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BT: There was also another activity that Elaine was very active with and goes on with Ann's thing about education. And to piggyback on Elaine Akagi's work on the National Education Committee and, Karen, feel free to help me out here. But Elaine was one of the original members of a project that the Seattle JACL got a grant for called the Shorai Project, which was to bring in teachers to teach them about Japanese American, the Japanese American experience. And using the national curriculum guide, we would have -- the chapter would hold workshops, and offer credit for teachers and bring in maybe thirty, forty teachers at a time and spend a day going through what happened to Japanese Americans. And this is pretty successful. And later, she expanded it -- I remember after 9/11 in 2001-- and these teacher workshops were done in conjunction with, at the time, it was called the Hate Free Zone headed by current Congressman Pramila Jayapal. And the Hate Free Zone was formed right after 9/11 to combat prejudice against South Asians and Islamic folks. And the first part of the day would be spent on telling them what happened to Japanese Americans and constitutional rights issues. The second part would be to talk about what's happening now with Muslim Americans and Arab Americans and South Asians. And so I think that was another one of Elaine's activities that we don't hear about, but it really had an impact. Karen, did you want to add anything to what I just said?

KY: Sure, I think the other event that Elaine helped to organize -- which was very impactful -- was one similar. Because Seattle JACL was one of the first organizations to reach out to, say, even the Sikh community as well as Hate Free Zone, there was a Town Hall gathering and there were panelists put together, and it was for people to bear witness. Both elected officials -- so I believe that Congressman McDermott sat on the panel. Bruce Miyake was on the panel because he was... I think he was with state attorney's office at the time. I believe we had governor's representative. And, of course, then not senator, I mean, Representative Jayapal, but Pramila was involved in coordinating. But we had Mako Nakagawa speak at that town hall, as well as someone from the community who shared a similar experience of the FBI coming into their home and rounding them up after the September 11th attack. And it was a very powerful, very moving... I think it was an overflow crowd in Town Hall. I think that venue holds like 300 some-odd people. And it caught the ear of, I think, some very important and powerful people just because of the type of people who showed up to bear witness gave powerful testimony in terms of addressing hate crime and what's happening in the Muslim and South Asian community. If there was a major event, Elaine was probably volunteering to coordinate it. [Laughs]

EK: Yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Were you going to say something, Ann?

AL: No, no.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2022 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.