Senator Daniel
Inouye Leadership Award
2007 Recipients
COMMANDER TERRY S. HARA
GERALD "Jerry" T. FUKUI
 JAPANESE
AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM
2006 Recipients
Left:
Arika Yanka (presenter "Aurora Foundation"), Wendy
Anderson, Doug Erber (Japan America Society), Kellye Wallett,
Don Baker (Japan America Society), Margaret Makihara Cerrudo
(AT&T), Tim Dang (East West Players) and Dr. Gordon Sasaki
(Emcee)
2005 Recipients
Top Row Right: Kellye Wallet
(Emcee), Tom Selinske (Award Sponsor- Encore Awards) Middle
Row: Stone Ishimaru (Community Treasure Award), Kiyoshi
Takeda (Pasadena Nisei Seniors), Natsu Serisawa (Community
Treasure Award), Hitoshi Sameshima, Wendy Anderson (Cherry
Blossom Festival) Front Row - Aurora Foundation
- Founder & President Akiko Aagishi far right 2005 Senator
Daniel Inouye Leadership and Community Treasures Recipients
2004 Recipients
Front Left: Dr. Gordon
& Joanne Sasaki, Marian & Frank Sata, Ted Tajima,
Wendy Anderson, Kellye Wallett Back Left: Pasadena Mayor Bill
Bogtaard, John (representing Pasadena Buddhist Church), Hal
Suetsugu (representing San Fernando Valley Japanese American
Community & Cultural Center) and Pasadena Councilmember
Sid Tyler.
Not Pictured: Nora & James Mitsumori
Community Treasures
2006 Honorees
Actor Rodney Kageyama
Mary Nomura, The Songbird of Manzanar
2005 Honorees
Artist Natsu Serisawa
Photographer Stone Ishimaru
Teachers Making A Difference
Recipients
2007 Recipients
Honorees with emcee Ted Chen, KNBC co-anchor
and general assignment reporter for "Channel 4 News
REGGIE BERRY – Goals For Life, Norwalk/La Mirada School
District
EBONY BATISTE – 96th Street Elementary, Los Angeles
NANCY BULGIN – Temple City High School, Temple City
RAYCHELLE CADE – 42nd Street Elementary, Los Angeles
RALPH DURAN – San Miguel Avenue School, South Gate
SATOMI EZAKI – El Marino Language School, Culver City
IRENE GERMAINE - Nueva Vista Elementary, Bell
HARUYO GINNY KAJIWARA - Willard Elementary, Pasadena
CAPRICE LACY – Charles W. Barrett Elementary, Los Angeles
KATHRYN LOURY – Madison Elementary, Pasadena
JUN LUGUE – Muscatel Middle School, Rosemead
KIMIE MATSUMOTO – Southeast Japanese Language School
& Los Alamitos High
LEONARD NARUMI – Schurr High School, Montebello
CHAD PRADO – traveling music teacher at 4 elementary
schools, Pasadena
JENNIFER SASAI – Walker Junior High, La Palma
ROBERT SORTINO – Cleveland Elementary, Pasadena
DOTTIE STALLWORTH – 74th Street School & Gifted
Magnet
VERNITA SUTTON – Crenshaw High School, Los Angeles
ROSE TOYAMA – Martin Luther King Elementary, Los Angeles
SUZANNE YORK – Sierra Madre Elementary, Sierra Madre
2006 Recipients
Jackie Counts, South Junior High, Anaheim
Amy Froeschle, Webster Elementary, Pasadena
Barry Glick, Brightwood Elementary, Monterey P)ark
Cherise Hoskins, Eliot Middle School, Pasadena
Jon Imamura, San Marino High, San Marino
Dorothy Jean-Luis, Madison Elementary, Pasadena
Luis Lopez-Perez, Century High, Alhambra
Tim Mathos, Bell High, Bell
Dennis Nasitka, San Gabriel School District
Alex Schultz, Pasadena High, Pasadena
Dan Taguchi, Hamilton High, Los Angeles
Dr. Cathy Wei, Pasadena City College/USC
Tim Wright, Westridge School, Pasadena
2005 Recipients
Kathy Fujita, 2nd grade - Silver Spur Elementary
School , Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District
Eric Gothold, 7th/8th grade, Reading
Intervention, Art & Leadership – Washington Middle
School, Pasadena Unified School District
Maryellen Hagerman, 4th grade –
Noyes Elementary, Pasadena Unified School District
Cynthia Lake , Visual Arts – John
Muir High School , Pasadena Unified School District
Jane Ishida Sattari, Title 1 Resource
Teacher – Bursch Elementary, Baldwin Park Unified School
District
Also being honored for “Team Teaching”
are:
Elena Ruiz, Lilia Franco-Vasquez &
Annette Aghadjanian, 1st Grade – Linda Vista Elementary,
Pasadena Unified School District
George
Kiriyama Educational Excellence Award
 2007
Recipient
Alan Nishio
The George Kiriyama Educational Excellence Award committee
of the Cherry Blossom Festival Southern California has announced
Alan Nishio as their honoree for the 2007 award. Nishio will
be presented with the award, named in memory of the late George
Kiriyama, former Los Angeles School Board member, who passed
away in 2005, on Saturday, March 31, at ceremonies beginning
at 12:30 p.m. on the Sakura Stage, the main stage at the Japanese
American Cultural and Community Center Plaza in Little Tokyo.
