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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2016)
U.S.A. May 16, 2016 THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7 President Obama urges Asian Americans to stand up to bigotry By Darlene Superville The Associated Press ASHINGTON — President Barack Obama this month urged Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) to fight bigotry and to press congress to update U.S. immigration policy. Obama said America’s tradition is to welcome newcomers because it was founded by immigrants. He said that tradition also makes it difficult to understand why some people are blocking efforts to overhaul U.S. immigration laws. “We don’t simply welcome new immigrants. We are born of immigrants,” Obama told hundreds attending the annual awards dinner of the Asian Pacific American Institute of Congressional Studies (APAICS). The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization promotes AAPI participation and representation in politics. Comprehensive immigration legislation cleared the senate in 2013, but house leaders did not bring the bill up for a vote. Obama has used his executive authority to shield some immigrants living illegally in the country from deportation, but more than two dozen states, led by Texas, challenged his action in federal court. The Supreme Court recently heard arguments in the case and a decision is expected by the end of June. In his remarks, Obama said: “The actions I’ve taken on my own can’t take the place of what we really need, which is congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. ... You have the power to push congress to do it.” He said the AAPI community is the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S., but is also significantly underrepresented at the ballot box. In a reference to Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, Obama urged the audience to push W LIFTER OF THE CENTURY. In this May 17, 1958 file photo, Tommy Kono of the United States competes in a weightlifting match be- tween the U.S. team and a visiting Russian team in New York. Kono, who took up weightlifting in an internment camp for Japanese Americans and went on to win two Olympic gold medals for the United States, has died. The U.S. Olympic Committee announced that Kono died in Honolulu at age 85. His daughter, JoAnn Sumida, told The New York Times the cause was complications from liver disease. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File) Olympic weightlifting champion Tommy Kono dies in Hawai‘i HONOLULU (AP) — Tommy Kono, who took up weightlifting in an internment camp for Japanese Americans and went on to win two Olympic gold medals for the United States, has died. He was 85 years old. Kono died in Honolulu, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced. His daughter, JoAnn Sumida, told The New York Times the cause was hepatic encephalopathy caused by cirrhosis of the liver. He was born Tamio Kono in Sacramento, California in 1930. Kono was a frail, asthmatic 14-year-old when a neighbor first gave him a dumbbell at the Tule Lake internment center in Northern California, where he lived with his family for most of World War II. He packed on 15 pounds of muscle by the time he left the camp in 1945. “I didn’t want to be a weightlifter,” Kono said in 1960, according to the Times. “I just want to be healthy.” Before his weightlifting career, Kono went to high school and college in Sacramento and was drafted into the army. Kono would become one of the sport’s greatest champions, winning golds in Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956. He also won a silver medal at the 1960 games in Rome and six straight world championships in the 1950s. At various times he held 20 world records, according to the International Weightlifting Federation. That organization named him “Lifter of the Century” on its 100th anniversary in 2005. In the same period, he competed as a bodybuilder, winning the title Mr. Universe three times. Kono said Arnold Schwarzenegger once cited him as an inspiration. “He told me he was a 13-year-old boy in the audience that day and was so inspired he ran home and started working out,” Kono told the Sacramento Bee in 2005. Kono later became a coach of Olympic weightlifting teams for three different countries, including the U.S. team that competed in Montreal in 1976. With Hiroshima, Obama goes where predecessors stayed away Continued from page 16 “Japan’s right-wing forces have always been trying to whitewash the country’s cruel, heartless, and reckless role as an invader during World War II,” the Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid, said in an editorial, criticizing Obama for allowing Japan to play victim. That view is shared by some in South and North Korea, where resentment lingers from Japan’s brutal 35-year colonial rule of the peninsula. