【Report 】

The Japanese American Leadership Symposium

Towards Common Ground

Connecting Diverse Voices
for the Future
3:00 – 5:30 pm,
March 10, 2013 (Sunday)
CORASSE Fukushima

Organized by: The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP)
Co-Organized by: U.S.-Japan Council (USJC), Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization (FURE)
Supported by: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fukushima Prefecture, U.S. Embassy, Tokyo,
Fukushima International Association, NHK Fukushima

Introduction

Co-sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S.-Japan
Council (USJC), the Japanese American Leadership Delegation Program(JALD) has been held every year since 2000 for the purpose of promoting mutual understanding and deepening interaction between Japanese American
society and Japan. As part of this program, the Japan Foundation Center for
Global Partnership (CGP) has held an annual symposium since 2003, focusing
on a different theme every year. With the strong support of USJC, the program’s American organizer, we were able to hold a symposium in Fukushima this year, two years after the earthquake. This report is a compilation of
the presentations and discussions from the symposium.
Japanese Americans in the U.S. have a diverse history and background. The
majority are descendants of Japanese who left their homeland during the
Meiji and the Taisho Era (1868-1924). They built up new communities on thebasis of the shared hardships and discrimination they faced in a new environment and the ordeal of life in internment camps during World War II. Despite
the hardships encountered, the Japanese American community has survived
and thrived, and continues to this day to diversify and develop. How should
this community honor the traditions that have been passed down to them,and strengthen their ties to their homeland while developing a sense of identity within their always-developing communities?
Two years have passed since the earthquake in Japan. The perceptions andreactions to the earthquake vary by age and position, with some people wanting to return to their homes as soon as possible, while others wanting to begin new lives in a new town. What do we need to rebuild communities while
respecting individual voices? This symposium’s goal was to address this question and consider it together by superimposing current conditions in Fukushima and the Japanese American community.
The most important step is to attempt to understand the current situation.
In the symposium’s opening address, Vice Governor Murata asked that we all
visit Fukushima in person and experience it ourselves. We earnestly hopethat this symposium will serve as an opportunity for the ties between Japan,
and Fukushima prefecture in particular, and America to deepen beyond ournational borders.

Program

15:00-15:10

Opening remarks:
Eiji Taguchi, Executive Vice President of the Japan Foundation
Fumio Murata, Vice Governor of Fukushima Prefecture

15:10-16:15

Part 1: Presentations “Voices from Japanese Americans”
Video screening
Introduction: Irene Hirano Inouye
Presentations: Emily Murase, Marion Friebus-Flaman, Kelly Ogilvie

16:25-17:30

Part 2: Panel Discussion “Voices from Fukushima”

Introduction: David Slater
Presentation: Mitsuo Yamakawa
Discussion
2

Profiles

Marion Friebus-Flaman
Marion Friebus-Flaman is the principal of Thomas Dooley Elementary School in the Chicago
suburbs. This school has a program in which half the children are native speakers of Japaneseand half are native speakers of English, and she was involved in planning and developing thistwo-way immersion education program, which is the first of its kind in the U.S. She holds a
B.A. in English from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, an M.A. in TESL from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.S. in Educational Administration from Northern Illinois University and a PhD. in Education from Capella University. She spent the first six
years of her life in Yokohama, and also spent six years as a foreign lecturer at two Japanesenational universities. Her maternal grandfather comes from Fukushima and her maternal
grandmother comes from Kumamoto.

Emily Murase
Emily Murase serves as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Department
on the Status of Women. She holds an A.B. in modern Japanese history from Bryn
Mawr College, a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies at UC San Diego, and a Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford. She has worked for AT&T Japan in Tokyo, the White House, and International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. (In 2010, she became
the first Japanese American to serve on the San Francisco Board of Education.)
In 2009, she was recognized for her contributions to the women’s community by
the Democratic Women’s Forum. She comes from Yamaguchi on the paternalside and from Aomori on her maternal side.

