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Mary Graybill, APR, Fellow PRSA,
Graybill Communications
310-441-2899
mary@graybillcom.com
National World War II Nisei Veterans Organizations to Form Network
Groups share goal to preserve, advance legacy of Nisei soldiers
For Immediate Release
TORRANCE, Calif. (November 19, 2008) – At a meeting of World War II Nisei Veterans Organizations hosted by the Go For Broke National Education Center (GFBNEC), groups from cities and communities nationwide agreed to design a network for working together to preserve and advance the legacy of the Nisei soldiers. The inaugural meeting served as a forum for sharing ideas and practices to further the groups' common goal, and was held at the National Center for Preservation of Democracy in Los Angeles on Nov. 14, 2008.
After representatives of 18 individual veterans' organizations presented snapshots of the work they are doing in their own communities on behalf of the Nisei legacy, General Eric Shinseki, who was the National Spokesperson for GFBNEC until his recent selection by President-elect Barack Obama to be his Secretary of Veterans Affairs, urged meeting participants to design a program for working together. He emphasized the urgency to act now because "the legacy they bequeathed is our legacy -- to preserve, to honor, and to perpetuate" and the need to join together to "tell the entire story accurately."
GFBNEC was selected to lead the effort and by the end of Jan. 2009, to draft an organizational charter to define purpose, membership, goals and functional details of a developing network. The document will then be presented to a preliminary leadership council that the veterans' organizations appointed.
A second meeting of the World War II Nisei Veterans Organizations will also be hosted by GFBNEC and is scheduled for Friday, June 5, 2009 in Los Angeles. In addition to Torrance, CA-based GFBNEC, participants include the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA), National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, National Japanese American Veterans Council, Chicago Japanese American Council, Oregon Nikkei Endowment and the National Japanese American Historical Society/MIS of Northern CA.
Other participants were the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans, Pinedale Assembly Center, 100th/442nd Veterans Association, MIS Association of Southern CA, Nisei Veterans Coordinating Council, Americans of Japanese Ancestry WWII Memorial Alliance/Japanese American Living Legacy, 100th Infantry Battalion Veterans Club (Oahu), 442nd Veterans Club (Oahu), MIS Veterans Club of Hawaii, Go For Broke Association (Oahu) and the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center (Maui). Dr. Mitch Maki, Dean of the College of Health and Human Services, California State University Dominguez Hills, author and leader on issues of social justice, emceed the inaugural meeting and served as facilitator.
The Go For Broke National Education Center teaches the values of citizenship, patriotism, and leadership embodied in the American story of a unique group of World War II soldiers of Japanese ancestry through its education and preservation programs.
Its work includes: Hanashi Oral History Program, the nation's largest oral history collection of its kind, American Story Teacher Training Program, Resource Center, interactive educational initiatives and the Go For Broke Monument located in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles. Resources, including its oral history archive, lesson plans, historical content and membership are available via the organization's website at www.goforbroke.org.
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