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were conscripted to fight for Japan, consigned to slave- labor conditions, and forced or deceived into prostitu- tion. “Japan invited the nuclear attack,” South Korea’s mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said. Moritsugu reported from Tokyo, Chris Bodeen con- tributed from Beijing, and Hyung-jin Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. TALKING STORY IN ASIAN AMERICA Polo’s “Talking Story” column will return soon. back against anti-immigrant sentiment, especially from people who stoke such feelings for political gain. Trump has called for barring Muslims from entering the country, and also has pledged to deport the estimated 11 million people living illegally in the U.S. Obama said that just as the U.S. has moved beyond “No Irish need apply” signs, questioning the loyalty of Catholics, persecuting Chinese immigrants, and its treatment of Japanese Americans and immigrants during World War II, “we are going to move beyond today’s anti-immigrant sentiment, as well.” “We will live up to our ideals,” said Obama. My Turn: History makes a difference Broadway Books (1714 N.E. Broad- way Street, Portland) on Monday, May 23 at 7:00pm. The importance of Asian history is also the reason Theatre Diaspora, Oregon’s first and only AAPI theatre company, is staging a reading of Philip Kan Gotanda’s After the War Blues. The play, which takes place June 4 and 5 at Portland State University’s Lincoln Performance Hall (1620 S.W. Park Avenue, Portland), explores the aftermath of Japanese-American internees returning to their neigh- borhoods to find new immigrants and Continued from page 6 Asian American, including columns I’ve written as part of My Turn, into a book called The Letting Go Trilogies: Stories of a Mixed-Race Family. The book will be introduced at 6:30pm on May 20 at Wilson High School (1151 S.W. Vermont Street, Portland) during the school’s Asian Heritage Month celebration, which will also include a free screening of Mei Mei, a short documentary film based on my 1989 radio documentary Mei Mei, A Daughter’s Song. The official book launch takes place at 3 Difficulty EASY 1 level: Easy CRC holds appeal hearings of police misconduct investigations; listens to community concerns; periodically serves on the Police Review Board, an advisory body to the Chief of Police that makes recommendations as to findings and disciple of sworn police members; reviews Police Bureau policies; and advises IPR on complaint handling processes. CRC members are appointed by Portland City Council to serve three-year terms. Candidates must be Portland, Oregon, residents or business owners, and be impartial and objective in regards to law enforcement. #31945 # 17 Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1 through 9 appear one time each in every row, col- umn, and 3x3 box. Puzzle #83132 (Hard) All solutions available at <www.sudoku.com>. 6 4 2 5 1 8 9 7 3 5 7 3 6 2 9 1 8 4 9 1 8 3 4 7 5 6 2 1 3 9 7 6 2 4 5 8 8 5 6 4 3 1 7 2 9 7 2 4 8 9 5 6 3 1 2 8 7 9 5 4 3 1 6 African Americans who have also been displaced. Theatre Diaspora is bringing Gotanda to Portland for post-show discussions with commu- nity members so they can learn more about Asian history and explore relationships between other cultures and races. I’m not sure if my past works have made a difference in changing the cultural landscape of public radio or Portland theatre, but my hope is that it has filled some of our missing moments of history. Learning about AAPI history is a never-ending quest for me; I hope it is for you, too. The Portland City Auditor’s Independent Police Review (IPR) is responsible for the civilian oversight of the Portland Police Bureau (Police Bureau). The Citizen Review Committee (CRC) is an advisory body to IPR and the Police Bureau. 9 4 5 1 2 9 6 8 4 9 2 7 1 2 6 3 1 5 6 2 8 4 3 5 1 2 6 7 7 4 Solution to last issue’s puzzle n Polo URGING ACTION. President Barack Obama speaks at the Asian Pa- cific American Institute of Congressional Studies (APAICS) awards dinner in Washington, D.C. At the dinner, Obama urged Asian Americans and Pa- cific Islanders to fight bigotry and to press congress to update U.S. immi- gration policy. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) 3 9 1 2 7 6 8 4 5 4 6 5 1 8 3 2 9 7 Applications are available at www.portlandoregon.gov/auditor/ipr or the IPR office: City Hall, 1221 SW 4th Avenue, Room 140, Portland, OR 97204. Return applications by 5:00pm, Thursday, June 2, 2016, via fax (503) 823-4571, e-mail crc@portlandoregon.gov, mail, or hand-delivery to IPR.
