PD article on SSU President Judy Sakaki

[Shepherd]

SSU is fortunate to have Japanese American Judy Sakaki as its new president. She is much more student-oriented than the former president, who reigned when I taught there.

Following is an informative PD article in which President Sakaki speaks out about the internment camps, which most history books ignore. The family of her grandparents were among the over 100,000 people who were incarcerated there.

There is currently an art exhibit on her life at the SSU library, entitled “I am because…” It will be up through July. Be sure to read the last paragraph in the article, which is very touching. It is about time that the U.S. have its first Japanese-American as a university president.

There are some nice photos in today's PD and links to other articles about President Sakaki. It is good to have a president that we can all rally around.
Shepherd

SSU’s Sakaki shares her family’s past in WWII internment camps
MEG MCCONAHEY, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | April 9, 2017

Investiture of SSU President Judy Sakaki, April 20, Thur., 2 p.m.

Green Music Center at SSU, 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park.

Highlights: Mini-conference, ceremony, reception, evening concert.

Sakaki Life Exhibit: “I am because....” an exploration of the people and events who shaped Judy Sakaki, on display in the University Library Gallery during open hours through July 31.

For more information or free tickets to all events: Sonoma.edu/investiture, 707-664-3447.

Suppose you had one day to decide everything you would need to pack for a journey to an unknown destination for an undetermined length of time that could be months or even years.

Now suppose you have to cull down your possessions to only what will fit in one small, carry-on sized suitcase. What would you pack?

It’s a question Judy Sakaki likes to ask students as a metaphorical exercise in sifting out what is most essential in life, whether actual objects or less tangible things like personal character traits.

But the Sonoma State University President also uses it as a history lesson, an example of what 110,000 people went through in 1942 when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, ordering all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to be “relocated” to internment camps for the duration of World War II.

The term “internment camps” is slowly being recognized for what the camps really were — walled prisons surrounded by barbed wire patrolled by armed guards.

Sakaki has a visual for this lesson: a century-old suitcase covered with travel stickers that belonged to her grandfather. He packed his worldly goods in this bag when he set off from Japan for a new life in America a century ago. And when he received the order that he and his entire family would be rounded up within a day and sent off somewhere, he packed everything he could in that brittle leather bag.

That old suitcase and dozens of other articles and bits of ephemera have been gathered from boxes stored in Sakaki’s garage and put on display in the University Library Gallery. Together, they tell the back-story of the first Japanese-American woman in the country to head up a four-year college. It all begins with her roots as the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants; all four of her grandparents came from Japan in the early part of the 20th century.

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[gypsey]

I think it's great that you are sharing this article and also about Pres. Sakaki, but she is not the first Japanese American university president... in the 60's S.I. Hayakawa was president of SF State.

[Shepherd]

Thanks for this correction. I got that information from a previous PD article, which was indeed incorrect. The Canadian-born American S.I. Hayakawa was indeed a SF State president.

It saddens me that so few non European-Americans have been university presidents. It is yet another example of white skin privilege that has long ruled this country and is growing under the new national president. The discrimination against women as presidents is also worthy of note in our sexist society, since no female national presidents exist and few women have been promoted as presidents of universities and other institutions.

Former courageous Army Col. Ann Wright is an example of some women elevated to military leadership. She resigned her diplomatic post to protest American war-making and has continued fierce opposition to discrimination against women in the military and elsewhere.

I think it's great that you are sharing this article and also about Pres. Sakaki, but she is not the first Japanese American university president... in the 60's S.I. Hayakawa was president of SF State.

[jbox]

I think it's great that you are sharing this article and also about Pres. Sakaki, but she is not the first Japanese American university president... in the 60's S.I. Hayakawa was president of SF State.

Nicknamed "Sleeping Sam" for his favorite activity when he became a US senator.....His big claim to fame was beating up protesters at SF State.

[Shepherd]

Yes, that is also my main memory of Hayakawa--"beating up protestors." It is important to remember such historical events, especially as we head into a dark period of U.S. history, when many are likely to be "beaten up," especially people of color.

[rossmen]

I remember his biggest fame claim as, "we stole it fair and square", in reference to the panama canal. Regan was more responsible for beating protesters. And if he slept in the senate, at least someone was being responsible!

Nicknamed "Sleeping Sam" for his favorite activity when he became a US senator.....His big claim to fame was beating up protesters at SF State.