(NAME-MCE) The 2008 Teachers Institute in Humanities--Ohio’s Japanese Americans: Immigration, Internment, and Reconciliation

[Li,Huey-Li]

Please forward the following announcement to members of NAME:


The 2008 Teachers Institute in Humanities
Ohio’s Japanese Americans: Immigration, Internment, and Reconciliation


Date: June 23—June 27, 2008
Location: Leigh Hall 414, The University of Akron
Credit: 2-3 graduate credits***

Purpose

The primary purpose of the 2008 Teachers Institute in Humanities is to establish a learning community for teachers to collaborate with renowned Japanese American scholars and civil rights activists in examining the educational implications of Japanese Americans’ experiences of internment and their relocation to Ohio.  Under the guidance of the key faculty of the Institute, participating teachers will develop and implement lesson plans, curricular modules, and audio and video pod-casting for promoting democratic multicultural civic and citizenship education in Ohio and beyond.

Key Instructors

Brant Lee is currently an associate professor of law at The University of Akron.  He specializes in Employment Discrimination, Feminist and Race Theory and the Law, Law and Theology.
Gary Y. Okihiro is a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, where he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. His research interests are Asian American studies and southern Africa.  He is the author of nine books in U.S. and African history, six of which have won prizes.

John Tateishi, who has been involved with Asian American communities for over 25 years, gained national prominence in 1978 when he launched a national campaign to seek redress for Japanese Americans interned in U.S. detention camps during WWII. As the National Redress Director of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Mr. Tateishi crafted the legislative and public affairs strategies of the campaign that successfully culminated in 1988 with an apology from the President and Congress and monetary redress for the victims of the internment.
Sadie Tami Yamane grew up in Bakersfield, California, where her father was a purchasing agent and buyer for fruit products and operated a gas station.  At the age of 7, she was interned at the Poston Internment Camp in Arizona with her older sister and parents.  She resettled in Cleveland after brief periods in Nebraska and Chicago.  She graduated from East High School and received her BS degree in Education from the Ohio State University in 1957.  Sadie retired as an elementary school teacher in the Cleveland School District.  Sadie is a third generation Japanese American.

Ed Ezaki was born in San Jose, California, and was confined to the Gila River (Arizona) Canal Camp #1 for 3 years, from 1942 to 1945.  His father was released to seek employment in the Greater Cleveland area.  This is where the family joined him prior to the end of World War II and has resided ever since.  Ed worked for General Motors for over 28 years and served as a Union official for the U.A.W. for over 20 years as Shop Chairman, President and Committeeman.  Ed served in the U.S. Army for 2 years during the Korean conflict.

Roy U. Ebihara was born in Clovis, New Mexico, and spent one year in Topaz Relocation Camp, Utah.  He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.  He is a semi-retired optometrist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.  He has been an active board member of Cleveland Japanese American Citizens League and the founder of the Cleveland Taiko Group.  He provides talks on civil liberties and diversity issues to schools, colleges, and other interested organizations.

Scheduled Performers
Mame Daiko, Icho Daiko's youth group, was started in 2005. There are currently 7 members from the Akron-Cleveland area. Mame Daiko is led by Natalie and Nicole Grant, who are also performing members of Icho Daiko. Mame Daiko has composed and choreographed some of its own songs and is currently working on many more songs to call their own.


Proposed Schedule

Monday, June 23
Michiko Pence:  “Japanese Americans in Northeast Ohio:  A Generation of Gaman (Resilience)”
Renee Caminati & LaQuita Timberlake, “Honor for All: The Japanese American Experience”

Tuesday, June 24
Gary Okihiro:  “Asian Americans: Transforming America”
Gary Okihiro:  “Bold Ambitions: Japanese American Migration and Settlement”
Gary Okihiro:  “Lest We Forget:  Japanese Americans the World War II”

Wednesday, June 25
ohn Tateisi:  “Japanese American Internment:  Debunking the Myths”
JJohn Tateishi: Internment and Redress:  Rectifying the Past, Securing the Future”
Brant Lee:  “The Road to Korematsu:  Asian Americans and the Constitution”

Thursday, June 26
 Ed Izaki, Sadie Yamane, Beverly Haru Kerecman, and Roy Ebihara:  “Ohio’s Japanese Americans”
John Tateishi:  “Internment and Post-9/11:  Troubling Parallels”
Mame Daiko

Friday, June 27
Brant Lee:  “The “The Legacy of Korematsu:  Two Kinds of Racial Redemption


Application deadline: May 25, 2008.

For more information, please contact: Dr. Huey-li Li; 330-972-5220; eee at uarkon.edu.

***Sponsored by the Ohio Humanities Council and Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the Institute will waive tuition and fee.  Interested participants can apply for additional stipends for traveling and lodging.