Kelly Ogilvie
Kelly Ogilvie received a B.A. in Humanities and International Business from Seattle University. He is the founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of
Quemulus, Inc., an“e-wallet”application. He is also founding partner of Social
Milli, LLC, a social media consultancy that advices small and medium-sized businesses on social media strategy. Previously, Mr. Ogilvie was founder, CEO andPresident of Blue Marble Biomaterials. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Extraordinary Futures, an NPO that targets young people who did
not receive an adequate arts education, and serves on the External Advisory
Board of Washington State University’s Center for Environmental Research Education and Research.

Mitsuo Yamakawa
Mitsuo Yamakawa was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1947. He became a professor in the Facultyof Economics at Fukushima University in 1990 with a specialty in economic geography, andcurrently serves as Special Advisor to the President and a professor of Economics and Business Administration. He is an official member of the Science Council of Japan and Head Director of Fukushima International Association. Professor Yamakawa assumed the position of Director of Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization, a center established at Fukushima
University, and is also a member of the Fukushima Prefecture Reconstruction Vision Committee, and works to revitalize Fukushima by overseeing numerous local government boards
tasked with drafting reconstruction plans. Professor Yamakawa emphasizes raw data gatheredin the field when approaching local problems.

David SlaterDavid H. Slater was born in 1960. He earned a PhD. from the University of Chicago and joined Sophia University in 1997. His research primarily focuses on the
youth and education, capitalism and changes in Japan’s labor market during the
economic recession. In March 2011, he began volunteering in the areas in eastern Japan affected by the earthquake by passing out blankets and removing
mud. In addition to publications related to the earthquake, he is currently directing the“Tohoku Voices”project, which will produce a video archive of narratives of local residents, hundreds of hours of which have already been recorded.

Irene Hirano Inouye
Irene Hirano Inouye earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Public Administration from the University of Southern California, and has extensive experience in non-profit administration, community education and public affairs with
culturally diverse communities nationwide. She is President of the U.S.-Japan
Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to building relationships between
the U.S. and Japan. She also served as Chair and Trustee of the Ford Foundation, Trustee of the Kresge Foundation and other important posts. She visits Japan every year to serve as U.S. coordinator for the JALD program. She comesfrom Fukuoka on her paternal side and Tokyo on her maternal side.
※Roles and positions are current as of March 2013.

3

Part 1. Presentations by Japanese Americans

Transform turning points into adventures
4

Home, Community, Change:
What Will Your Adventure Be?
◉Emily Murase
Home:
What is family?
My grandparents were from Yamaguchi
Prefecture and came to America in the early
1900s. After much hard work as sharecroppers, they were finally able to purchase agrape farm in California. However, when
World War II started, Japanese Americans
were forced to go to desert prison camps.
My father’s family had to abandon the grape
farm they had worked so hard for and leave
with only what they could carry. First they
were sent to live in horse stables. These
were difficult times, but my father was oneof the few lucky ones who were able to continue his college education on the East Coastand in 1952, he got the chance to study at
Osaka University as a Fulbright Scholar.
After my mother graduated from university
in Japan, she received a scholarship to study
in the U.S. and studied social work. My father and mother married in 1965, and I
grew up with my brother and sister in San
Francisco.
My family history of immigration, hard
work overcoming poverty, and the challenges to overcome the wartime incarceration isshared by many Japanese Americans. During the war, Japanese Americans wereforced to create a sense of home in smelly
horse stables and barren desert prisons.
And yet, through strong families and communities, they were successful.
Community:
What role does community play?
During World War II, Japanese Americans
had to cope not only with the hostile environment of the prison camps, but were also
placed in a difficult place between their two
countries, Japan and America. In creating a
sense of community in the barren prison

camps, they found comfort in Japanese traditions. By celebrating the Obon Festival
and holding Sumo fights, they managed tosustain their communities even in the cold
and miserable prison camps. This is how
Japanese traditions were handed down, andeven now my own daughter participates in
the Obon Festival held in San Francisco, oneof the highlights of the summer. And, at the
Rosa Parks Elementary School, where myparents helped launch a Japanese bilingualand bicultural program, the students learn
Japanese and Japanese culture, and hold an
Undokai each fall.
Change and adventure:
What will your adventure be?
The war robbed Japanese Americans of
their homes, farms, and businesses. Just likethe people who lost so much in the Great
East Japan Earthquake, they had to search
for new ways to support themselves. Confronting a difficult environment and adapting to it are difficult challenges. However, inspiration can be found among family bonds
and community ties. And we can transformturning points in our lives into new adventures.

