The DOR program’s theme “Resistance and Redress: Standing for Justice” honored the Fair Play Committee and all of the resistors of conscience for taking a principled and courageous stand in a time when cooperation was encouraged by the leaders of the Japanese American Citizens League.  For their refusal to report for induction into the army, 85 FPC members were convicted of evading the draft and were sentenced to three years in prison.  The leaders were sentenced to four years of detention.  They also faced decades-long ostracism from segments of the Japanese American community.

Honored at the DOR program were nine members of the FPC: Frank Emi, James Kado, Mits Koshiyama, Yosh Kuromiya, Toru Ino, Tom Oki, Teizo Matsumoto, Kei Yoshida and Ray Motonaga.  Emi, a leader of the FPC, accepted the award on behalf of all of the FPC members.

The DOR also focused on unfinished redress issues.  The Campaign for Justice continued to seek equitable reparations for Japanese Latin Americans who received only a fraction of the amount paid to Japanese American former inmates.  The audience was urged to contact President Clinton and their congressional representative to encourage resolution to this matter.

Talented young artists contributed musically to this day’s events.  Visiting Violette, featuring Lee Takasugi, Glenn Suravech, Daniel Groisman and Rich Lambert, performed an original work that blended R & B influences with Latin jazz and funk.  Also, the hereandnow, a national-touring Asian American theatre company performed.  Both groups shared the effects of the war-time incarceration on their generation.

After the DOR program, NCRR’s education committee along with Visual Communications presented copies of the 1981 federal commission hearing tapes to the community members that testified at the Los Angeles hearings.  A 30-minute video of selected commission testimonies was played as a poignant reminder of the tremendous emotional and economic toll of the unwarranted incarceration.