In keeping with the theme, a multimedia presentation featured highlights of the 20-year campaign for redress as well as the civil rights activities of both the JACL and NCRR organizations.

The struggle for justice is on going and never ending as evidenced by the case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee.  Alberta Lee, daughter of Dr. Wen Ho Lee was the keynote speaker at DOR 2001.  Dr. Lee was the scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory accused of espionage and mishandling documents by the FBI and U.S. Department of Energy.  He was fired from his job without a hearing, placed in solitary confinement for nine months, and forced to wear shackles when out of his cell.  Many Nikkei believed that his imprisonment, based largely on his ethnicity, paralleled the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.  His long imprisonment had a chilling effect on Asian American scientists and laboratory employees from other ethnic minorities.

The “Fighting Spirit Award” was presented to Alan Nishio, a long-time Asian American activist and former president of LTPRO and NCRR.  This award is given to individuals who have exhibited a strong commitment to the struggle for justice and civil rights.

There was special recognition of the many attorneys who had worked pro bono on behalf of Japanese Latin Americans and Japanese Americans denied redress despite their forcible relocation during World War II.

Congressman Xavier Becerra received a Campaign for Justice Special Presentation award.  Representative Becerra sponsored a bill, which was to provide for public education funding and redress for Latin Americans denied redress under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Mitchell T. Maki, Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of “Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress” was given the JACL Community Achievement Award.

The sponsoring groups served refreshments at the close of the event.