Part 1. Presentations by Japanese Americans◉Marion Friebus-Flaman
Experiences and Identity
My grandfather had a farm in Fukushima,
so my connection to Japan ties me directly
to Fukushima. My childhood in Japan wasjust like that of the children around me, andalthough I was Japanese American, I
thought of myself as Japanese. When I
moved to America later, my life changed toa more American style. I began to think ofmyself as an American when I became immersed in American culture. In other words,
my identity changed as a result of experience and culture.
Building common groundI always felt a connection to Japan because
that’s where I spent my early years, so as I
grew up, I looked for opportunities to interact with the Japanese culture. I looked for a
job that would give me the opportunity toteach English to Japanese students. Afterteaching English at a Japanese university, I
returned to America and got a job teaching
English to Japanese children who came toAmerica because their fathers’jobs sent
them to America. While I was supportingthese students and families as they integrated into the American culture, I identified
myself as Japanese American for the firsttime because I thought of myself as a bridge
between Japan and America. Then I was involved in planning and developing a Japanese-English dual language program at
Thomas Dooley Elementary School. At thattime, I thought that this was the perfect
way to be a bridge between the two cultures. However, now that the program is 12
years old, I have come to realize that I’m
not the bridge; I’m actually a builder. I am
building a common ground between the Japanese culture and the American culture in
the setting of this school. About half of thestudents come into the program and only
speak English, and about half come in andthey only speak Japanese. Our goal is thatby the time they finish sixth grade, they will
be bilingual and bicultural. I believe we havebeen successful so far.
Broadening our perspectives
These experiences have also taught methat it’s impossible to really learn anotherlanguage without learning the culture. So
we not only teach our students the Japanese
language, but also expose them to Japaneseculture. Culture and language are closely
linked. Just because you have a bridge does
not mean that you have two-way understanding. You can only understand each other once you have common ground. People
share thoughts and culture within theircommunities. By building common groundthrough individual experiences, different
communities can understand each other andbroaden their perspectives. As a result, diversity is accepted, and issues can be resolved from a wide range of perspectives.
If programs like the one we have at Thomas Dooley Elementary can be applied broadly, schools will be transformed into moreglobal places. I hope that this common
ground can be extended to create connections between Japan and America.

Becoming a society that embraces diversity

Building Common Ground5

Part 1. Presentations by Japanese Americans

Future built by the younger generation
6

Social Entrepreneurship andthe Hero Generation◉Kelly Ogilvie
America’s diversity
My mother is Japanese, but my father is a
mix of Filipino, German French and Spanish.
I am fourth-generation Japanese American,
but a look at my family tree shows how diverse my background is. This is a perfect illustration of what America is all about. My
track record founding several companies
was inspired by my father, who was an entrepreneur, but at the same time I experienced the America that values entrepreneurship and independence.
Social entrepreneurship
One theme I would like to mention is social
entrepreneurship, which is currently attracting a lot of attention.“Social”does not meansocial media like Facebook, but rather it refers to social ventures that find issues in the
middle of society and strive to resolve theseissues“for society”using entrepreneurial
methods. Humans face a wide range of problems, starting with environmental problems,
and technology holds great potential for thesocial entrepreneurs who are working to resolve these problems. For example, the internet linked people together at an unprecedented speed. What is important is to think
about what comes next. This is what social
ventures are all about.
Social entrepreneurship is not just for business. Social entrepreneurs exist in government and non-profits, and some very interesting initiatives are popping up in the U.S.
and all across the world through the inter-