Cherry Blossom Festival Southern California is a weekend event.
The members of the selection committee – Iku Kiriyama,
retired LAUSD teacher; Francis Nakano, Ph.D., retired LAUSD
deputy supt., and Kiyo Fukumoto, retired LAUSD principal –
were enthusiastic in their praise of Nishio as the ideal candidate
who most met the criteria for selection, notably in the areas
of “community involvement, educator, advocate of Asian
American issues and the Japanese American experience, and
respected and known in the community.”
Until his retirement in 2006, Alan Nishio served as the Associate
Vice President for Student Services at California State University,
Long Beach. In this capacity, he was responsible for a variety
of student service programs at CSULB. Nishio was also an associate
faculty member in the Department of Asian and Asian American
Studies.
Nishio’s long career in education since 1968 includes
Assistant Vice President, Student Services, and Director of
Student Development Programs, CSULB: Program Coordinator and
Lecturer, National Alternative Schools Program in the School
of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst;
Student/Community Projects Coordinator and Director, Asian
American Studies Center, UCLA; and Assistant Director, Center
for Social Action, University of Southern California.
Nishio has maintained a long involvement in community activities
and is the current President of the Board of the Little Tokyo
Service Center, a community development corporation in Los
Angeles. He is the immediate past President and member of
the Board of the Southern California Region of the National
Conference for Community and Justice, which also honored him
with their 2005 Humanitarian Award.
Nishio is also a member of the California Japanese American
Community Leadership Council and chairs the California Japantowns
Preservation Committee. He was actively involved in the successful
campaign to gain redress for Japanese Americans who were unjustly
incarcerated during World War II. As a founder and co-chair
of the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations (now called
Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress), Nishio, who was born
in the Manzanar concentration camp, played an instrumental
role in this historic campaign. As a result of his involvement
in community activities, Nishio has been recognized with a
number of awards, including the Long Beach NAACP Freedom Fund
Award, the League of United Latin American Citizens Educational
Services Award, and the LTSC Japanese American Community Services
Award.
2006 Recipient
ESTHER R. TAIRA
Esther Taira was a teacher for nearly 40 years before her
retirement in 2002. During that period, her professional experiences
dealt heavily with multicultural education, developing instructional
materials and planning or presenting workshops to teachers.
But also, in spite of retirement, she continues to be in demand
for her talent in writing and presenting instructional materials
and workshops.
Some of her impressive credits include:
In 1977, co-authoring the LAUSD District instructional publication,
A Teacher’s Guide for the Study of Roots, a book by
Alex Haley ; in 1981, researched and authored senior high
school social science elective, Humanities Approach to Culture
taught in eleven LAUSD high schools; from 1990-2001, developed
monthly multicultural instructional packets for distribution
to LAUSD teachers; in 1997, developed curriculum materials
for “U.S. Constitution and the Japanese American Internment”
workshop co-sponsored by LAUSD, The Smithsonian and UCLA;
in 1999, with a grant from the California Civil Liberties
Education Fund Project co-developed lessons for “Struggle
for Justice: Japanese American Internment” CD ROM; in
2002, co-developed the Teacher’s Guide for Farewell
to Manzanar to accompany 10,000 copies distributed through
California’s Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante’s initiative
co-sponsored by the California Teacher’s Association
and United Teachers Los Angeles; since 2004, developing instructional
materials for the Go For Broke Educational Foundation, World
War II veterans’ organization; in 2005, developed instructional
materials for the non-profit Community Advocates to increase
cultural understanding and fight prejudice and discrimination.
