Part 1: Intro - February 9
Part 2: Hands-on Workshop - February 16

Location: DISKovery Center
353 E. First St in Little Tokyo

Learn how to browse and contribute to Nikkei Album, a versatile tool on the award-winning DiscoverNikkei.org Web site. Share personal family stories, community histories, and more through photos, text, audio, and video.

Free for members of the National Museum and DISKovery Center; $5 non-members per session. Reservations are required; maximum 20 participants. For information and reservations, e-mail editor@DiscoverNikkei.org.

Presented in collaboration with the DISKovery Center. Made possible by the generous support of The Nippon Foundation.

Part 1: Intro - February 9
Part 2: Hands-on Workshop - February 16

Location: DISKovery Center
353 E. First St in Little Tokyo

Learn how to browse and contribute to Nikkei Album, a versatile tool on the award-winning DiscoverNikkei.org Web site. Share personal family stories, community histories, and more through photos, text, audio, and video.

Free for members of the National Museum and DISKovery Center; $5 non-members per session. Reservations are required; maximum 20 participants. For information and reservations, e-mail editor@DiscoverNikkei.org.

Presented in collaboration with the DISKovery Center. Made possible by the generous support of The Nippon Foundation.

In 2006, over 4,900 people from around the world attended the 4th Worldwide Uchinanchu Taikai Festival in Okinawa to reconnect with their heritage and culture. The Center for Migration Studies at the University of the Ryukyus surveyed these participants and will present their findings revealing how Okinawans connect beyond the island borders.

Join us for this special event, the first in a new program series presented by Discover Nikkei. FREE with Museum admission. Light reception to follow which includes special cultural performances. Please check Discover Nikkei for updated program info.

RSVP required to 213.625.0414 ext. 2227 or rsvp@janm.org. Limited spaces available, so please reserve early!

Revelations & Resilience: Exploring the Realities of Hapa-ness

What does it mean to be Hapa? Too often, being Hapa/Haafu/Mixed Race is talked about as the tragedy of "not belonging" or the constant burden of "being confused." The social reality of Hapa-ness, however, defies these myths. Join four noted members of the Hapa community in an interactive roundtable discussion to explore the revelations and resilience of Japanese Americans of multiracial ancestry. Topics to be presented and explored include parenting and family life, personal and professional identities, and ethnic community participation. Panelists will invite those in attendance to participate in the discussion and become part of the dialogue as they unveil the meaning of being Hapa within the multi-dimensional world of being Japanese, Japanese American, and American. Don't miss this unique opportunity to tell your own story and defy the myths!

Roundtable Panelist:

Curtiss Takada Rooks, Ph.D. Moderator, Loyola Marymount University
California Japanese American Community Leadership Council, Board member, 2004 Japanese American Leadership Delegation, Hapa Issues Forum Board advisor, National Research Advisory Consortium (NRAC 2000) for the White House Commission on Asian Pacific Islanders and nationally noted speaker on diversity and multiracial identity.

H. Rika Houston, Ph.D., California State University, Los Angeles
Little Tokyo Community Services, Board member, community activist serving on numerous non-profit agency boards and noted researcher on ethnicity, culture and marketing. Author "Between Two Cultures" in No Passing Zone: Voice of Asian-descent Multiracials as well as several articles on multiraciality and parenting

Teresa K. Williams-Leon, Ph.D., California State University, Northridge
Co-editor, Sum of Our Parts: Mixed Heritage Asian Americans, and No Passing Zone: Voice of Asian-descent Multiracials. A pioneer in designing, researching and teaching Multiracial Asian American and multiracial/multiethnic courses and has published extensively on multiracial/multiethnic identity development. Associate Dean, School of Humanities

Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier, Ph.D., Loyola Marymount University
Theologian with pioneering work on ethnicity, multiraciality and identity. Teaches and researches in the areas of Comparative Theology, Theological Anthropology, Faith and Culture, Asian and Asian American Theology, Feminist Theology, Women in Religion, and Hinduism.

Audience members will receive a bibliography of children’s books along with articles/books on multiracial identity.

Organized by the Japanese American National Museum in collaboration with Curtiss Takada Rooks, Special Assistant to the Dean of Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and Assistant Professor, Asian Pacific American Studies, Loyola Marymount University.

Presented by DiscoverNikkei.org with the generous support of The Nippon Foundation.

An inspiring interview with Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, with her daughter and son-in-law Lisa and Warren Furutani and their sons Joey and Sei, who share their involvement in the community from redress to public service to grass-roots organization. Moderated by Prof. Mitchell Maki. Presented in conjunction with Discover Nikkei and Nikkei Community Day.

Did you know there are about 1,300 Nikkei currently living in Cuba? Although their numbers are small, Nikkei can be found in every province of Cuba with the largest concentration in Havana.

Join three Nikkei groups from Northern and Southern California—Tsukimikai, Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR), and Choodee without Borders—as they share stories about their visits to the Nikkei communities in Cuba.

FREE with Museum admission. Light reception follows with special cultural performances. RSVP required to 213.625.0414 ext. 2222, or rsvp@janm.org (subject: Nikkei in Cuba).

For more information, please visit DiscoverNikkei.org/forum/node/2715.

This program is co-sponsored by Discover Nikkei, Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, Tsukimi Kai, and Choodee without Borders. DiscoverNikkei.org, a project of the Japanese American National Museum, is made possible through the generous support of The Nippon Foundation.

REDRESS REMEMBERED

During WWII, over 2200 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were kidnapped from 13 Latin American countries and interned in Department of Justice camps and Army facilities for the purpose of hostage exchange. Learn more about what they endured during WWII, their ongoing redress struggle to hold the US government accountable for war crimes, and lessons for present day challenges.

Speakers:

Karen Parker, Esq.
Counsel for former Japanese Peruvian internees in U.S. courts and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with expertise in human rights and humanitarian (armed conflict) law

Richard Katsuda
Educator and Co-chair, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress

Craig Ishii
Regional Director, Pacific Southwest District, Japanese American Citizens League

Moderator: Grace Shimizu
Director, Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, and Coordinator, Campaign For Justice: Redress Now for Japanese Latin Americans!

The program will include a spoken word performance by Naomi Quinones and a screening of the DVD trailer of "Stolen Lives," produced by Kiku Lani Iwata (Tara Entertainment).

FREE! RSVP REQUIRED to 213.625.0414 ext. 2222, or rsvp@janm.org (subject: JLA Redress).

Presented in collaboration with Campaign for Justice: Redress Now For Japanese Latin Americans!, Japanese American Citizen's League–Pacific Southwest District, Discover Nikkei, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, and the National Museum. Co-sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of LA, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Japanese American Bar Association of Greater Los Angeles (JABA).