Welcome to the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee's Web Site

Click here to view the latest
NOC E-Newsletter

#NeverAgainIsNow

Art by Kiku Hughes

August 10, 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of the passing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the historic legislation that mandated both an official apology and monetary compensation to those of Japanese ancestry forcibly expelled from their homes and subjected to mass incarceration behind barbed wire under Executive Order 9066. This victory required decades of struggle by a united Japanese American community fighting in the courts, in Congress, and in the court of public opinion. In continuation of this legacy, Nikkei Progressives (LA) and Nikkei Resisters (SF/Bay Area) are excited to announce our #NeverAgainIsNow campaign with the support of a national network of Japanese Americans who are ready to honor this anniversary with action.

The WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans inspires us today to fight to defend the civil liberties of many people from the racist and inhumane policies of the Trump administration. We see Muslims being banned from entering the country, children being torn from their parents at the border, and families being held in indefinite detention -- the parallels with our history are vividly clear. In the name of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents, we vow Never Again!

But our people’s history contains more than barbed wire camps and searchlights. It contains resistance to the unconstitutional Executive Order, legal challenges to the exclusion orders, general strikes and civil disobedience by those refusing to answer the loyalty oath and to comply with draft orders. Our history of struggle goes beyond the concentration camps — from the fight to win citizenship rights for the first generation Issei to the Civil Rights Movement; from the struggle for Ethnic Studies and the Asian American Movement to protests against Trump’s cruel “zero tolerance” policy and recent protests against the Muslim Ban.

Recognizing our history, Nikkei Resisters and Nikkei Progressives formed to unite Japanese Americans to take action in vigorous defense of civil liberties and in the fight for social justice.

Read more on what you can do...

Art Shibayama
1930-2018

Photo by Andy Frazer

The Nihonmachi Outreach Committee celebrates the life of Art Shibayama. Art was a wonderful man who courageously fought for justice for Japanese Latin Americans who were forcibly taken from their homes and imprisoned in the United States.Art spoke at several NOC events and was a strong voice for social justice. His daughter, Bekki Shibayama, wrote the following article for the 2018 San Jose Day of Remembrance.

Speak Out For Justice

The shocking story about
the United States government's
abduction of Japanese Latin Americans

By Bekki Shibayama

Bekki and Art Shibayama at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing

My father, Art Shibayama, was a 13-year old Peruvian citizen when he and his family were seized from their home in Lima during WWII. They were shipped across international waters on a U.S. Army transport and imprisoned as “potentially dangerous enemy aliens” in a Department of Justice concentration camp in the U.S. Yet their only "crime" was that they were of Japanese descent. The U.S. government planned to exchange them for U.S. citizens trapped in Japan.

My father and his family were still detained in Crystal City when the war ended and the U.S. government classified them as “illegal aliens.” When Peru would not allow those of Japanese ancestry to return home, they were rendered stateless. They fought deportation for over a decade until they were able to obtain U.S. permanent residency. Read More...

For more informatoin, visit the Campaign For Justice website.

Call To Action:

Please sign our petition requesting a favorable ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR): https://www.change.org/p/inter-american-commission-on-human-rights-justice-now-for-the-shibayama-brothers.

Past Events