Chronology of decisions by the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, as recounted by Francis Sogi, NJAMF board member:
At the meeting of the board of directors of NJAMF in San Diego in February 2000, I stated that the issue of the inscriptions that will be engraved on the monument to honor the patriotism to all Japanese Americans during World War II, especially the inclusion of Mike Masaoka, could not be resolved in a political arena in an amicable and fair manner. I said it might be necessary to refer this matter to a legal forum, where we can expect a fair and equitable determination of this very contentious issue.
Let me submit some substantive reasons for making the statement:
Soon after Melvin Chiogioji was elected chairman of the board of NJAMF in 1998, he stated: "I don't give a damn, what the inscriptions say, let's just get them over with." This was the beginning of our problems.
In May 1998, after many drafts of the inscriptions -- which included General DeWitt's familiar statement: "A Jap is a Jap," Bill Hosokawa's haiku, which read in part: "O America, stumbling, fumbling" and Mike Masaoka's Japanese American Creed -- the board agreed upon the final form of the inscriptions. The inscriptions did not include the three objectionable inscriptions referred to above.
At the May 1998 board meeting, there were two draft inscriptions. One was prepared by Bill Hosokawa, without the three objectionable inscriptions. The other was prepared by Kelly Kuwayama, which included only names of the Presidents of the United States and their statements made at special occasions honoring Japanese Americans for their patriotism during World War II.
At this board meeting, the board authorized chairman Chiogioji, and board members Kuwayama and Hosokawa to consolidate the two draft inscriptions prepared by Hosokawa and Kuwayama. Chairman Chiogioji also stated that there would be no more changes in the inscriptions.
By November 1998, Norman Mineta had joined the board. Many others, including current and former presidents, board members, chapter presidents and members of Japanese American Citizens League, had also joined the board of NJAMF, consisting in excess of 75 percent of the entire board.
Grant Ujifusa had already been on the board. Prior to the November board meeting, Ujifusa requested the Executive Committee of the NJAMF to permit him to add more names to the final inscriptions that had been prepared. At the board meeting, Chairman Chiogioji reported that the Executive Committee approved the request and permitted Ujifusa to add more names to the inscriptions, including one by Mike Masaoka. This occurred despite the earlier decision in May 1998 to leave the matter to Kuwayama and Hosokawa.
The bylaws of NJAMF require that all decisions of the Executive Committee must be approved by the board at its next meeting, but his required procedure was not followed. Also, the bylaws require that all decisions of the Executive Committee be recorded in the minutes of the meeting, but we have not been provided with the minutes of such a meeting if any at all exist.
The motion made by Ujifusa merely mentioned the names of the individuals without any of their quotations. To justify the reinstatement of Masaoka, Ujifusa represented that Masaoka was the Father of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team when, in fact, he was not. A check with the 442nd Veterans Club of Hawaii produced an article on the "Origin of the 442nd RCT," which clearly proved based on archival records that Masaoka was not the Father of the 442nd RCT and, in fact, he opposed a segregated Japanese American unit.
At the board meeting in November 1998, the committee designated by the board to finalize the inscriptions for the monument submitted a draft of the final inscriptions.
At the same board meeting, the board authorized the Chairman and two others to prepare the inscriptions, adding quotations of the four additional individuals and to submit them to the National Park Service. By an additional motion, the inscriptions were approved in principal.
Subsequently, Chairman Chiogioji reported that the final draft of the inscriptions that was prepared by him, Hosokawa and Kuwayama were too long and were rejected by the National Park Service. However, the inscriptions with the four additional names and quotations would have made the new version of the inscriptions much longer than the inscriptions submitted to the November board meeting.
Chairman Chiogioji reinstated Bill Hosokawa's haiku in the inscriptions. The minutes of the November board meeting merely authorized the Chairman to prepare the quotations, approved only in principle, for each of the four new names, and submit them to the National Park Service and no more. The haiku had been rejected by the committee that conducted a national haiku/tanka competition.
Objections were raised in letters to the Commission of Fine Arts that the inclusion of Bill Hosokawa's haiku might cause serious objections from the general American public. Fortunately, the Commission of Fine Arts ordered that the haiku be deleted.
There were two final issues remaining concerning the inscriptions notwithstanding the fact that Chairman Chiogioji continuously at various public and board meetings stated that the National Public Service had approved the inscriptions and no further changes would be made.
The importance of the historical accuracy of the monument was pointedly mentioned in the letters written by the Chairman J. Carter Brown of the Commission of Fine Arts.
Although repeatedly reminded since August 1999 that the narrative portion of the inscriptions contained serious historical errors, Chairman Chiogioji insisted that the matter of the inscriptions was closed. It was closed until a meeting that took place on February 10, 2000 between the National Park Service and the staff of NJAMF.
After the meeting, NJAMF prepared a new draft of the inscriptions, containing the same historical errors and revised quotations attributed to Rep. Norman Mineta and to Masaoka. In the case of the quotation for Masaoka, to correct a grammatical error, new words were added to his quotation.
Notwithstanding repeated pronouncements by Chairman Chiogioji that the National Park Service had approved the inscriptions, I called John Parsons of the National Park Service on February 24 and he stated that the question of whether or not Masaoka would be included on the monument had not been decided.
Since the dissenting board members and many other Japanese Americans nationally have been very supportive of my efforts in making the inscriptions historically correct and eliminating the Masaoka quotation from the monument, I announced at the San Diego meeting that the time may have come to transfer the matter of Mike Masaoka to a more level field of play where we can expect fair and just treatment.
It has been said on more than one occasion that the dissenting directors should abide by the principle of majority rule in our democratic process and we have no qualm with the principle if the proper and regular procedures had been followed. It should seem obvious to any reader that the process followed by the leadership of NJAMF was far from regular and proper. They violated the provisions of our bylaws and have taken actions without authority.
Finally, I ask the readers of this message whether this monument is truly for all Japanese Americans and what the legislation intended it to be?