Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1789/

Standing up for social justice

If you are not indignant about what's going on out there, you got a problem. More than that, you are the problem. You know, I get on talking with people sometimes and I always like to say that complacency, is complicity. And apathy enables our enemies. There's a lot of different ways to say it. But I believe that we can't sit silent and not say something, we can’t stay where we are when there's a march outside our window. We can't stay silent in opportunities like this. We know that whatever we're saying right now will be viewed by other people and we should be judged by what we say. So I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with people that don't see anything wrong. I do have a problem with that because that just enables injustice, it absolutely allows it to continue. The status quo has to be challenged. It has to be opposed. It has to be changed. It just doesn't happen from an armchair. You know, I am active because I believe it's my duty. I am an educated privileged Asian American, Japanese American, who has reaped the benefits of this society, of the American education system.


activism communities equality justice law social action social justice

Date: July 14, 2020

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Matthew Saito

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association

Interviewee Bio

Mia Yamamoto is a Sansei transgender attorney and civil rights activist. She was born in the Poston concentration camp in Arizona in 1943 where her parents were incarcerated. She joined the Army and served in the Vietnam War. Inspired by her father's courage to speak out against the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, she attended the University of California Los Angeles's School of Law and has been a leader in the field of social justice, including working with the Japanese American Bar Association. (March 2021)

*This is one of the main projects completed by The Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) Program intern each summer, which the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum have co-hosted.

Evelyn Yoshimura
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Yoshimura,Evelyn

Commonalities

Community Activist

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Evelyn Yoshimura
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Yoshimura,Evelyn

Gidra's Content

Community Activist

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Evelyn Yoshimura
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Yoshimura,Evelyn

Youth and Gidra

Community Activist

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Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Struggle and Activism

Community activist

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Tamio Wakayama
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Wakayama,Tamio

Joining the Civil Rights Movement

(1941-2018) Japanese Canadian photojournalist and activist

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Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Gidra - Community Newspaper

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Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Common Cause

Community activist

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Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Cincip

Community activist

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Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Content Conflict

Community activist

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Tamio Wakayama
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Wakayama,Tamio

Navigating the movement as an Asian

(1941-2018) Japanese Canadian photojournalist and activist

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Terry Janzen
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Janzen,Terry

Postwar school-life

(b. 1930) Half Japanese and grew up in both Japan and the United States.

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Rose Ochi
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Ochi,Rose

Fifty Years and Going Strong

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

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Tamio Wakayama
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Wakayama,Tamio

Re-examining Identity

(1941-2018) Japanese Canadian photojournalist and activist

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George Takei
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Takei,George

Father's Influence

(b. 1937) Actor, Activist

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Paulo Issamu Hirano
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Hirano,Paulo Issamu

The difference between Nikkei community in Oizumi and Brazil (Japanese)

(b. 1979) Sansei Nikkei Brazilian who lives in Oizumi-machi in Gunma prefecture. He runs his own design studio.

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