section of these different sectors. What thismovement really needs is skilled humancapital, and investments in science, technology and education. History shows that thoseeconomies that invest in science and technology are the ones that plant the seeds for
future economic prosperity.
Generation Y
Generation Y are the people that are between the ages of 10 and 35. Generation Y
grew up on the internet. Statistics tell usthat this generation feels personally responsible for making a difference in the worldand believe that caring for the environmentis their responsibility. This generation has
the potential to address the issues that ourhuman species face, and that is why I am
calling this the Hero Generation. Fukushima
experienced a devastating earthquake, but
we should see this is an opportunity topurge what we don’t need and make way
for new life. When a forest burns and leaves
ashes behind, new life emerges from thoseashes. I hope that everyone in Fukushima
can bring their own independent awarenessso that we can consider ways to change theworld together. And so this final quotecomes from Eleanor Roosevelt:“The future
belongs to those who believe in the beautyof their dreams.”

Part 2. Panel Discussion

Messages for Fukushima
Following the presentations, the three panelists discussed the ways in which their experiences
and ideas can be brought back to Fukushima.
Emily Murase: Just as JapaneseAmericans have sustained theircommunities by sharing traditions, I would like to emphasizethat traditions are indispensable
for communities. I know that thepeople of Fukushima face someserious challenges because they
are dispersed, but I would encourage the community to think abouta few signature traditions thatwill bring people together.
Marion Friebus-Flaman: One of thethings I’
ve noticed is that bringing people of different cultures together really stretches the mindsof children to a surprising degree,
and possibilities expand by incorporating the thoughts of people
from different cultures. I believethat finding different ways ofsolving problems from multiple
perspectives could really help Fukushima solve its problems as
well. Oliver Wendell Holmes said,“A mind that is stretched by a

new experience can never goback to its original dimensions.”
Kelly Ogilvie: Small businesses are
responsible for most of the economic and job growth over the
past 40 years in the U.S. The U.S.
government has an agency called
the Small Business Administration that helps support businesses, and I think that there might
be an opportunity for somethingsimilar here in Fukushima. A
partnership with businesses, thegovernment, NPOs and small- andmedium-sized companies could
show the world how to overcome
crises.
Irene Hirano Inouye: The groups
that participated in this year’s
program all have different backgrounds, but when they began to
get to know each other, theyfound connections. So the firststep“towards common ground”isto tell our own stories. I hope that
this symposium became an oppor-

tunity to listen to each other’sstories and share our histories. I
hope that this kind of opportunity
continues so that we can continue
to have a common thread and acommon tie that enables us tofind ways to work together.

7

Part 2. Panel Discussion

Sharing Voices

Compiling voices from the earthquake◉David Slater
I think one of the primary messages fromthe first half of the program is that people
in America and indeed around the world really care about Tohoku and Fukushima. I’ve
lived in Japan for about 20 years and teachat a Japanese university. Just like other Japanese, I experienced the earthquake on 3.11
and have also participated in volunteer activities. My students began wondering
whether it was really appropriate to be inclass when there’s so much work to bedone, and this encouraged me to begin archiving the voices of people in Tohoku as an
ethnographer, not merely gathering partial
information via the media. We also heard
harsh opinions that recovery plans based on
numbers and data are remote from the feelings of the people who live there. I think it
is important to figure out what is reallyneeded by listing to the voices of the local

people and deepening community ties, and I
was forced to recognize that this takes time.
I also got to know young people who take apositive attitude and want to look at theearthquake from a multi-faceted perspective
and transform it into a major turning point.
I hope that we collecting these narratives
and sharing them can help to support thesepeople.

