Fresno JACL News

              MAE  TAKAHASHI
KSEE 24, in its annual PORTRAITS OF SUCCESS
AWARD, gave Mae the 1998 award for her "PERSONAL
AND PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS,
VOLUNTEER EFFORTS AND DEDICATION TO THE
BETTERMENT OF OUR COMMUNITY." Mae fully deserved
this honor for her many good deeds and unstinting gifts of time
and personal finances for her fellow citizens. Our
congratulations!
BUSY,   BUSY  MAY!
May  17 CCDC  Scholarship
Luncheon, 12 noon, Casablanca , 2317 Tuolumne Street in
downtown Fresno. Call Patricia Tom, 486-6815 for information.
May 25 Memorial   Day   Service,
Memorial monument, Roeding Park, 9 AM.
LARRY  KITAHARA
On Blackstone Avenue, on the east side of the street,
you may have noticed a new sign: KITAHARA, PONTIAC,
BUICK, GMC. For the first time, in our memory, we have a
Japanese American with a major car dealership in our area. Many
years ago in the early '20s, there was a Japanese car dealership in
Fowler, selling Dort cars and Star cars. Over the years, we have
had Japanese Americans as salesmen for different car dealerships
(one that we remember is Bob Itanaga for a Mercury dealer) but
never an authorized car dealer for a major line of cars. Car
dealerships for a popular line are not easy to get.
Larry is a local product. His parents are Kei and Alice
Kitahara of Reedley. Kei is a major farmer and was a shipper of
fruits. Larry graduated from Reedley High and graduated from
California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) This was
followed by a stint in the Army National Guard. He was selected
for the General Motors Dealer Development Program in Decmber
of 1993. This was followed by a dealer's training program and
work experience with Hallowell Chevrolet, Sequoia Chevrolet and
Herwaldt Pontiac Buick GMC. He purchased the Herwaldt
Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealership in March of 1998. He has
surrounded himself with a fine, experienced management team.
He has come far in the highly competitive automobile world and
is expected to do well with his fine line of General Motors cars
and trucks.
He is married to Alice and they have two daughters,
Krystal, age 12 and Chelsea,age 5. Mickey Kubota has advised
that he will join the Fresno JACL. Welcome!
May 29 Hiroshima   Band,   Crime
Prevention Benefit, Fresno Convention Center, dinner 6
PM, tickets may be obtained at Convention Center Box office and
at all BASS outlets.
May 31 Fresno       JACL       75th
Anniversary, Beyond Barbed Wire, 3 PM, Tower Theater;
dinner at Diana's Court, 5:30 PM. Call Bobbi Hanada (434-
1662) for dinner reservations or show tickets
KOREAN/VIETNAM MEMORIAL  SERVICE
The American Korean War Veterans and the Japanese
American Vietman War Veterans will hold a joint memorial
service in LosAngeles for those who gave their lives in the
Korean and Vietnam Wars as well as those veterans who returned
and have passed away. Families and friends of the KIAs and the
postwar deceased are invited to attend. For further information,
call Dorothy or Jack McDowell at (213) 483-4258, or Thomi
Yamamoto at (213) 387-9033)
ASIAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH
President Clinton, on April 30, proclaimed May as
Asian Pacific Heritage Month: ". . .These sons and daughters of
Cambodia, China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea,, Laos, the
Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and many other Asian and
Pacific lands have enriched our national life and culture with their
energy and talents, with their commitment to family and
community, and with their enduring reverence for freedom ..."
VANCE KENNEDY
Vance is a professor at the College of San Mateo. He
has taught Human Relations for more than 20 years. As a part of
this course, he teaches a unit on prejudice, and as part of that
unit, he discusses the relocation of west coast Japanese
Americans.
He says: "Years ago I read a newspaper article about the
JACL honoring a woman 25 years after she had been approached
to buy and hold the farms of Japanese American farmers in her
central Californian community. She, apparently a Caucasian
woman, had spoken out against the relocation of her neighbors.
Seeing this, they responded by asking her to buy their farms
when they were told they would have to report to an assembly
center for relocation. She did this, kept meticulous records
druting the war, and deeded their farms back to them at its
conclusion."
He would like to know her name and more information
about this incident. He is asking anyone who has such
information to contact him. He believes that the article he read
was published in the San Francisco Chronicle or the San Jose
Mercury News around 1970. This leads us to believe that
rncident might have occurred in the central coastal area, not the
central valley area. Mr. Kennedy can be reached by e-mail
(VAkennedy@aol.com) (fyh)
THE LEGION OF VALOR
Hiro Isogawa is a docent for the Legion of Valor in
Fresno. It is located at the old Memorial Auditorium on Fresno
Street, now known as the Fresno Veterans Memorial Auditorium.
The Legion of Valor is an association of those whose
valor has been recognized by the award of our nation's two
highest decorations. They are the Medal of Honor of the Navy,
Army or Air Force; or the Army Distinguished Service Cross,
Navy Cross or Air Force Cross.
Organized on April 23, 1890, the Legion of Valor is the
nation's senior organization of veterans. It was chartered by
public law 224, an act of Congress, and approved by the President
on August 4, 1955. Its national museum is located at Fresno.
The principles of the Legion of Valor are: Patriotic
allegiance to the United States of American, fidelity to its
constitution and laws, the security of civil liberty and the
perpetuation of free institutions.
Large pictures of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
and the MIS will line the walls of the entry.