In memoriam: Jim Hirabayashi

Through the pioneering Center for Japanese American Studies in San Francisco in the 1970s, at the monthly lectures and workshops they sponsored at Pine Methodist Church in the outer Richmond District, Jim H. and Nancy Araki were among my first tutors in JA camp history. I looked forward to the flyers I’d receive in the mail each month. See this remembrance from Nancy at the Japanese American National Museum blog. Our condolences to Lane Hirabayashi and all the family.

In memoriam: Gloria Kubota

Gloria KubotaWe’re saddened to learn of the passing on April 26 of Gloria Kubota. Gloria was one of the most delightful people you’d ever want to meet, and she embodied the female perspective on the resistance of the Fair Play Committee documented in our film.

Gloira reminded us of the particular worries that forced expulsion heaped upon mothers like her, like having to bring canned milk and food for her young daughter on the long train ride to an American concentration camp in Wyoming. Once in camp, she was one of the few women to brave the scorn of other Nisei mothers by hosting her husband’s meetings of the nascent Fair Play Committee, and typing their bulletins onto mimeograph stencils. Gloria tells a funny story about her struggle with typing in an extended interview on Disc Two of our new DVD. You can read more about Gloria in her biography on our PBS.org site, and in the San Jose Mercury-News obit. After we finished the film Gloria stayed in touch, bringing my family fruit from her orchard in Saratoga. Our condolences to her extended family. She will be dearly missed.