Calvin Ninomiya

Calvin Ninomiya is intermittently retired. An aging lawyer [ex-Seattle; ex-Minidoka], he retired after serving as Chief Counsel, US Treasury (Public Debt). Ninomiya came out of retirement to work part-time on Treasury technical assistance projects, mostly doing overseas legal assignments in developing countries. Otherwise, he labors on Japanese American veteran concerns. He has researched the Occupation of Japan with the National Japanese American Veterans Council and worked on oral histories and scholarships, as well as serving as a board member with the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA).

Updated March 2008

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JAVA: Finding the Elixir of Survival

  • By Calvin Ninomiya
  • 8 May 2008

At a time when many U.S. veterans organizations have declining membership, are moribund, or have voted themselves out of existence, the Japanese American Veterans Association of Washington, DC, has shown real growth. Prior to 2005, JAVA, as the group is popularly known, had 216 members. Now, it boasts 520 members, well over 100 percent in just three years! Of these, 79 were transfers from defunct vet organizations. New membership averaged out to more than 45 each of the past three years.

Given that the Association was founded by World War II veterans, to learn -- more than 60 years after ...

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A Japanese American Community in Decline

  • By Calvin Ninomiya
  • 5 Mar 2008

Forgive me if mine is a lonely view of the Japanese American community. But, however beclouded my bifocals, I see that community is fading away. Beyond our time, being Japanese American will be a matter of waning remembrances, if not numbers.

The reason for this outcome is elementary. Demographic studies indicate that the Japanese in America, i.e., the second, third and fourth generations, have been intermarrying at a remarkable rate. Pretty soon, there won’t be any "pure" persons of Japanese blood here amongst us, and our future progeny will be assessing their Japanese lineage by smaller percentages. And ...

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