Using community-based activities as astarting point◉Mitsuo Yamakawa

Fukushima Future Center for Regional
Revitalization
In April 2011, we had the idea to establish
the Fukushima Future Center for Regional
Revitalization at Fukushima University. The
goal was to support Fukushima Prefecture,
which had been severely damaged by theearthquake, and particularly the victims of
the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant accident, in our role as a university. Universities
engage in scientific studies and research at
normal times, but studies and research per
se is not helpful at times of crisis, especially8

when it comes to the problem of radiation
contamination. We are a support center, nota research center, because we do not want tojust provide objective, scientific data, but instead figure out how to help people recoverin this region utilizing those scientific facts.
Immediately after the earthquake, the Center’s members from the Department of Science and Engineering posted a map of radiation contamination on our website before
SPEEDI information was even available. The
university also provided its buildings as anevacuation site. We started out with student
volunteer activities to collect cardboard boxes to make up walls to provide a minimumof privacy there. Following the first stage ofimmediate evacuation, temporary housingsare constructed. But those temporary houses are, even if a large amount of money isspent on them, usually dismantled within a
few years. If more funding is then used tobuild public housing from scratch, there
may be ways of effectively utilizing temporary housing, such as recombining the removed temporary houses into public hous-Part 2. Panel Discussion

the decision to leave Fukushima after careful consideration and discussion with theirfamilies, rather than evacuating immediately
after the earthquake. Moreover, statistics revealed gaps in responses by age groups, positions, and even between couples, about
whether they would come back to Fukushima to live, with 60% of all the respondents
no longer feeling proud of Fukushima.
Reconstruction cannot just be carried out
by government and NPOs. The community
must also spearhead efforts. I think it is important to create a place where people canshare worries and discuss together so thatthey can bridge the gap in perception between evacuees outside of the prefecture
and those living in the prefecture, and relieve the stress of living in temporary housing. I believe that we should start rebuilding
our identities and pride by recognizing different perceptions and diverse values amongpeople. International exchange could also be
helpful in the process to broaden our perspective.

Creating a place for dialogue

ings. From my own experience, I’
ve learned
that we should not just provide support in a
step-by-step manner, but rather it should bein an ongoing, continuous manner.
What is community?
A key feature of nuclear disasters was thatmany families and communities were divided and dispersed as a result of voluntaryevacuation. From now on, the process oftransferring from temporary housing to public housing will shed light upon the questionof what it means to build a new“out-oftown”community somewhere other thanone’s own hometown, and how ties between
hometowns and people should be perceived
and handled. At the same time, we should
not forget that everyone has different views
on nuclear power and the future prospects.
In conceiving the rebuilding plan for Fukushima, therefore, the process of creating andsharing the future vision becomes extremely
important. In usual cases, policies are simply
devised by the government and are subsequently accepted by the local bodies. Thistime, however, we faced the huge problemof radiation affecting the lives of each one ofus and it was impossible to conceive any
policy without having exhaustive discussions
among local communities. During those discussions, I gave a thought to how the world
would see Fukushima. Some members had
actually been exposed to radiation. We took
our time as much as possible in these discussions, and, as a result, we were able toagree on the first vision for reconstruction
to be“a society that does not rely on nuclear power.”This experience provided mewith an invaluable opportunity to thinkagain about what democracy means for Fukushima.
Creating a forum for dialogue
There were other serious problems when
thinking about how to rebuild Fukushima.
Interviews with people who evacuated outside of Fukushima showed that they made9Part 2. Panel Discussion

Creating a place for dialogue
In closing, the panelists, Professor Yamakawa and the audience held a discussion.
What it means to “know thepresent situation”
Slater: The question is how do we
carry out research and provide
support. The objective of the research is to provide support, but
it is important to not only compile
data, but figure out from there
what the larger picture is. We
cannot provide support without
the kind of data that Professor
Yamakawa has. In other words,
it’s important to have a larger
picture so that we can know whatwe’
re really doing.
Gap between “safety” and“security”
Friebus-Flaman: One of the commonalities between the Fukushima experience and the JapaneseAmerican experience is the lossof faith in the government.

