CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE DIARY

An edited and annotated version of James Omura's diary is now available at suyamaproject.org, a website sponsored by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, which aims to preserve the history of Japanese American resistance during World War II, including but not limited to the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team draftees, draft resisters, No Nos, renunciants, and other Nikkei dissidents.

Omura was a vocal opponent of the mass eviction and incarceration of Japanese Americans on the West Coast during World War II. He wrote editorials pointing out the unconstitutionality of the United States style concentration camps and chastised Japanese American leaders, who advocated a policy of government cooperation. He supported the draft resistance movement when the government began drafting men from out of the camps. For taking these stands, Omura's professional and personal suffered, and he was written out of history until the redress movement began during the 1980s.

The thirteen years of Omura's life will be revisited in what is dubbed as his "Return to the Wars" diary by Art Hansen, professor emeritus of history and Asian American Studies at California State University, Fullerton and former director of the university's Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History. Hansen edited the diary and provided more than 500 end notes.

Omura began this portion of the diary in 1981, when he testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) in Seattle and ends with his death in Denver in 1994. Stanford University Press has just published an edited volume by Hansen entitled, "Nisei Naysayer: The Memoir of Militant Japanese American Journalist Jimmie Omura."

A book signing will be held on Saturday, Aug. 25, from 2:00 pm at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 North Central, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

NOTES AND EDITORIALS OF JAMES MATSUMOTO OMURA

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