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CBS News
2 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Berkeley exhibit lists city's Japanese American residents who were taken during WWII
The Trump administration said it is deporting immigrants because they pose a threat to national security. That's the same reason given for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Now, a national monument in the form of a book that commemorates the internees is on display in Berkeley, and on Tuesday, a Bay Area man had a surprise encounter with his own past. The Berkeley Historical Society is confronting the city's troubled past when it comes to Japanese Americans with a special exhibit entitled "Roots, Removal and Resistance." It has identified the names of all 1,194 residents forcibly removed to internment camps following FDR's infamous Executive Order 9066. "Well, I think what it does is it allows us to reconstruct the lives of the 1,200 people who lived in Berkeley before this evacuation happened," said curator David Ushijima. "And it brings up a lot of memories, especially given the situation currently with immigrant families. When we see the names of people who were forcibly removed by an executive order, we see the possibility that it could happen again. And one of the things we're hoping is that it never happens again." But in some ways, it is happening again. And that is why "The Ireicho: Book of Names" is so haunting. The project, founded by USC professor Duncan Williams, seeks to list, in one book, the names of everyone who was ever confined in the Japanese internment camps across the country. "What happened back in WWII was that the federal government targeted a community, labeled it as a threat to national security, enforced a regime of forced removal and unjust incarceration on an entire community without any kind of due process," Professor Williams told a small crowd at the Historical Society Museum. "And we redress that by giving dignity and personhood to each individual, differentiated by their names." Family members of internees, including Berkeley's mayor, Adena Ishii, were invited to place a small remembrance stamp beneath the names of loved ones. The "Book of Names" is touring the country, being displayed in various cities and at every internment camp site. The objective is to eventually have a stamp under every single one of the 127,000 names in the book. But on Tuesday, there was one individual in the audience who had a more personal experience. Eizo Kobayashi is now 93, but he was 9 years old when his family was put on a bus from Berkeley to the Tanforan Assembly Center and later sent to the Topaz internment camp in Utah. KPIX's John Ramos has known Kobayashi for years, so it seemed strange when he saw Kobayashi and his daughter Tamiko begin placing stamps under parents and grandparents, and Kobayashi was able to mark his own name, as well. "I know. Geez, I'm part of history, John, " he said. The internment was an experience that has shaped his entire life. But despite the extreme injustice of it all, and maybe because of it, Kobayashi has never taken his citizenship for granted. "And we just want to show everyone that our loyalty and our devotion was here in the United States. Even through the war," he said. "But we have to keep it that way. We have to learn a lesson from the internment and realize that this should never happen again. An internment should never happen again." As Kobayashi marked name after name — father, mother, brothers — the memories of those times came flooding back. "What it does is, it lets everyone know that we survived," he said. "We all made it. And we're all proud to be here in America." It seems like something he would want to forget. But it is in remembering that the bitterness can be replaced with a sense of purpose to make sure it never happens again.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Chief justice delivers traditional toast to president at Historical Society dinner
Inside the Supreme Court's main corridor known as the Great Hall, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. rose from his chair Monday night to formally open the Historical Society's annual dinner with a traditional toast to the president. For decades, the sitting chief justice has delivered the same seven-word toast at the start of the society's dinners he attends no matter who is in the White House. 'To the president of the United States,' Roberts boomed, his glass raised as his voice echoed through the hall lined with monolithic marble columns that lead to the courtroom. Veterans of the Historical Society's annual gathering had heard it before and were unfazed. But the chief justice's toast — his only remarks of the evening — were somewhat jarring to the law firm summer associates, young lawyers and others in attendance for the first time. They exchanged quizzical looks after Roberts spoke, asking each other if the chief justice had really said what they heard. Roberts's salutation seemed discordant with his recent assertions of judicial independence and at a time when the Supreme Court is being pulled into a slew of challenges to President Donald Trump's initiatives to upend the federal bureaucracy, immigration policy and to dramatically expand presidential power. In March, the chief justice issued a stern statement rejecting Trump's calls for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled against the administration and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully condemned what she characterized as the relentless attacks, disregard and disparagement that judges around the country are facing on a daily basis. Carter G. Phillips, the president of the Historical Society who was a law clerk to the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, said Tuesday the toast from Roberts was all about tradition. Every formal meal Phillips has attended at the Supreme Court dating to 1978 has opened with the same tribute to the president. 