Lawrence Lan
@llanAs part of the Nikkei Community Internship program, Lawrence will be contributing this summer to the Discover Nikkei website in his capacity as the Discover Nikkei intern at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM); he will also be working with the Japanese American Bar Association (JABA) to preserve the legacy of prominent Nikkei jurists in the community.
Update June 2012
Stories from This Author
Connecting Movements and Memories: On Karen Ishizuka’s Serve The People and the Making and Meanings of the Asian American Movement
June 17, 2016 • Lawrence Lan
“You have to keep changing, because what has happened and what you have been a part of is no longer there. The ideas that we develop remain in our heads … So our challenge constantly is both to learn from the past and also not be bound by the past.” —Grace Lee Boggs1 The words of the late political thinker and activist Grace Lee Boggs offer a good reminder that in our struggles for personal and collective transformation, we must …
Investing in the People
Aug. 8, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
As part of the Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) program, I have spent the past eight weeks not only working with the Japanese American Bar Association (JABA) and the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) but also learning more about the non-profit community work being done throughout California’s three Japantowns—Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, San Jose’s Japantown, and San Francisco’s Nihonmachi. It’s been an eye-opening experience. I’d like to begin by thanking my supervisor from the Japanese American Bar Association, Alex Fukui, for …
Judge Jon Mayeda: The Right Place at the Right Time
Aug. 7, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
Judge Jon Mayeda—a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who currently works with JAMS, an Irvine-based dispute resolution and arbitration company—was always in the right places at the right times…or so he claims when he says, “It felt like the right thing to do.” But luck and serendipity can only go so far before passion and vision come into play. As a pioneering jurist in the Japanese American community, Mayeda was instrumental in the founding of several organizations, including …
Judge Vincent Okamoto: Fighting for Justice - Part 2
Aug. 4, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
Rear Part 1 >> Law School It was in Vietnam that Okamoto first started thinking about the rule of law, and the lack thereof around him at the time. “I really did say to myself—and it sounds kind of corny—that if I am fortunate enough to live through this experience, then when I get back to the world—to America—I’d like to go through something that has rules, where people don’t throw grenades at each other and shoot at each other,” Okamoto …
Judge Vincent Okamoto: Fighting for Justice - Part 1
Aug. 3, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
“I was in a position in Vietnam—to be in an arena where men with guns made the rules. And there really wasn’t anything called the rule of law. Those on the battlefield prevailed not because of better argument or because the facts were on their side. They prevailed because they had superior firepower.” So says Judge Vincent Okamoto who sits on the Los Angeles County Superior Court bench as he begins to explain just how the most highly-decorated Japanese American …
Judge Ernest Hiroshige: Forging Community
July 31, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
Anyone who has ever met Judge Ernest Hiroshige, who sits on the Los Angeles County Superior Court bench, knows about his signature bow tie. There’s no huge story behind it—“I just like bow ties,” he said. The influence of his bow tie reaches far beyond the walls of Department 54 at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. In fact, the 32-year-old veteran of the bench tells a story about Clyde Kusatsu, a friend and actor who wore a bow tie—in honor of …
Justice Kathryn Doi Todd: Redefining Possibilities
July 24, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
“Are you related to Mia Doi Todd?”So asks Akira Boch, one of the Japanese American National Museum’s videographers, as he and Jenni Nakamura set up the media equipment for the interview in the chambers of the Honorable Kathryn Doi Todd, Justice of the 2nd District Court of Appeal. The answer is yes, and Justice Todd lets us quickly ooh and aah over the pictures of her daughter, Mia—a prominent singer-songwriter—with her newborn child. Justice Todd is certainly used to her …
Kizuna’s Youth CAN Program: Investing in the Future of Little Tokyo
July 13, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
On a summer evening in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, the yelling and antics of 27-year-old Craig Ishii and 24-year-old Kristin Fukushima fill the courtyard of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. For what it’s worth, their silliness has a purpose. They are tasked with breaking the icy awkwardness that has settled upon nearly 70 high school students from throughout Southern California. Fortunately, though, Craig and Kristin have done this before. By the end of the half-hour-long icebreaker session, names …
“It’s not fair!”: Remembering Vincent Chin, Thirty Years Later
June 28, 2012 • Lawrence Lan
Thirty years ago from this past Saturday, on June 23, 1982, Vincent Chin died. Four nights earlier, on June 19th, Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party in a Detroit, Michigan strip club when he got tangled up with two white autoworkers who mistook Chin (who was Chinese American) for Japanese and blamed him for the rise of Japanese auto industries and the loss of their own jobs. The brief fight was broken up, and Chin and his friends left …
