Editorial: the Kansha Consortium

April 3, 2003

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On April 3, 2003 The San Francisco Chronicle printed an editorial by Annie Nakao stating that "I attended an unusual awards ceremony in San Francisco last week, to honor some folks who did the right thing in another dark time not so long ago... They were quite a bunch: a beloved philanthropist, a Buddhist priest, a couple of newspaper publishers, two lawyers, the ACLU of Northern California and the American Friends Service Committee. Their deed? Aiding Japanese Americans in the days following Pearl Harbor, when this community had precious few friends... For years, Japanese Americans have shared tales with each other about neighbors, friends, even strangers, who bucked the tide of racism and war hysteria and took a principled stand against the wartime imprisonment of 120,000 West Coast Japanese -- two-thirds of them American citizens -- and tried to do what they could to provide aid and comfort in ways large and small... Last year, Japanese Americans in Santa Cruz County paid tribute to those Good Samaritans in their community. But no formal national recognition had ever been given until last week, when Japanese Americans expressed their kansha, or gratitude, at a ceremony sponsored by the National Japanese American Historical Society and other community organizations. The ceremony kicked off efforts of the Kansha Consortium, whose aim is to document many other stories of wartime aid."