442nd Veterans Club
933 Wiliwili St.
Honolulu, HI 96826
July 11, 2000
National Japanese American Memorial Foundation
1920 N St. NW Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Attention: Mr. Melvin Chiogioji, President
Gentlemen:
Subject: National Japanese American Memorial Monument
This is to inform you that the 442nd Veterans Club of Honolulu has taken a position for the removal of all personal quotations and names except those by President Harry Truman and President Ronald Reagan from the subject monument.
It is the considered feeling of the 442nd that the monument should not have quotations by individuals who do not have the full support of the AJA (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) community and/or the AJA veterans of WWII. After all, it is a monument for all the AJAs in perpetuity; not just for the current majority of NJAMF's Board of Directors. Any inscription that is a cause of current tensions and contentions, and a seed that will perpetuate them should be removed.
In taking our position on Mr. Mike Masaoka, it was with the full knowledge of the many good things he has done; but tempered also by the illuminating research contributions of people like Professor Rita Takahashi and Mr. William Hohri of which we were previously uninformed. Mr. Masaoka's removal would fall in the same category as the rejection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's quotation on "Americans as being a matter of heart and not race" because he is the one who signed Executive Order 9066.
The 28 officers and directors of the 442nd Board of Directors voted 27 to 1 for the removals as stated above at its last meeting on July 5, 2000.
We recommend in the strongest terms that corrective steps for removals be initiated immediately.
Sincerely,
S. Don Shimazu
President
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