Spark matsunaga biography definition

  • Biography. A lifetime proponent

    • JACL History

  • Japanese American groups form a national organization to foster good citizenship and civic participation, called the Japanese American Citizens League.

  • First JACL National Convention is held on August 29 in Seattle, Washington.

  • JACL advocates amendment of Cable Act and restores American citizenship to American women of Japanese ancestry married to Japanese nationals. Suma Sugi lobbies the bill on behalf of the JACL, which is signed into law on Girl’s Day by President Hoover.

  • Tokutaro Slocum and the JACL help push through the Nye-Lea Bill, which provides citizenship for U.S. Army veterans of Asian ancestry is made into law.

  • JACL Endowment Fund is established to provide a funding source for programs for Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA).

  • Japanese bombing at Pearl Harbor triggers the entry of the United States into World War II.

  • , persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast are forcibly interned in 10 American concentration camps.

  • An emergency wartime meeting of the JACL is convened in San Francisco.

  • JACL joins with church groups and the War Relocation Authority to resettle Americans of Japanese ancestry in Eastern and Midwestern States.

  • The volunteer, all Nisei th/nd Regimental Combat Team is formed on Jan. It becomes the most highly decorated unit in American military history.

  • JACL Credit Union is formed to provide loans for Japanese Americans for resettlement.

  • JACL establishes a Midwest Office in Chicago to provide information and assistance to Japanese Americans relocating to the Midwest.

  • JACL efforts result in a narrowly defeated Anti-Alien Land Law proposition in Colorado.

  • JACL files an amicus legal brief in the Korematsu v. United States case before the United States Supreme Court, testing the constitutionality of the military orders calling for the removal of Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes.

  • The California legislature budgets $, to press escheat actions against lan

    • Maya Soetoro-Ng

    Indonesian-American academic

    Maya Kasandra Soetoro-Ng (née&#;Soetoro; ; born August 15, ) is an Indonesian-born American academic, who is a faculty specialist at the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, based in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is also a consultant for the Obama Foundation, working to develop the Asia-Pacific Leaders Program. Formerly a high school history teacher, Soetoro-Ng is the maternal half-sister of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.

    Early life and education

    Soetoro-Ng was born in Saint Carolus Hospital, a Catholic hospital, in Jakarta, Indonesia, the daughter of American cultural anthropologistAnn Dunham (–), an American of Swiss, German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English descent and Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro (–). She had two half-brothers, Barack Obama (born ), the 44th president of the United States, and Bayu Yusuf Aji Soetoro (born ), and a half-sister, Rahayu Nurmaida Soetoro (born ). She also had an adoptive sister, Holiah Soetoro (–). Soetoro-Ng has said she was named after American poet Maya Angelou.

    Soetoro-Ng and Obama spent several years together in Indonesia and in Hawaii before her mother decided to return to Indonesia with her. After her parents divorced in , her father remarried. From this marriage, Soetoro-Ng has another half-brother and a half-sister, who are of no relation or familial connection to Obama.

    While living in Indonesia, Soetoro-Ng was home-schooled by her mother. From to , Soetoro-Ng attended Jakarta International School. Like Obama, Soetoro-Ng returned to Hawaii and attended the private Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, graduating in

    Soetoro-Ng received her B.A. degree from Barnard College of Columbia University.[11]

    Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

    Overview

    Asian Pacific Islanders (APIs) have lived in the United States for well over a century and have contributed significantly to its economy, culture, and history.

    APAHM at Boston College reminds us that the API history is a large piece of American history. 

    A Brief History

    The idea of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) was introduced to the House of Representatives in June by Frank Horton of NY and Norman Mineta of CA. The resolution called for the president to establish the first ten days of May as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week.

    A month later, it was introduced in a similar bill to the senate by Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga. In , President Jimmy Carter signed a resolution designating that time period as an annual celebration. In , President George Bush designated the whole month of May to be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. May was chosen in order to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States in

    The APAHM Committee Initiative

    Prior to , Boston College Asian student culture clubs have hosted various events to commemorate Asian Americans. The students have not, however, collectively sponsored the celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), which takes place annually in May.

    Realizing that the university does not celebrate this month, representatives from the Office of AHANA Student Programs, Center for International Partnerships and Programs, and the Career Center began to organize an event in honor of APAHM. At the same time, several Asian student clubs were making a similar effort. In collaboration with Asian student clubs, the three offices worked to coordinate the First Celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at Boston College in April

    Mission

    It is the mission of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Committee to promote awareness, appreciation and understanding of Asian Pacific American culture and experience.

    MATSUNAGA, Spark Masayuki

    A lifetime proponent of peace, Spark M. Matsunaga, the son of an impoverished plantation worker, became a war hero and Member of Congress. Matsunaga believed firmly in gradual reform and the power of one man to change minds, a philosophy he often applied to the legislative process. As a knowledgeable member of the powerful House of Representatives Rules Committee and later as a United States Senator, Matsunaga influenced a broad swath of legislation during his 28 years in Congress. He alternately identified as a lawyer, soldier, peacemaker, poet, technology enthusiast, and a campaigner for equal rights. Fellow Senator Bob Dole of Kansas referred to “Sparky,” as he liked to be known, as a “renaissance man.”

    Spark Matsunaga was born Masayuki Matsunaga on October 8, , in Kukuiula on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. His parents, Kingoro Matsunaga and Chiyono Fukushima, emigrated from Japan and worked on a Kauai sugar plantation. Masayuki grew up in a large family; his mother, Chiyono, was a widow with four children from her previous marriage. Kingoro Matsunaga sustained an injury on the job in the mids and, after his recovery, dedicated himself to a spiritual life as a Shinto priest. The Matsunaga brothers constructed a Shinto temple in their backyard at their father’s instruction. The nickname “Sparky” or “Spark” originated in Matsunaga’s youth; childhood friends used it to razz him for his frequent last-place finishes in races. The name stayed with him.

    Matsunaga’s interest in political office ignited early. While attending Kauai High School, he complained to his haole social studies teacher about discrimination against Asians. The teacher replied, “Run for office and fix it.” “Ohhh, he put that bug in my head!” Matsunaga recalled. “He planted a seed in my brain. In everything I did I was building steps toward the U.S. Senate.” After graduating high school in , Matsunaga briefly worked as a bookkeeper and then as a sales cler

  • American politician (–).
  • Biography of Spark Matsunaga