Da 100th Infantry Battalion Thursday Wine Gang

08/24/2026

Did you know Kobe Bryant was named after the Japanese beef?

One of the greatest basketball players of all time was named after a Japanese beef.

August 23, 1978: Kobe Bean Bryant was born in Philadelphia.

His father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, saw the words “Kobe beef” on a Japanese restaurant menu and loved the sound of it enough to name his son after it. Kobe’s middle name, Bean, came from his father’s own nickname. Neither parent had any idea the name would eventually mean something bigger than a steak.

The beef itself has its own story. Kobe beef comes from Tajima cattle raised in Japan’s Hyōgo Prefecture, under standards so strict that only a few thousand cattle qualify for the label each year. It had already been prized in Japan for over a century, a delicacy so specific it’s named for the port city where it was first exported, long before an American basketball legend made the name recognizable worldwide.

By the time Bryant retired in 2016, he’d done for the word “Kobe” in the United States what centuries of careful breeding had done for it in Japan: turned it into a name for something unmistakably elite.

Photo by Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0

08/24/2026

Schedule of Memorial Services for MIS veteran, Governor George Ariyoshi

Our MIS Veterans Hawai'i member, Gov. George Ariyoshi, passed away on April 19, 2026 at age 100. We have been asked to share information about his services with our members and friends.

Fri, Sept 18, Hawai'i State Capitol Rotunda
10:30am - 12pm on 9/19 Public Visitation
6:00pm State Service
Sat, Sept 19, Kawaiaha'o Church
2:00-4:00pm Public Visitation
4:00-5:00pm Service

Services are open to the public. We hope our MIS Veterans Hawai'i members and friends can attend and help honor our long-time governor and MIS member. May he rest in aloha... 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙

08/24/2026

Watch now: “Echoes of Minidoka” documentary (about 20 mins).

More than 13,000 Japanese Americans passed through Minidoka during ...

08/23/2026

Details on JANM’s reopening in January 2027.

JANM is reopening on January 23, 2027!!!

"We look forward to welcoming visitors from around the world to a Pavilion transformed by powerful storytelling, immersive installations, and new technology that connects the stories of the Japanese American community to the urgent issues facing all of us today. These new spaces and experiences will deepen our ability to fulfill our mission, share our extraordinary collection, serve as a beacon for civil rights, and activate memory and the arts to shape a more just and hopeful future, one that inspires, educates, and connects generations to come."

—Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO

Read our full announcement: https://www.janm.org/press/release/janm-sets-reopening-date-january-23-2027

08/22/2026

“Soldiers from the Camps” is an interactive way to learn about our World War II soldiers

08/21/2026

Medal of Honor recipient and 442nd veteran, Senator Daniel Inouye, shares memories of his fellow soldiers

08/20/2026

I am sure you’ve heard of Nik Knacks but what about NOC Knacks?

A few trinkets sit in our Rotating Exhibit Gallery, a small reminder of a much larger movement.

Ceramic pins, lovingly named "NOC Knacks", were produced and sold by members and supporters of the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) to help support the organization’s ongoing redress work throughout the 1970s. Proceeds helped cover the costs of events, organizing materials, and travel, while fundraising itself became part of the community gatherings and organizing that sustained the San Jose movement for redress and reparations.

Founded in 1979 by Sansei concerned about the future of San Jose Japantown, NOC built networks, monitored redevelopment, and connected community members and institutions. As the national movement for Japanese American redress grew, NOC became a founding member of the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations (NCRR), working to bring national strategy into local actions inside the homes of San Jose Japantown.

🏡 Learn more about the local San Jose movement for Japanese American redress in our current rotating exhibit, House Meeting(s): Opening the Door for Redress in San Jose before it closes on September 20th. More information can be found on our website, at www.jamsj.org/house-meetings

08/19/2026

Profile of 442nd and 522nd veteran Joseph Ichiuji.

08/18/2026

Links to learn more or teach about the Japanese American incarceration.

Want to learn more or teach about the Japanese American Incarceration with visual aids? Check out our free, standards-aligned lesson plans for grades 9-12 on the WWII Japanese American incarceration, each with a documentary film clip to stream from the Fred T. Korematsu Institute Collection on PBS LearningMedia here: https://klrn.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/korematsu-institute-collection/

08/18/2026

Upon returning home from the War, 442nd veteran Hiroshi Fujishige and his brother fought the Disney Company to protect their family’s homeland in California

Disney could buy almost anything. Not the Fujishige family’s land.

In 1945, Hiroshi Fujishige, a Nisei soldier serving in the all-Japanese American 442nd Infantry Regiment, went to an Army infirmary with a toothache. The dentist who treated him had just lost his own brother in the Pacific. He deliberately infected Hiroshi as revenge, an eye for an eye. Hiroshi ended up in intensive care. The dentist was later court-martialed. By the time Hiroshi recovered enough to reach his unit in Europe, the war was already over. He spent the rest of his life thanking the dentist who’d nearly killed him for accidentally keeping him out of combat.

His family had avoided incarceration entirely, relocating themselves to Clearfield, Utah in early 1942, before removal orders reached them. In 1953, after the war, Hiroshi and his brother Masao bought 58 acres in Anaheim for $3,500 and began growing strawberries.

A year later, Disneyland opened next door.

For decades, Disney and the city of Anaheim pushed the family to sell. Masao held the line until 1986, when the pressure to sell contributed to his death by su***de. Hiroshi later told the city, “This land means quite a bit to me. My brother died for it.”

On Aug. 15, 1998, Disney announced it had secured an option to buy 52.5 acres of the Fujishige farm, with the family keeping a 3.5-acre remainder. Disneyland’s Toy Story Parking Lot now sits on land Hiroshi Fujishige refused to give up for over forty years, land Disney once eyed for a third theme park entirely.

Read more:
quietamericans.com/fujishige-farm