'It's not a political statement. It's just respect for the office,' said Phillips, a Supreme Court litigator who attended the dinner and sat one table over from the chief justice. 'It would have been stranger not to do that; that would have been political.' The annual Gridiron Club and Foundation dinner for D.C.'s political and media elite has long closed with the same toast to the president. Trump did not attend this year and the evening instead ended with 'A toast to the First Amendment.' James Duff, executive director of the Historical Society, did not know the exact origins of the toast that he first learned about in the 1970s. When asked whether there was talk of updating the tribute, he said, 'it's just more consistent to stick with tradition.' Nichole Francis Reynolds, a new trustee with the society, observed first-time guests at Monday's dinner initially surprised when they heard the toast. The tradition 'underscores the profound respect accorded to the nation's highest office,' she wrote in an email. 'The Society's mission is to educate the public about the Supreme Court's rich history, including such time-honored customs.' 'These traditions remind us of the reverence for our constitutional framework and important relationship among our three co-equal branches of government,' she wrote. Burger created the nonprofit charity in 1974 to preserve and increase public awareness of the court's history through lectures, research, educational activities and court displays. The annual dinner for members, which cost $500 a ticket, celebrates the society's work and its donors, including large law firms and lawyers. In past years, several justices have attended the dinner or stopped by the reception held either in the court's elegant conference rooms or on the ground floor amid elaborate displays of the court's landmark cases. The dinner has also been the subject of controversy. Last year, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife Martha Ann Alito were secretly recorded by a liberal documentary filmmaker discussing the nation's political divide and ethics controversies surrounding the couple. The organization and its annual dinner were also the subject of a 2022 article in the New York Times detailing how donors have sought to use it to gain access to the justices. This year, none of the justices showed up for lobster rolls at the reception with several telling organizers they are crunched for time as they finish writing and preparing to announce around 30 remaining opinions before the court's term ends in late June. Roberts was the only one of his colleagues to attend the event in which guests dined on a choice of seared rockfish or thyme roasted sirloin served on blue-and-gold rimmed China. The Washington Post purchased a ticket and membership for a reporter to attend the dinner. The email confirming attendance at the society's meeting and dinner came with a bolded note prohibiting guests from using recording devices, cameras and cellphones — and a warning that using such devices 'will result in forfeiture' of membership.
3 days ago
North Dakota's historic sites will finally have toilets that flush
BISMARCK, N.D. -- Lawrence Welk didn't have a flush toilet where he grew up, but visitors to his childhood home in rural North Dakota now do. The bandleader's childhood family home marks the latest step in the State Historical Society of North Dakota's nearly completed goal of installing flush toilets at its dozen most popular, staffed sites. The most recent success, with the final three planned to be completed soon, came before the unveiling of a statue of Welk at a site that draws fans who recall 'The Lawrence Welk Show,' which ran on TV for decades starting in the 1950s. The North Dakota group's goal of replacing pit toilets with flush units may seem like a humble aspiration to some, but it's an important milestone, said Chris Dorfschmidt, a historic sites manager. 'A lot of our sites are kind of in the middle of nowhere. As I like to put it, history didn't happen where it's convenient,' he said. 'Because of that, if you've driven all the way out there, and that's the best we can do to kind of accommodate you, it's not the most pleasant experience.' North Dakota has 60 state historic sites — everything from museums and an underground nuclear launch facility to plaques mounted on boulders in fields. 'All of our sites, they really do help share a story of us as a state,' Dorfschmidt said. Two other facilities are slated to be finished by June 30: at Whitestone Hill, the site of a deadly 1863 attack by U.S. troops against Native Americans; and Fort Buford, a military fort near the Missouri-Yellowstone river confluence. The Historical Society also is eyeing the Chateau de Mores for flush toilets. The wealthy Marquis de Mores built the 26-room home in 1883 near Medora, a present-day tourist town in the state's scenic Badlands where a young President Theodore Roosevelt once roamed. Less-visited sites that aren't staffed likely won't receive a restroom upgrade, which costs about $150,000 each. At the Welk Homestead, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) southeast of Bismarck, workers matched the color scheme of the restroom to the house and farm buildings, including interior colors. 'We made it to fit into the site and harmonize with the site and just be a pleasant part of the experience,' Historic Sites Manager Rob Hanna said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
