
Due to Oda’s strong leadership and the publicity and advocacy efforts of the coalition, in 2018 the City of Los Angeles installed street signs at the site of the former detention station, providing visible homage to a chapter of Los Angeles history that prior to the coalition’s formation was largely unknown. National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant, entitled “Only the Oaks Remain.” The exhibit tells the story of the detainees of Tuna Canyon through photos, diaries, letters, and interviews, and has been shown at 12 locations throughout the West Coast.

Under Oda’s leadership, the coalition developed a traveling exhibition that received funding through the U.S. In 2014, due to her stature in the community as a Tule Lake survivor and longtime leader at SFVJACC, Oda was designated the first president of the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition, a new nonprofit formed to preserve the history of Tuna Canyon. She and the coalition had relentlessly sought recognition of the site where 2,000 Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants and Japanese taken from Peru were detained during World War II. In June 2013, due to persistent actions by a group of advocates led by Oda and other community leaders, the City of Los Angeles designated the former Tuna Canyon Detention Station a Historic Cultural Monument. In 2018, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center published her translation online as part of the Suyama Project.

During her college years at UCLA, she translated “Tule Lake Stockade Diary,” written by her father, Tatsuo Inouye, during World War II. In 2016, Oda helped organize a fifth-anniversary fundraising event to benefit orphans in Japan.Īs a child of the camps, Oda, a third-generation Japanese American, has exhibited a strong commitment to keeping alive the stories of the Japanese American incarceration. She mobilized the center and its organizations and youth groups in a major disaster relief fundraising effort that raised $110,000 over one year.

The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred the year that Oda became president of the SFVJACC. She has continued to serve as an officer of SFVJACC after her term ended, and has supported the continued development of the center currently serving 1,000 families, and has contributed greatly to the progress of the Japan-U.S. The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, for contributing to promoting friendly relations and mutual understanding between Japan and the United States goes to Brian Kito, 63, of Los Angeles, president of Little Tokyo Public Safety Association and owner of Fugetsu-do.įor over 40 years since 1978, Oda has been an active member of the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center, and was appointed as [resident from 2011-2013, recognized for her experienced leadership as a former elementary school principal for 17 years.The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, for contributed to enhancing the social welfare of Japanese American society and promoting the friendly relationship between Japan and the United States goes to Nancy Kyoko Oda, 74, of Van Nuys, former president of San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center and president of Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition.

Information about a conferment ceremony will be provided at a later date. From the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles, the following two distinguished persons will be awarded. On April 29, the Government of Japan announces the recipients of its Spring 2020 Decorations.
