WWII Veteran Yoshio Nakamura, 442nd Regimental Combat Team

“We had Japanese faces but American hearts.” 

So says our special guest Yoshio Nakamura, a Japanese-American born in California. Yoshio experienced first-hand the upheaval of World War II when Japanese-Americans were classified as enemy aliens. 

He endured internment at Tulare Racetrack and Gila River Camp, facing humiliation and loss of freedom. Despite the injustice, he demonstrated loyalty to the U.S. by joining the Army, serving in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Nakamura participated in key battles in Europe, contributing to the unit’s status as the most decorated in U.S. military history. 

After the war, he pursued education and became an art teacher. Despite hardships, Nakamura maintains a positive outlook on life.

Also joining us is Dr. Mitchell T. Maki is the President and CEO of the Go For Broke National Education Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy and lessons of the Nisei (a person born in the US whose parents were immigrants from Japan) World War II veterans. 

The mission of GO FOR BROKE is to educate and inspire character and equality through the virtue and valor of our World War II American veterans of Japanese ancestry.
Dr. Maki is also the lead author of the award-winning book, Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress, a detailed case study of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act. 

Nearly fifty years after being incarcerated by their own government, Japanese American concentration camp survivors succeeded in obtaining redress for the personal humiliation, family dislocation, and economic ruin caused by their ordeal. 

An inspiring story of wrongs made right as well as a practical guide to getting legislation through Congress, Achieving the Impossible Dream documents the redress movement from its earliest roots during World War II, the formal introduction of the idea in the 1970s, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, the judicial battles during the 1980s, and the lobbying of the legislative and executive branches in the 1980s and 1990s. 

In 2000, the book received the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award which is given to books addressing bigotry and human rights in North America.

Dr. Maki has held the positions of acting Provost and Vice president of Academic Affairs, Vice Provost of Student Academic Success, dean of the Colleges of Professional Studies and Health and Human Services (CSUDH), acting dean of the College of Health and Human Services at CSU Los Angeles and assistant professor in the Department of Social Welfare at UCLA. 

As acting Provost, Dr. Maki provided academic and strategic leadership for CSUDH’s five academic colleges which served over fifteen thousand students.

Go For Broke – https://goforbroke.org/

Achieving the Impossible Dream – https://bit.ly/3H36KIm
Thank you to Tobacco Free Adagio Health and UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!

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