Christine at a White House breakfast with President and Mrs. Obama and Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Day National Committee

Happy New Year from the Go For Broke National Education Center!

2009 marked the Go For Broke National Education Center's 20th anniversary and we devoted the year to truly focus on our mission to serve, honor and educate. We took the opportunity to recognize all the Nisei veterans and supporters who helped to establish the organization in 1989 and dedicated so many years to ensure their story would be perpetuated through the Go For Broke Monument and in the classroom.

We also celebrated with a year of tremendous achievements and highlights:

• Increased national presence through teacher training workshops in Virginia, Hawaii and California,
• Created and debuted a "machinima" film on the "Rescue of the Lost Battalion" and "Volunteering from Camp," the first component from our new interactive curriculum
• Gathered 30 Japan occupation interviews for a Department of Army project
• Interviewed 35 additional Niseis and others for our Hanashi Oral History Program
• Held the 10th Go For Broke Monument Anniversary and tribute, including a special luncheon to recognize our founding veterans
• Hosted the second National Veterans Network (NVN) meeting bringing together 21 organizations from across the U.S. to discuss support for the Congressional Gold Medal to honor Nisei WWII veterans and to discuss the NVN's future
• Provided resources and speakers for public programs
• Drew nearly 1,000 supporters to our 8th annual Evening of Aloha gala dinner
• Secured an additional $1.5 million from Congress for our future education center and headquarters adjacent to the Go For Broke Monument

In 2010 we will focus on continuing this momentum and work towards raising awareness of the Nisei soldiers' story to all Americans. However, in order do so we must be viable and relevant for our future sustainability. We look forward to sharing exciting developments that advance our efforts to teach and share this story nationally while we proceed with our plan locally to build the Go For Broke National Education Center in downtown Los Angeles. Stay tuned for further information in the coming months!

Sincerely,
Christine Sato-Yamazaki

As plans to build the Go For Broke National Education Center in the Little Tokyo area of Downtown Los Angeles at Temple and Alameda Streets move forward, the United States Congress has approved an additional $1.5 million toward pre-construction costs, following $4 million awarded to the nonprofit organization for 2009. The new headquarters for Go For Broke National Education Center is being located beside the Go For Broke Monument that the organization completed in 1999.

Go For Broke National Education Center offered a special tribute to Nisei veterans of the 100th, 442nd, MIS and all others that served during World War II, in addition to honoring US soldiers of all wars, at its annual Evening of Aloha gala dinner on Nov. 14, 2009. The organization, which celebrated its 20th anniversary at the event, also outlined plans for its future and highlighted nationally focused programs it has created to ensure the Nisei soldiers' legacy is known.

Sponsored by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., and Union Bank, 950 guests were treated to a series of theatrical vignettes telling a story through memories brought to life by a Nisei veteran's oral history experience. Created and directed by Sachiko and Dom Magwili, the heartwarming production gave guests a window into GFBNEC's Hanashi Oral History Program. Hanashi, which means story or to talk, is the largest oral history archive of its kind and includes more than 1,050 interviews. Using these oral histories to teach students, GFBNEC has developed a curriculum for history and social studies classes and provides teacher training to a growing constituency nationwide, including California, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia.

Guests dined on a menu planned by celebrated chefs Roy Yamaguchi of Roy's Restaurants worldwide and Charles Phan of San Francisco's Slanted Door then finished the dining experience with dessert from King's Hawaiian Bakery. Grammy-award winners Daniel Ho and Tia Carrere entertained and Gordon Tokumatsu, an Emmy-award winning reporter for NBC4 news in Los Angeles, was master of ceremonies.

The Go For Broke National Education Center, in partnership with the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, held its inaugural teacher training institute in Hawaii entitled, Looking Like the Enemy, Japanese Americans in World War II Hawaii, on October 8 - 10, 2009 in Honolulu. The institute brought together 21 teachers from Oahu, Maui and Hawaii to spend three intensive days of study on the experience of Japanese Americans in Hawaii during World War II. Held at Theodore Roosevelt High School on Oahu, the institute provided teachers with the tools and training to teach World War II history in social studies and modern Hawaiian history courses through the experiences of Hawaii Japanese Americans. By equipping teachers with curriculum, primary and secondary resource materials and local sites for field trips, the institute equipped the teachers to share the story of the Japanese American experience from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the end of the war and into the occupation of Japan.