Monday, October 09, 2006

More brainwashing here....

http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/archives/jainternmentchair.htm


"UCLA' s Asian American Studies Center Establishes Nation's First Endowed Chair Focusing on Japanese American Internment"

The UCLA Asian American Studies Center has established the first endowed academic chair to focus on the World War II internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans and their campaign to gain redress. The chair, which is the first of its kind in American higher education, was created with the generous donation of two internment survivors.

The George and Sakaye Aratani Chair on the Japanese American Internment, Redress and Community also will focus on the decades-long campaign to gain redress and a national apology, which culminated with the passage of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act. In addition, the chair will examine the historical and contemporary trends and issues facing the Japanese American population, and support research, teaching and professional service activities on these topics by existing or newly recruited UCLA faculty.

"The purpose of the chair is to ensure the World War II incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, as well as their subsequent efforts, will always be remembered, taught and written about for generations," George Aratani said. "There are many important lessons that Americans and other peoples can learn so that similar tragedies never happen again."

As a young man, George Aratani and his mother were forced to leave the family farm in the central California town of Guadalupe and enter the internment camp in Gila River, Ariz. His family lost everything they owned. Aratani went on to become the founder and chairman of Mikasa Dinnerware and Kenwood Electronics, two internationally recognized corporations. Over the years, George Aratani and his wife, Sakaye, who was interned in the Poston, Ariz., camp, have made significant contributions to numerous nonprofit organizations and educational institutions.

"We are greatly honored that the Aratanis have endowed this academic chair," said Professor Don Nakanishi, director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. "It will ensure that the unjust removal and incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as their extraordinary campaign to gain redress, will be taught to future generations of students at UCLA and will be the focus of continued research and public education by UCLA scholars for many years to come." "We are also thrilled that this academic chair will support teaching, research and public service dealing with historical and contemporary trends and issues facing Japanese American communities," Nakanishi said.

"Clearly, the aftermath of 9/11 demonstrated the importance of learning and applying the lessons from the Japanese American experience to current and future situations."

George and Sakaye Aratani have supported the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for many years, and previously have established endowments for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and undergraduate community internships. They also have established endowments with UCLA's Center for Japanese Studies. "George and Sakaye have supported many organizations in the community, and have taken active voluntary leadership roles to build and enhance these programs," Nakanishi said. "They have left an unmatched legacy of commitment and generosity."

Annually, the chair holder will be expected to teach at least one undergraduate or graduate course on the Japanese American interment, redress and community, or one in which major emphasis is placed on the three topics to illuminate broader societal lessons and issues. He or she will be expected to organize or participate in a public educational program designed to share the history and lessons of Japanese American internment, redress and community with the general public. The George and Sakaye Aratani Chair is the third endowed academic chair to be established at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

The other two chairs also were the first of their kind. The Korea Times-Hankook Ilbo Chair for Korean American Studies was the first one dedicated to supporting Korean American Studies. The Chair in Japanese American Studies was established in the late 1970s by Japanese American alumni and friends of UCLA to promote Japanese American Studies. It was the first academic chair on Asian American Studies in all of American higher education. The latter chair was first held by the late Harry Kitano, a professor of social welfare and sociology and a pioneer in the social scientific study of Japanese Americans and other minority populations in the United States.

The chair is currently held by Robert Nakamura, a professor of film and Asian American Studies and a renowned filmmaker who has produced award-winning documentaries on Japanese Americans and other Asian Pacific Americans for more than three decades. The center was established in August 1969 as one of four ethnic studies centers at UCLA. It has become the foremost national research center on Asian Pacific Americans. The center's mission is to interpret, define and forge the separate collective identities of Americans of Asian and Pacific Island heritage, and to integrate multidisciplinary approaches to the understanding of significant historical and contemporary Asian and Pacific American issues.

3 Comments:

At November 12, 2007 10:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

George Aratani is a biggot and a hypocrite. He is no humanitarian.

 
At November 13, 2007 10:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This email is to inform you of recent racially motivated acts committed by George Aratani of the George and Sakaye Aratani Foundation. Aratani touts himself as a philanthropist trying to right the wrongs of racism, which he experienced first hand in the internment camps during World War II. However, Aratani himself recently forbade the marriage of his 31 year old grand niece to a man soley on the basis that the man, whose family had been naturalized citizens in Japan for four generations, was not of Japanese decent. He actively interfered in the marriage by threatening to cut off all financial support to the girl, who had been living at his home for over a year, and her parents, who where also living there at the time. Aratani stated that he would cut off all family ties with the girl and her family if the marriage were to go through. Shortly afterwards the girl broke off her relation with the man. It is bewildering how a man who has publicly complained how racism has negatively affected his life can turn around and act in such a way.

 
At January 24, 2008 4:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What did you expect from the son of a dumb dirt farmer. Japan is a racist as South Africa.

 

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