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APIA Groups Take Lead in Post-Attack Efforts

Human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama speaks at the Japantown Peace gathering.

By Neela Banerjee

Barely two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Asian Pacific Islander American organizations in the Bay Area have been leaders in the organization of remembrance, peace and prayer vigils, along with raising funds for the relief effort.

Under the Peace Pagoda

On Sept. 20, Nosei Network — a group of “socially conscious, progressive Japanese Americans and Japanese national youth and adults dedicated to the creation of safe spaces and bringing about political change” — organized a peace gathering in San Francisco’s Japantown. Nosei Network was founded in 1999 by four social justice and cultural activists who wanted to organize around “a concept that breaks the issei-nisei-sansei paradigm and creates a process for building an inclusive community vision.”

Attended by some 350 people, the peace gathering brought together many different generations of the Japanese American community with other concerned APIAs and Middle Easterners. Organized in just four days, Nosei Network co-founder Kim Miyoshi brought together several members, on the Saturday before the gathering, to process the recent tragedy and talk about the legacy of internment.

“I had been hearing on the radio and in different contexts, the Japanese American experience during World War II being referred to many times, but never by Japanese Americans,” Miyoshi said. “It made me question where our voice was.”

Miyoshi felt that they did not have the luxury of time to speak out in solidarity with communities who were being targeted by hate crimes in the United States. In just four days, Nosei Network was able to bring together ex-internees, South Asian American progressives and Middle Eastern activists to speak out against both internal and external retaliations.

Above: Sunila and Vasvdev Fondekar of San Jose hand out flags and collect donations at the interfaith prayer ceremony. Left: Human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama speaks at the Japantown Peace gathering.

“When this happened, I was looking for moral leadership, some kind of guidance to lead me through these times but I couldn’t find any,” Miyoshi said. “I read Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi — but they are gone.”

Tireless civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama spoke out not only against the backlash against South Asians and Arab Americans but also against the legacy of the United States’ foreign policy, reciting a list that included American involvement in Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Panama, Vietnam and Japan. Kochiyama, who was interned during World War II, said that Japanese Americans must remember Pearl Harbor.

“They say that the first casualty in war is truth,” Kochiyama said. “We must not be deaf, dumb and blind to what the Arab world has suffered at the hands of America.”

Kochiyama also said that as Japanese Americans, the community must recognize that Japan is also an imperialist country.

“Our fight must be to stop war, racism and the dehumanization of society,” she said.

Palestinian American Suleman Ghali spoke about his experience growing up in war-torn Lebanon, telling the crowd that war is not the answer.

“Earth — such a tiny piece of property — and we’re all killing ourselves over control of it,” he said sadly.

Collective Prayer

The American India Foundation (AIF) brought together some 1,500 people and leaders of six different religions for a collective prayer ceremony on Sunday in San Jose. AIF, which focuses on providing resources to India and developing the Indian American community here, came together with numerous South Asian organizations in the Bay Area and pledged to raise over $1 million for the relief effort.

AIF program director Manjula Singh said the candlelight vigil, held in Playa de Caesar Chavez in downtown San Jose, was organized in just one week.

“This was to show our solidarity,” Gupta said. “We are also hurting and grieving as a community.”

Along with the religious leaders, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, Milpitas’ Mayor Henry Manayan and Fremont’s Mayor Gus Morrision were in attendance.

“Amongst uncertainty and fear, we are certain of one thing,” AIF president Lata Krishnan said. “We are united as Americans.”

Brown gave a rousing speech where he spoke out against the terrorists who he claimed were not just attacking our country, but “the way of democracy.” Brown’s patriotic message set hundreds of flags waving in the twilight as planes flew by overhead to land in the nearby San Jose International Airport.

Religious leaders from the Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian communities all offered a prayer, then the entire crowd lit their candles and reached out to touch the person on their left as a sign of solidarity.

The AIF is organizing a Mahatma Gandhi Walk-a-thon on Sunday, October 14th in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to raise money for relief efforts. For more information go to www.aifoundation.org.