The Venice Japanese American Monument Memorial Committee (VJAMM Committee) is hosting their annual fundraiser and memorial on Thursday, April 17 with a ceremony at the monument near Lincoln and Venice followed by a charity dinner at Hama Sushi.
The in-person memorial is from 11am–12:30pm on the corner of Lincoln and Venice Blvd. The monument was constructed in 2017 to honor the many Japanese-American families who were forced into internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1947. It is over 9 feet tall and has different descriptions of the deportations that took place on all sides of it. It’s placed exactly where the bus stop was that took Japanese Americans to the internment camps.
“The VJAMM's obelisk shape was copied from the white obelisk in the Manzanar Cemetery, erected in 1943 by Manzanar incarcees themselves, from funds collected by the Japanese Americans imprisoned at Manzanar,” said Phyllis Hayashibara, a VJAMM Committee member. “The three characters on the Manzanar white obelisk spell ‘I REI TO’ which means, Tower to Console the Dead. The VJAMM Committee wanted to echo the obelisk, but in solid black granite, as a reminder to those still living, that this history of discrimination must not be forgotten, or it will certainly be repeated.”
The VJAMM Committee has been raising money for the memorial since 2010, and since the statue was erected has evolved to using the fundraiser money for three pathways: the Arnold Maeda Manzanar Pilgrimage Grant, the upkeep of the monument, and the outreach to promote the monument.
The Arnold Maeda Manzanar Pilgrimage Grant is where most of the funds go–students can apply to the Grant and be awarded a three day, two night stay in Lone Pine for the 56-year-old Manzanar Pilgrimage. Manzanar was an internment camp, and is now a historical site to honor the Japanese Americans who were relocated there.
Arnold Maeda was a member of the VJAMM Committee who helped fund the monument. He was 15 years old when his family was deported to the Manzanar camp, and has a quote on the monument that reads:
“Instead of being worried about where we were going, I was obsessed with the fact that I had parted with my constant companion, my pet dog, Boy. For a fifteen-year-old, that was unforgettably traumatic.”
The recipients of the Grant this year are Jennifer Yamashita and Natalie Tokita for their essays on Maeda and the impact of his legacy. Both women are Japanese American students at UCLA and are aiding the Manzanar Committee with the preparations for the pilgrimage this year. Yamashita created a website to spread awareness about the difficulty that Japanese Americans went through during the deportations. Tokita committed her essay to her own family’s history in relation to Maeda’s, and continuously writes about the Japanese American experience in UCLA’s magazine.
The Grant goes out to students to encourage them to continue activism and awareness in social issues.
“We hope these students will be inspired by Arnold Maeda, and go on to their own activism, so that no one will forget what happened to persons of Japanese ancestry in the US, and so that they will recognize unjust application of the powers of government when they hear and see it,” said Hayashibara.
Following the memorial, Hama Sushi will hold their annual fundraiser in support of the organization. Customers can order anything on the menu and the restaurant will donate 10% for educational outreach including maintenance of the monument.
Hayashibara says the event is so important each year because of the need to remind people of the unconstitutional actions the government took against Japanese Americans during WWII so that it can’t happen again. This year, she’s especially reminded of those actions because the Trump administration is using those very laws that were enacted for the JA deportations to deport citizens who have not been proven guilty.
“More outrage will be voiced … Invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in 2025, when the US is NOT at war, which is a condition of the Act; and its use against ALLEGED gang members without due process at all reminds us that the JA forced removal and incarceration could still be ordered again by Executive Order as it was on February 19, 1942 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” she said. “We must all know and exercise our constitutional rights, and challenge any government effort to ‘perpetrate an injustice against any group based solely on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, race or religion’ (from the VJAMM text).”
To participate in the fundraiser call Hama Sushi at 310-396-8783 or visit them online at hamasushi.com/menus
