A woman who tirelessly lead the grassroots effort for redress for Japanese Americans but never stopped to take her bows has finally been recognized, reports Philly.com.
Grayce Uyehara received the Standing Up for Justice Award from Asian Americans United in Philadelphia Friday night.
“Without her drive and involvement,” said said Hiro Nishikawa of JACL, who as a boy was interned with his parents and siblings, “I don’t think it would have happened.”
Uyehara who is now 94 always insisted that redress was not just a Japanese issue, but an American one. A retired social worker in 1982, she served as volunteer national director of the Legislative Education Committee, the JACL’s lobbying arm.
“Philadelphia was really the epicenter of redress, and it was the epicenter because Grayce lived there,” said Grant Ujifusa, a retired editor and redress strategist. “She was the mother of us all.”
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You can read Uyehara’s story in Philly.com.
RE: The unsung Japanese American woman who lead the fight for redress: Am sure there are many more unsung individuals among us, it’s great that she is still around….generally we hear about great individuals in obits…..