Japanese American Community Foundation Grant
Friends of MInidoka received a $6,000 grant from the Japanese American Community Foundation for our 2024 project, Nisei Trials: 80 Years. This grant will help Friends of Minidoka to create a poster exhibit about the Japanese Americans who resisted the Selective Service Act while incarcerated at Minidoka, commemorating the 80th anniversary of their trials in Boise, Idaho.
We are deeply grateful to JACF for their support.
In addition to the Japanese American Community Foundation, Friends of Mindioka is grateful for the Civil Liberties Symposium at Boise State University, the Herrett Forum at the College of Southern Idaho, and The Idaho Humanities Council for their contributions to our project Nisei Trials: 80 Years.
Our other programmatic partners include the Idaho State Museum, The Japanese American Museum of Oregon, the Museum of Idaho, the College of Sourthern Idaho, and Boise State University’s School of Public Service.
About Nisei Trials: 80 Years
After forcibly removing Japanese Americans from the West Coast, the United States incarcerated them in concentration camps throughout the interior of the United State. In early 1944, the War Department issued draft notices for Japanese Americans, including those confined. Approximately thirty five refused to show up to their physicals, arguing that their rights as citizens were violated. Police arrested the draft resisters, and Federal Judge Chase Clark tried the men in a federal court in Boise, Idaho. The jury found thirty-seven men guilty and sentenced them to up to 3.5 years at McNeil Island Penitentiary.
Nisei Trials: 80 Years programming incorporates history, arts, and ethics related to the Japanese American resisters who sought to uphold democratic ideals through civil disobedience. The resisters were ostracized by others, including their own communities. The goal of Nisei Trials: 80 Years is to educate about the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans, the story of the Japanese American resisters and how they fought for American values through their actions, applying these lessons to the present day.
With funding from the Idaho Humanities Council, Friends of Minidoka is working to:
Stage Nisei Paradox, a play written by Jeffrey Thomson and retired U.S. Chief Magistrate Ron Bush about the Minidoka resisters;
Host a distinguished scholar lecture with historian Eric Mueller, author of Free to Die for Their Country, and Frank Abe, author and creator of Resisters; and
Create an exhibit about the resisters that poses essential questions about what is citizenship, how do we define patriotism, and issues we face today.
Dates, times, and locations will be announced soon for the September 2024 programming!