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JACL Chicago
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JACL CHICAGO
Chicago Events |
JACLChicago.org is the web site of the Chicago Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, a national Asian American civil rights advocacy organization founded in 1929.
Since its inception, the Chicago JACL Chapter has played a key role in the success of many of JACL’s national legislative efforts. The Chapter has done so by making significant contributions in terms of personnel, labor, information, and funding.
As part of a 1946 JACL mandate seeking to attain (1) naturalization rights for the Issei, (2) compensation for evacuation-related losses, and (3) the end of racist immigration and naturalization laws, the Chapter participated in the push to get Congress to pass the Walter-McCarran Immigration and Naturalization Act. This act (which became law in 1952) brought about a number of changes, providing aliens with eligibility for citizenship, creating an immigration quota for Japan, establishing supplementary rights for spouses and children of American citizens, and setting fair administrative procedure and court review for all immigration and deportation cases.
Essential to the act’s passage were the substantial financial and letter-writing contributions of Chapter members and the critical support of Congressmen like Sidney Yates of the Illinois 9th District. Yates demonstrated his dedication to the struggle of Japanese Americans in his maiden speech on the floor of the House. His strong working relationship with Mike Masaoka, then the JACL lobbyist in Washington, D.C., completed a triangle of solid channels of communication between National JACL, Congress, and the Chapter.
National JACL and the Chapter again coordinated efforts in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the strongest civil rights laws in this country’s history. While National JACL participated in the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Hiro Mayeda, then Midwest District Governor, made several visits to major Midwest cities to speak as an advocate of the expansion of civil rights. Chicago, along with other Midwest chapters, held activities designed to introduce and educate its members to the common struggles of all minorities and the concept of universal civil rights.
The Chapter’s involvement with the Redress movement began in 1978, when National JACL began its initiative toward the formation of a Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. This federal commission would reopen the evacuation experience and consider the issue of Redress. Midwest Director William Yoshino worked closely with the JACL National Committee for Redress in shaping and implementing the national legislative strategy. Yoshino was invited to witness the signing of the Commission legislation by President Jimmy Carter in the Cabinet Room of the White House in 1980.
Chicago was selected as one of the sites for the subsequent Commission hearings. Chairing the Chapter’s Redress Committee, Chiye Tomihiro mobilized local volunteers to speak about their experiences. The JACL Midwest Office also found individuals to testify from surrounding Midwestern cities and held workshops to assist individuals with their testimony. Twenty-five representatives of institutions and legislators from Chicago and the Midwest testified along with 53 additional individuals. The preparatory workshops and the hearings themselves proved an important forum for resettlers to confront emotions that had been repressed for decades. In 1983, the Commission submitted its report, “Personal Justice Denied,” which recommended that Congress issue $230,000 per evacuee as symbolic redress and that the nation formally apologize.
During the next six years, National JACL lobbied for the fulfillment of this recommendation. The JACL Midwest Office coordinated letter writing, Congressional visits and redress support from all the JACL Midwest Chapters. To finance this effort, National JACL established the independent Legislative Education Committee with Shig Wakamatsu as its treasurer. Through the collective work of Wakamatsu’s office, the JACL Midwest Office, and the Redress Committee, the Chapter raised over $30,000 to assist the Redress campaign. The resulting Civil Liberties Act of 1988 provided an apology signed by the president of the United States, as well as payment of $20,000 to every surviving internee. Shig Wakamatsu and William Yoshino attended the signing ceremony by President Ronald Reagan at the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.
As with the legislative victories, the Chapter has been at the center of JACL’s major cultural contributions, perhaps chief among them the Japanese American Research Project (JARP). Shig Wakamatsu first suggested the idea of compiling a history of the Issei as an educational tool and public relations exhibit in 1959. After Wakamatsu organized a fund-raising drive, many Chicagoans not only contributed, but also volunteered to be interviewed for the project. JARP has produced a chronological and legislative history of Japanese Americans, a sociological three-generation study of acculturation, and a record of the agriculture achievements of the Issei generation. This final chapter was completed with the 1992 publication of Planted in Good Soil.
To learn more about the Chapter, the larger JACL Midwest District, and the national Japanese American Citizens League, visit http://www.jaclchicago.org.
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The bi-weekly newspaper of the JACL, Pacific Citizen provides the most up-to-date information on issues pertaining to the Japanese American community
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ABOUT
THE JACLFounded in 1929, the JACL is the nation’s largest membership-driven, Asian American civil rights advocacy organization, with over 24,000 members in 112 chapters throughout the country and in Japan. JACL’s mission is to secure and uphold the human and civil rights of Americans of Japanese ancestry and others, and to preserve the cultural heritage and values of Japanese Americans.
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