10

Yamakawa: Three words which
symbolizes the situation after the
nuclear disaster in Fukushima are:“unexpected,”“not immediately,”
and“provisional value.”Thosewords completely severed thescientific“safety”which government officials provided, from the“security”which people wanted
most to be reassured, and exacerbated our distrust for the government and the academics. We
want the government to not justcollect data, but to actually cometo Fukushima. The creation of theReconstruction Agency shouldhave integrated all of the contact
points, but instead it merely increased occasions we had to explain our situations. The Reconstruction Agency should function
as a single organization, I think.

Creating a structure to utilize
NPOs’ strengths
Question 1: The organization I
work with, Arlington Partnershipfor Children, Youth and Families,is also looking at creating ongoingcollaborations between the government, the schools and community organizations. I was wondering to what extent you have been
doing this in Fukushima to beable to have more formalized
partnerships and collaborations,and to be able to bring in businesses into these organizations
and other nonprofits?
Yamakawa: Soon after the earthquake, there were many offers forsupport from companies andNPOs related to radiation contamination, but recently there
have been more inquiries concerning the support for children.
There is a perception gap not
only between fathers and mothers, but also between mothers
and children. There are casesthat mothers thought they were
evacuating for the sake of theirchildren, but the children did notwant to be separated from theirfriends, which made mothers feeleven more isolated. The issue ofmental health in local communities like this is very important,but I must say it is still difficult tocarry out effective activities as
NPOs are not fully developed in
Fukushima. Thus, it is pertinent
to consider how to foster local
NPOs and to collaborate withNPOs from outside the prefecture
first. Furthermore, even if theirobjectives are the same, NPOs do
not necessarily take the same approach. So we have to train coordinators who can liaise with thoseNPOs. There is an urgent need to
institutionalize a mechanism inwhich interested organizations
can exercise their full potential, I
think.

Part 2. Panel Discussion

Parallels between 3.11 and 9.11
Question 2: After 9.11, JapaneseAmericans spoke out about theharassment and discriminationthat Arab Americans were experiencing. In the case of this earthquake, we are in this absurd situation in which we do not know
who to be mad at, and also we do
not know where to look to find an
objective third-party to play a role
like the Japanese Americans did
with 9.11. So I am wondering how
to bring together all the different
voices and how we should act.
Murase: Even though there’s noobvious enemy, like there was
supposedly in the 9.11 attack, I
think one of the questions for theJapanese people is the viability ofcontinued nuclear power.
Slater: I would also echo that.
There are some people who see
as the enemy the nuclear industry. The tsunami and the nuclear
meltdown are almost two different
kinds of disasters, and the dynamics of feeling can be quite different
in them. One activist said that thereason we call it 3.11 is because it
sounds like 9.11, and in 9.11 there
is a feeling that America could
have done better in response tothat tragedy, so calling the earthquake 3.11 reminds us that Japan
could do better in that tragedy.
Aspiring to a future that ties
people together
Question 3: I lived close to the nuclear plant where the accident occurred. In response to the radia-

tion contamination after theearthquake, the U.S. government
instructed American citizens toevacuate from areas within 80kmof the nuclear plant. While America was issuing information atsuch an early stage, in Japan it
wasn’t even clear what the evacuation radius was and where andhow people should evacuate.
Yamakawa: In the case of thisearthquake, there is a question ofwhether it was a natural disasteror a man-made disaster. If it wasa natural disaster, people may
simply resign themselves to it.
But if it was a man-made disaster,
it may be deemed as government
responsibility to explain whatsteps they would take to address it. We have to take thesebackgrounds into consideration
when we think about what weneed to do and what Japan andthe U.S. can do together.
First, whatever debates we might
have, we will need thorough scientific investigations over thelong term. At the same time, it isvery important to make sure thatthose scientific facts meet theneeds of local people’s daily lives.
This is one of the goals of the Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization.
Second, expanding and deepening exchanges is the key here. I
think that Japan stopped learningfrom other countries at somestage in the past, as epitomizedby the phrase“Japan as No. 1,”
but now Japan must really reflect
on this head-on. We should takethis opportunity to remember
how important it is to learn theworld’
s wisdom with humility.
Third, I would like to stress theimportance of“connections”. Justlike the cherry trees that bloom
along the Potomac River, cherrytrees can symbolize the tie between Japan and the U.S. We canconsider a project with lasting
impact, such as planting cherrytrees in the areas hit by the tsunami to link together those areasthat were most affected. This
would send the message that wewill never forget this earthquake
and that we should always remember whenever the cherrytrees bloom.