North Dakota's historic sites will finally have toilets that flush
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Lawrence Welk didn't have a flush toilet where he grew up, but visitors to his childhood home in rural North Dakota now do. The bandleader's childhood family home marks the latest step in the State Historical Society of North Dakota's nearly completed goal of installing flush toilets at its dozen most popular, staffed sites. The most recent success, with the final three planned to be completed soon, came before the unveiling of a statue of Welk at a site that draws fans who recall 'The Lawrence Welk Show,' which ran on TV for decades starting in the 1950s. The North Dakota group's goal of replacing pit toilets with flush units may seem like a humble aspiration to some, but it's an important milestone, said Chris Dorfschmidt, a historic sites manager. 'A lot of our sites are kind of in the middle of nowhere. As I like to put it, history didn't happen where it's convenient,' he said. 'Because of that, if you've driven all the way out there, and that's the best we can do to kind of accommodate you, it's not the most pleasant experience.' North Dakota has 60 state historic sites — everything from museums and an underground nuclear launch facility to plaques mounted on boulders in fields. 'All of our sites, they really do help share a story of us as a state,' Dorfschmidt said. Two other facilities are slated to be finished by June 30: at Whitestone Hill, the site of a deadly 1863 attack by U.S. troops against Native Americans; and Fort Buford, a military fort near the Missouri-Yellowstone river confluence. The Historical Society also is eyeing the Chateau de Mores for flush toilets. The wealthy Marquis de Mores built the 26-room home in 1883 near Medora, a present-day tourist town in the state's scenic Badlands where a young President Theodore Roosevelt once roamed. Less-visited sites that aren't staffed likely won't receive a restroom upgrade, which costs about $150,000 each. At the Welk Homestead, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) southeast of Bismarck, workers matched the color scheme of the restroom to the house and farm buildings, including interior colors. 'We made it to fit into the site and harmonize with the site and just be a pleasant part of the experience,' Historic Sites Manager Rob Hanna said.
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
North Dakota's historic sites will finally have toilets that flush
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Lawrence Welk didn't have a flush toilet where he grew up, but visitors to his childhood home in rural North Dakota now do. The bandleader's childhood family home marks the latest step in the State Historical Society of North Dakota's nearly completed goal of installing flush toilets at its dozen most popular, staffed sites. The most recent success, with the final three planned to be completed soon, came before the unveiling of a statue of Welk at a site that draws fans who recall 'The Lawrence Welk Show,' which ran on TV for decades starting in the 1950s. The North Dakota group's goal of replacing pit toilets with flush units may seem like a humble aspiration to some, but it's an important milestone, said Chris Dorfschmidt, a historic sites manager. 'A lot of our sites are kind of in the middle of nowhere. As I like to put it, history didn't happen where it's convenient,' he said. 'Because of that, if you've driven all the way out there, and that's the best we can do to kind of accommodate you, it's not the most pleasant experience.' North Dakota has 60 state historic sites — everything from museums and an underground nuclear launch facility to plaques mounted on boulders in fields. 'All of our sites, they really do help share a story of us as a state,' Dorfschmidt said. Two other facilities are slated to be finished by June 30: at Whitestone Hill, the site of a deadly 1863 attack by U.S. troops against Native Americans; and Fort Buford, a military fort near the Missouri-Yellowstone river confluence. The Historical Society also is eyeing the Chateau de Mores for flush toilets. The wealthy Marquis de Mores built the 26-room home in 1883 near Medora, a present-day tourist town in the state's scenic Badlands where a young President Theodore Roosevelt once roamed. Less-visited sites that aren't staffed likely won't receive a restroom upgrade, which costs about $150,000 each. At the Welk Homestead, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) southeast of Bismarck, workers matched the color scheme of the restroom to the house and farm buildings, including interior colors. 'We made it to fit into the site and harmonize with the site and just be a pleasant part of the experience,' Historic Sites Manager Rob Hanna said. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
