Wakasa Memorial Committee
wakasamemorial.bsky.social
Wakasa Memorial Committee
@wakasamemorial.bsky.social
All volunteer group of Topaz concentration camp survivors and descendants and allies seeking professional standards and accountability for the Topaz historic landmark site
Reposted by Wakasa Memorial Committee
The history of DEI has existed much longer than the introduction of the term, and Thomas Nishi's stories of food, culture, and a willingness to push for diversity are proof.
My DEI Story
I worked at a large public university as the coordinator for Asian American student affairs. This was in the era when affirmative action was being renamed diversity, and before DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) became the general term to describe assistance to cultural and ethnic minorities. In my role, I attempted to bring positive attention …
discovernikkei.org
December 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Wakasa Memorial Committee
Help us reach our goal of $25,000 to make a short documentary on the history of the Redman-Hirahara house!

#santacruzgives #redmanhiraharahouse #pajarovalley #santacruzcounty #jamp #japaneseamerican #watsonville
December 4, 2025 at 11:27 PM
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Please consider signing @wakasamemorial.bsky.social's open letter calling for the protection/preservation of Japanese American incarceration history, and the Wakasa memorial site and stone at the Topaz concentration camp in Utah: t.ly/jh2dE

I wrote about it @citylightsbooks.bsky.social: t.ly/DbxB5
October 6, 2025 at 6:09 PM
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why is this so hard to understand
September 30, 2025 at 10:16 PM
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Sachiko Okuda's Nikkei family is tribute to whom she considered the "real brains of the family"--her mother--and shares an anecdote involving a game show!

Read her story and give it a star if you like it! 🌟
discovernikkei.org/e...
#NikkeiFamily2 #NikkeiChronicles #FamilyStories #JapaneseCanadian
Coffee, Tea, Hooray
My father, Hiroshi Okuda, was recognized in the Montreal Japanese-Canadian community as a leader, as an after-dinner speaker, as an “educated person.” In the mid-1930s, at a time when very few Japanese Canadians went to university, my father graduated with not one, but two undergraduate degrees from the University of British Columbia. Hiroshi Okuda's graduation …
discovernikkei.org
October 1, 2025 at 4:01 PM
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🚨 New Case Alert 🚨
Leo Garcia Venegas is an American citizen and construction worker in south Alabama.

Even though he has done nothing suspicious and is working on private property, Leo has been repeatedly detained (once violently) by federal officers enforcing immigration laws.
🧵
September 30, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Wakasa Memorial Committee
The imagery of barbed wire fences, guard towers, and armed sentries is nearly ubiquitous in popular retellings of the story of Japanese American WWII incarceration. But did you know that many of the camps didn’t actually have a complete fence when Japanese American incarcerees arrived in 1942?
October 1, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Join the campaign to center Japanese American survivors and descendants! Add your name today.
On April 11, 1943, James Hatsuaki Wakasa was walking his dog at Topaz when he was shot and killed by a guard. His fellow prisoners erected a stone memorial. When the U.S. government ordered it destroyed, the prisoners chose, instead, to bury it where it remained hidden for nearly 80 years.
Open Letter on the Wakasa Memorial Stone and Site (sign on and share by October 31st)
We, the Wakasa Memorial Committee, are issuing this public call to action and cooperation, with the goal of having the community move forward to protect and preserve the Wakasa sacred site and its mem...
docs.google.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Wakasa Memorial Committee
Please read/consider signing @wakasamemorial.bsky.social's open letter calling for the protection/preservation of the most significant artifact discovered in the WWII Japanese American concentration camps, the Wakasa memorial stone, and its site: t.ly/jh2dE.

I wrote about it here: t.ly/DbxB5
September 22, 2025 at 7:22 PM