WHAT PREJUDICE MEANS TO ME
A Contest for Sixth Grade Students
Dedicated in Memory of Amy Rotberg Mintz and Helen Weiss

Survivor of Japanese Internment Camp
to Keynote Awards Reception for Diversity Contest

Lillian C. Kimura, a survivor of an internment camp for Americans of Japanese descent during World War II, will be the keynote speaker at the Awards Reception for our sixth-grade diversity contest, “What Prejudice Means to Me.” The reception will be held on Monday, May 5, at 7 p.m., at Morris Knolls High School in Denville. Volunteers are asked to arrive by 6 p.m.
            The event honors Grand Prize Winners, Outstanding Award Winners, and those receiving Honorable Mention.
            Ms. Kimura was born in Glendale, California, the second daughter of Hisaichi and Hisa Kimura. Soon after the outbreak of World War II, her family, along with 120,000 other Americans of Japanese ancestry, were dislocated from their Pacific Coast homes and incarcerated in concentration camps in the interior of the United States. Her family was detained in Manzanar, California.
            When the war was over, the family relocated to Chicago, where Kimura completed high school, and went on the University of Illinois for an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree in social work. She was employed in a community center in Chicago until she went to the YWCA of the USA, where she was employed for 24 years. At the time of her retirement, she was Associate National Executive Director of the organization.
            Ms. Kimura has been a member of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) for over 53 years. She held many leadership positions on the local, district and national levels. From 1992 to 1994, she was the first woman to be national president of this oldest and largest civil and human rights group among Asian Americans.
            She continues to be active in JACL today, serving as vice president/treasurer of the New York Chapter, vice governor of the Eastern District Council, and chair of the Program for Action Committee of the 2008 National JACL Convention. In addition, she is chair pro tem of Panamerican Nikkei Association USA East (an organization of Japanese of the Americas), a docent at Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York, chair of the cultural activities at the annual Branch Brook Park Cherry Blossom Festival in Newark, and a member of the Stamp Out Hate Coalition of the American Jewish Committee.
            Ms. Kimura received the Racial Justice Award from the YWCA of the USA, THE National JACL Ruby Pin for outstanding service and the Order of the Precious Crown/Wisteria from the Government of Japan.

An exhibit of the art and written work of all the winning entries from the Prejudice Contest is available for display in libraries, local museums and galleries. For more information, send an e-mail to prejudicecontest@verizon.net.

Co-sponsor: Human Relations Commission of Morris County
Underwriters: Columbian Club of Morristown, and Morristown Rotary Club