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Coming up Saturday Sept. 20, 2025-Bento and Bingo! Mark your calendars for this fun SVJACL community event! Details to follow soon.
SVJACL Members & Friends Trip July 12, 2025
SF Giants v Dodgers at Oracle Park
Salinas JACL fans of the Giants (of course!) and Dodgers sat together on the bus and in the stands at Oracle Park in San Francisco for a fun outing to see the our Bay Area home team play a great game under sunny skies. Although it ended in a 2-1 Dodgers win, we are ALL fans of the amazing Shohei Otani, and it was a treat to watch him pitch for three innings.
Interview with Cookie Hibino
EO 9066 display donated to Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL by veterans group
Ann Jordan introduces Salinas High School students who presented "Graduation Behind Barbed Wire".
Day of Remembrance Feb. 22, 2025
SVJACL hosted its first Day of Remembrance since 2019 at the El Gabilan Library in Salinas. The program began with a history of Japanese Americans in the Salinas Valley (Ann Jordan) and the reading of several original poems in Japanese about immigration and incarceration read by Rancho San Juan HS students. Next, Marsha Hashimoto introduced Mas Hashimoto's moving TEDx talk on "Racism and America's Concentration Camps". Salinas High School seniors presented "Graduation Behind Barbed Wire", which included a description in the Salinas Assembly Center newsletter of the commencement ceremonies held for members of the SHS class of 1942 incarcerated there.
The highlight of the program was an interview with Cookie Hibino (pictured top left), who shared her story of growing up in San Juan Bautista, her family's incarceration at Poston, and life as the wife of the first mayor of Salinas, Henry Hibino. The afternoon ended with a screening of the SVJACL film, "Gambatte Kimashita: Japanese Flower Growers of the Salinas Valley" which was introduced by the film's director, Eric Palmer. Lori Eitoku Wong, producer and narrator, whose parents were among the flower growers featured in the film, shared her moving reflections of what the film meant to her family.
Recent Salinas resident Rikako Takada wrote a blog post in Japanese sharing her reflections on attending her first Day of Remembrance.
Many thanks to Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL members pictured here, Gary Mine, Joe Bowes, Victor Kimura, and to Norris Woodford and Jean Yamashita, who take such good care of the Memorial Garden.
JACL National Teacher Training Workshop Oct. 19, 2024
On October 19, 2024, SVJACL held an all day National JACL Teacher Training Workshop at California State University presented by JACL Education Programs Manager Matthew Weisbly. Our program included presentations by SVJACL on the history of Japanese Americans in the Salinas Valley and Mas Hashimoto's Ted Talk on "Racism and America's Concentration Camps", introduced by Marsha Hashimoto. Participants were provided with a curriculum binder full of excellent classroom resources and materials. And everyone enjoyed a wonderful bento lunch from local favorite, Ichiriki.
Winter Family Fun Day
Feb. 10, 2024
We celebrated Year of the Dragon and Japanese New Year with Kakizome (first calligraphy of the New Year), making Ema, and playing New Years games like Hanetsuki. For Setsubun, we threw dried soybeans to chase out the bad luck oni demons and welcome in good luck. And we made (and ate) giant ehoumaki lucky sushi rolls. It was lots of fun for everyone!
Tanabata Family Fun Day
Jun. 24, 2023
We kicked off summer by celebrating the July 7th Tanabata festival early, decorating bamboo branches and writing wishes (tanzaku) to tie to the branches. Participants heard the story of Hikoboshi and Orihime, the two star crossed lovers who can only meet once a year when they cross the Milky Way on the seventh day of the seventh month. And everyone enjoyed singing songs and dressing up in yukata.
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