Taira’s inservices and workshops include:
In 1994, presented “Stranding the Asian American Experience
in the Curriculum” at the Korean American Educators
conference in Los Angeles; from 2000 to 2001, presented at
Go For Broke Educational Foundation teacher training workshops,
which were chaired by George Kiriyama; in 2003, planned and
co-presented the workshop “New Resources” to teacher
the Japanese American Experience at the National Educational
Assn Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus Conference; in 2004,
planned and presented 8-hour workshop, “Japanese American
Experience Curriculum” for the Anaheim High School District;
in 2002, 2003, 2005, planned and co-presented workshop on
Japanese American Concentration Camps at the California Teachers
Assn A Equity and Human Rights Conference; in 2002, 2003,
2005, planned and co-presented United Teachers Los Angeles
Manzanar Pilgrimage Workshop; in 2005, planned and co-presented
Go For Broke Educational Foundation 6-hour workshop introducing
“A Tradition of Honor” video/curriculum guide
and the Go For Broke website; in 2006, planned and co-presented
the Go For Broke Education 15-hour workshop for LAUSD.
In selecting Esther Taira as the first recipient of the George
Kiriyama Educational Excellence Award, the committee said,
“Esther’s nearly 4 decades of developing instructional
materials which promoted multicultural understanding, with
emphasis during the past 20 years on the Japanese American
Experience, follows George’s path in the same direction
when he was the first teacher to develop the course outline
back in the 1960s for America’s Intercultural Heritage
and later the first Asian American Studies curriculum for
LAUSD.” “Esther was the obvious choice, fulfilling
2 of the 3 criteria for the award,” said the committee,
composed of Francis Nakano, Ph.D., retired, former deputy
superintendent, LAUSD; Kiyo Fukumoto, retired, former principal
of Anatola Elementary School; and Iku Kiriyama, widow of George
Kiriyama, and a retired LAUSD teacher.
Community Treasures
2006 Recipients
 Rodney
Kageyama
Rodney has been an actor for 27 years. He began his
career in San Francisco as one of the original members of
the Asian American Theatre Company. He attended the American
Conservatory Theatre.
He came to Los Angeles in 1979 and became a member of the
prestigious East West Players where he has worked as an actor,
designer and director. Rodney has acted in many films and
TV shows. Karate Kid II & IV, Gung Ho, Quantum Leap and
Home Improvement, just to name a few. He can presently be
seen in the Disney Theme Park California Adventure, where
he is in the historical film called California Dream. As a
strong advocate for animal rescue, he has adopted many dogs
and presently lives with four pugs.
Rodney volunteers many hours to the Japanese Community taking
part in many of their projects such as emcee in many of their
functions and directing shows. He is currently a volunteer
at the Japanese American National Museum where he is a docent
and has started up the storytelling area for children coming
to visit the Museum.
One of Rodney’s present goals is to create and direct
Asian Fairytales for people of all ages. He also wants to
go back on the stage and perform.
 Mary
Nomura, "The Songbird of Manzanar"
Mary Kageyama was born in Los Angeles, California in 1925.
From her earliest recollections, Mary remembers being surrounded
by music. Her mother, a respected teacher of Shamisen, Odori
and classical voice, taught classes in their home and Mary
discovered at a very early age that she was destined to be
a performer.
At the tender age of four, Mary would mimic her mother’s
adult male students and perform classical ‘Gedayu’
pieces, much to everyone’s amazement. As she grew up,
she aspired to be a singer on the radio, and began vocal training
at the age of twelve. Her first public appearances were at
the Nisei Week Talent Shows at Yamato Hall in Little Tokyo,
downtown Los Angeles in 1940 and 1941.
But Mary’s singing career was interrupted by the wartime
internment when her family was relocated to Manzanar. For
the three years that she was in camp, Mary sang at weddings,
high school functions and camp-wide shows. It was at one of
those camp dances that she met her future husband, Shiro “Shi”
Nomura in 1944. And it was in camp that Mary fine-tuned her
craft and earned the nickname, ‘The Songbird of Manzanar’,
a sobriquet that she values to this day.
Since 2003, Mary has been touring as a guest vocalist with
The Grateful Crane Ensemble in their production, ‘Camp
Dance – The Music and the Memories’. She is grateful
for their support and encouragement and for the opportunity
to share the stage and the memories.
Enjoying her ‘Golden Years’, as she likes to
call them, Mary keeps busy with her flourishing side business
of designing custom furoshiki blouses and keeping tables on
her five children and twelve grandchildren. All that AND having
the opportunity to sing…Mary feels that life just couldn’t
be better!
|
|