11Conclusion

Irene Hirano Inouye
serving personal stories has become a vital
part of Japanese American society.
World War II played a major role in severingties between Japanese Americans and Japan.
As a result, the connections between Japaneseand Japanese Americans are complex. Japanese Americans understand the importance ofsharing one’s story in order to find common
ground as the first step to building enduring
people-to-people and country-to-country connections. To do so, it is essential that we share
our own experiences with other people. WhenJapanese Americans share their stories, they
do so in the hope that history will not be repeated. Fukushima was hurt in the earthquake
and continues to recover, but by speaking out,
we can learn the lessons. We can’t change thepast, but it is important to use the past to
make a better future.

The 2011 JALD was in Tokyo on March 11,
2011, when the Great East Japan Earthquake
struck. Two years later, the program was heldin Fukushima, which was very meaningful.
The delegates learned about the recovery efforts in Fukushima and were inspired by the
resilience and spirit of the people there. Every
visit while in Fukushima reflected the sentiment that people want to share their experiences with the world so that others can benefit
from lessons learned during the aftermath.
The issei (first-generation Japanese Americans) had to experience the internment camps
during World War II, and for a long time they
did not want to share their experiences. This
began to change through the efforts of the sansei, and in 1988 the Civil Liberties Act was
passed, which included token reparations paid
to Japanese Americans. The importance of pre-The Japanese American Leadership Delegation Program (JALD)
Japanese people began to immigrate to America in
the Meiji and the Taisho era (1868-1924), and currently number approximately 768,000 (2010, national
census). The census allows individuals to designate
more than one ethnic background, and the total
number of people that designated Japanese andJapanese plus another ethnic background totals
more than 1.3 million. Japanese Americans rebuild
their lives following the internment by the U.S. government during World War II, and subsequently thethird and fourth generations have made significant
contributions in politics, economics, education andother fields throughout the U.S.

Co-organized by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MOFA) and U.S.-Japan Council (USJC), a diverse
group of about 10 Japanese-Americans who areplaying leading roles in such fields as business, public organizations, education and arts are invited toJapan each year. During the one-week stay in Japan,
the group meets and exchanges information withJapanese leaders in government, political, businessand non-profit sectors. The group visits regional cities to exchange ideas with experts in various fields
and experience traditional Japanese culture. In 2013,10 participants were invited for eight days fromMarch 9-16.

◎The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP)The Center for Global Partnership (CGP) was established within the Japan Foundation in 1991 to promote collaboration
between the people of Japan, the U.S., and beyond in order to address issues of global concern. CGP organizes or provides funding for collaborative projects to strengthen the global U.S.-Japan partnership and to cultivate next generation of
public intellectuals to sustain this partnership. http://www.jpf.go.jp/cgp/◎U.S.- Japan Council (USJC)The U.S.-Japan Council (USJC) was founded in 2009 with the aim of strengthening U.S.-Japan relations by bringing together diverse leadership, engaging stakeholders and exploring issues that benefit communities, businesses and government entities on both sides of the Pacific. The Council promotes people-to-people relations by various means such as
hosting symposiums and forums, organizing various exchange programs and events to create networks between the twocountries. http://www.usjapancouncil.org◎Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization (FURE)

The Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization was established on April 13, 2011 within Fukushima University
with the aim of supporting the recovery effort of the people affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Through collaboration with Fukushima Prefecture and local councils, the Center contributes to devising a recovery plan and a future vision for new community in Fukushima.
http://fure.net.fukushima-u.ac.jp/

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