SDJACL invites you to join us monthly as we build community and explore various topics of current interest and relevance to the Japanese American community.  We strive to create an opportunity to come together, empower, share stories, collaborate, and celebrate each other in a respectful and safe space.  These events are free and open to the public, and we hope you take advantage of these opportunities to join our organization in order to continue to strengthen connections with others and nourish the roots we have to the San Diego area, every second Thursday of each month online.  Email sandiegojacl@gmail.com to RSVP.

​

2024​​​​​

• Feb 8 - Filmmaker Antonia Glenn, on her documentary The Ito Sisters and her newest project, Before They Take Us Away

• Mar 14 - YELLOWFACE:  Insidious and Still Pervasive in Professional Theater [VIDEO]

• May 9 - IN DEFIANCE OF RACISM: How a Black and a Chinese American Family Defied Racism Together in Early San Diego [VIDEO]

• June 13 - Eva Kurima and the Reischauer Scholars Program

• Aug 8 - Ryan Yoshikawa, VP General Operations, National JACL

• Sept 12 - Kim Fountain, CEO, San Diego LGBT Community Center

​

​

Past Monthly Dialogues

• 2023

  • Nov 9 -- Veterans Day Discussion with Taiga Takahashi (Navy) and Leo Tanaka (Air Force)

  • Oct 12 -- BJ Watanabe, Community Activist [VIDEO]

  • Sept 14 -- Kristen Taketa, SDUT Education Reporter

  • Aug 10 -- Michele Tsutagawa Ward, Carlsbad USD Board of Trustees, Member, Trustee Area 1

  • Jul 13 -- Shirley Nakawatase on Running for Local Public Office

  • Jun 8 -- Mariko Nakawatase, Assistant Dist. Dir. for County District 2

  • May 11 -- Captain Shawn Takeuchi, San Diego Police Department

  • Apr 12 -- Matthew Weisbly and Jewish-Japanese Identity

  • Mar 16 -- Kay Ochi and Stand Up For Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story film showing

  • Feb 9 -- Godwin Higa on Restorative Justice

• 2022

  • Dec 8 -- Prof. Gary Sosa on Mixed Race, Mixed Culture, Mixed Identity [VIDEO]

  • Nov 10 -- Special Veterans Day Discussion

  • Oct 13 -- Guided Interview of Jack Kubota, with Linda Canada​, Archivist JAHSSD [VIDEO]

  • Sept 8 -- "Not Your Model Minority", with filmmaker Jon Osaki, San Diego Asian Film Festival founder Lee Ann Kim, and UCSD Prof. Christen Sasaki

  • Aug 11 -- 親孝行 (oyakoukou), with filmmaker Lane Nishikawa

  • Jun 2 -- UC San Diego Project GROW

  • May 12 -- The Japanese American experience in San Diego, with SDCC Prof. Susan Hasegawa

  • Apr 14 -- APIDA Voices and Visibility, with Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan (SDSU)

  • Mar 10 -- The role of ethnic studies in education, with UCSD Prof. Christen Sasaki

  • Feb 10 -- Dealing with Dementia, Lena Huang, Community Engagement Manager for the Alzheimer's Assn., San Diego & Imperial Chapter

  • Jan 13 -- The Impacts of Dementia

• 2021

  • Dec 16 -- Korematsu v. United States: A Stain on American Jurisprudence, with Karen Korematsu and Dale Minami

  • Nov 11 -- "How It Feels to Be Asian in Today's America" 
     

Past Special Panel Discussion Dialogues

• May 12, 2021 -- Intergenerational Trauma of Japanese Americans, with Dr. Karen Kawahara and Dr. Donna Nagata

• Sept 20, 2020 -- Black and Japanese: Culture and Identity

• Jun 18, 2020 -- Japanese Americans: Mixed Race, Mixed Culture, Mixed Identity