Hello Friends,
We hope you have had a relaxing summer! ADORE Co-facilitator Bethany Schwartz and I are looking forward to starting up Zoom ADORE meetings again after the summer hiatus. Starting in September, the ADORE (A Dialogue On Race and Ethnicity) Group and REACH (Reimagining Equity And Community Health) Book Group will alternate months, with their meetings falling on the fourth Sunday of each month. The REACH Book Group will hold their first meeting on September 25th. Due to scheduling challenges, the first ADORE monthly meeting will be held on November 6th instead of October 23rd, as had been originally planned.
The Zoom invitation link to the November 6th ADORE meeting can be found at the bottom of this announcement. Also, the link will be sent out to the ADORE Google Group for easy access on Saturday, November 5th.
ADORE meeting topic:
For the November 6th, 12:30-2:30pm Hawai’I Time Zoom ADORE meeting, we will watch an eye-opening docudrama called, The First Battle: The Battle for Equality in War-Time Hawaii, which was created by political reporter and author Tom Coffman, who lives on O’ahu. After watching the film, we will discuss with Mr. Coffman, the topic of the docudrama and his book, Inclusion: How Hawai’i Protected Japanese Americans from Mass Internment, Transformed Itself, and Changed America.
The following description of The First Battle will give you an idea about Mr. Coffman’s important and deep research around the topic we will be discussing:
With War fears rising, a Council for Inter-racial Unity organized in Honolulu in 1939 in support of Hawaii’s large Japanese-ancestry community. On December 7, 1941, they sprang into action.
When 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were relocated from the West Coast and interned, a behind-the-scenes battle for justice and equality – reaching as far as the White House – set Hawaii on a different course.
‘The First Battle’ portrays people working together under extreme stress against great odds. It will change how viewers see Hawaii.
Mr. Shigeo Yoshida, a main player and leader in the Council for Inter-Racial Unity, stated in 1939, How we in Hawaii are going to live together after the war will depend on how we live together during the war.
About Mr. Tom Coffman:
Tom Coffman’s first window into Hawai’I was as chief political reporter of the “Honolulu Star-Bulletin (1968-1973). A major character of “Inclusion,” John Burns, was governor, and Japanese American war veterans prominently populated the State Legislature and congressional delegation. Since 1973 the author has worked as an independent writer and producer. He is the recipient of the State of Hawai’i Award for Literature, three Hawai’i Book Publishers Association awards for Best Nonfiction, and numerous documentary film awards.
The connecting thread of his work is the social and political development of Hawai’i in context of the American nation and the Pacific Rim.
His books include “Catch A Wave;” “Nation Within: The History of America’s Occupation of Hawai’i;” “The Island Edge of America;” “I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura;” and “Tadaima! I Am Home.”
His PBS films include “O Hawai’i, From First Settlement to Kingdom;” “Nation Within;” “Arirang-The Korean American Journey;” “Ninoy Aquino and the Rise of People Power;” and “The First Battle: The Battle for Equality in Wartime Hawai’i.”
Bethany and I look forward to seeing you all at the November 6th ADORE meeting!
Aloha,
Jill Rabinov
ADORE Co-facilitator, First Unitarian Church of Honolulu
ADORE UnitariansofHI is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. The meeting officially starts at 12:30pm Hawai’I Time, Login around 12:15pm. Please mute yourselves when the meeting begins.
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Meeting ID: 951 0768 0529
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