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Annual General Meeting Nov. 5, 2025
SVJACL's annual general meeting for members took place Wed. 11/5/25 at 4:30PM in the conference room of Higashi Farms, 6 Quail Run Circle, Salinas. Members were invited to attend in-person or via Zoom. Here is the meeting agenda which includes a summary of our chapter activities for 2025.
W-SC JACL Veterans Day Program Honoring Nisei Veterans
Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL and Lt. Col. Wiggins, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Freedom Post 1716, and the American Legion Watsonville Post 121 presented a special program on Veterans Day 2025 at the Mello Center for the Performing Arts in Watsonville. The program honored the Nisei Veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service (MIS) who bravely served during World War II. The featured speaker was Tom Graves, author of Twice Heroes: America’s Nisei Veterans of WWII and Korea and member of the Watsonville–Santa Cruz JACL, will share powerful stories from over a decade of photographing and interviewing Nisei Veterans and their families. The program began with a ceremonial bell ringing, led by Lt. Col. (Ret.) Harry Wiggins, commemorating the WWI Armistice.
Keiro no hi: Honoring Our Seniors with Bento and Bingo fun!
Keiro no Hi (Respect for the Aged Day) is celebrated in Japan every September, and on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, SVJACL and others from the community celebrated our seniors with a delicious bento lunch, followed by bingo fun and great prizes. Thank you to the great student volunteers from the Japanese language program at Rancho San Juan High School, who helped with set up, food service, and clean-up, assisted with bingo, and even provided rousing performance of "soran bushi". And thank you to Mrs. Fumi Tashiro, for the beautiful origami flower arrangements!
Kagoshima Immigrants Honored at 70th Anniversary Ceremony
On Saturday, September 6, 2025, the Kagoshima Association of Northern California (KANC), held a “70th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony of Kagoshima Immigrants in Northern California” at Stanford University to honor the contributions of those who immigrated from Kagoshima Prefecture to California after 1955 under the Refugee Relief Act.
The event began with a shortened viewing of the "Gambatte Kimashita", the documentary film about the Kagoshima immigrant flower growers of Salinas, produced by SVJACL, followed by a video greeting from the governor of Kagoshima. Chief Consul Ishihara from the Consulate General of Japan in SF and Takuma MIyaji, Vice Foreign MInister of Japan also spoke. Gifts and certificates were presented to those immigrants 88 years and older who had established businesses in the United States.
The program included remarks by Janet Nagamine and Jimmy Eitoku (photo below right), who represented the second generation of the Kagoshima immigrants, as well as messages by three young students from Kagoshima and a karaoke rendition of “Furusato” by those attendees. The program concluded with a video about Kagoshima native Kanae Nagasawa, the first U.S. permanent resident from Japan, who arrived in California in 1875, where he became known as the “Wine King of California”. An outdoor reception was held following the ceremony.
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.
A big thank you to Ed Oyama for coordinating this great event!
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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