fosters pro-immigration views | Journal of Experimental Political Science | Cambridge Core
Immigration is difficult?! Informing voters about immigration policy fosters pro-immigration views
www.cambridge.org
January 8, 2025 at 5:04 PM
This is what I have always assumed and why it’s important to get a variety of narratives out there in the open, not just the ones that suit a narrow agenda.