Donald K. Tamaki is known for his historic work serving on the pro bono legal team that reopened the landmark Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. the United States, overturning Fred Korematsu’s conviction for refusing incarceration during the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and providing a key legal foundation in the decades-long Japanese American Redress Movement.

Tamaki is the co-founder of StopRepeatingHistory.Org, a campaign focused on drawing parallels between the round-up of Japanese Americans during World War II and the targeting of minority groups based on race or religion. One major aspect of the campaign is the intersectionality of the Japanese American Redress Movement and that of African American Reparations, with an emphasis on creating solidarity and promoting public awareness on the importance of advancing reparations for African Americans.

Tamaki has been Senior Counsel at Minami Tamaki LLP since 2020; he served as Managing Partner from 2006 to 2020 and was Partner from 1987 to 2020. Tamaki was Executive Director at the Asian Law Caucus – Advancing Justice from 1980 to 1984. He was a Reginald Heber Smith Staff Attorney at Community Legal Services of San Jose from 1976 to 1979 and co- founder of the Asian Law Alliance. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

In 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed him to the 9-member California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, the first state in the nation to undertake such an effort.

His awards include the State Bar of California Loren Miller Award in 1987 ACLU, Northern California Chapter, The Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award co-recipient in 2003, the National Asian American Bar Association President’s Award co-recipient with Karen Korematsu and Dale Minami in 2018, and the American Bar Association’s Spirit of Excellence Award in 2020.

Dr. Karen Korematsu is the Founder and Executive Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute and the daughter of the late civil rights icon, Fred Korematsu. Karen is a national speaker and travels the country advocating for civil liberties, social justice, civics, and ethnic studies education. She encourages Covid-19 vaccinations in AAPI communities and promotes Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution on January 30 in perpetuity for all fifty states. Dr. Korematsu has been interviewed on radio, podcasts, and TV. Her Op/Ed’s have appeared in the NY Times and Washington Post. She has received numerous awards and honors including the ACLU- Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award, the GMNY 2015 Isadore Starr Award, the NAPABA Presidents Award, the Muslim Advocates-Voice of Freedom Award, and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) Community Leadership Award. In addition, she is a recipient of the Key to the City of Dearborn, Michigan by the Mayor of Dearborn in 2017.

Karen is a member of National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) and an Honored Member of the Council of State Social Studies Specialists (CS4). Karen is the first non-lawyer member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), and serves on the board of directors of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, DC, and the NAPABA Law Foundation (NLF). She has signed on to various amicus briefs opposing violations of constitutional rights. In June of 2021, Dr. Korematsu was appointed to serve as a State of California Education Ambassador by State Superintendent, Tony Thurmond. She received her first honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont, in May 2019. She received her second honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, in May 2022.

John Tateishi served as JACL’s Redress Chair from 1978 to 1985, setting the path for a decade-long campaign to achieve a government apology and monetary compensation for the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. Mr. Tateishi guided JACL’s campaign from an educational to a lobbying operation, focusing on the constitutional issues of the incarceration as a basis for the grassroots strategy. The Redress Movement was successfully concluded with the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided an apology from the President and Congress and monetary compensation to the victims of incarcerations. New since the 2016 program, Mr. Tateishi will also discuss his newly published book Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations.

Dr. Gena Lew Gong is an Instructor in Asian American Studies at Fresno City College and has been a Lecturer in the Asian American Studies Program at California State University, Fresno, since 2012. She has over 30 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector and has held numerous leadership positions, including President of Central California Asian Pacific Women, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Community Fund, Director of Planning and Development for A New Way of Life Reentry Project, and Director of Public Policy & Communications for Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP).

A committed lifelong learner, in 2015, Gena joined a hālau to learn hula alongside her (then) 5-year-old daughter and in 2019, placed third in her first hula competition. In 2020, to help combat loneliness and acquaint others with technology while sharing her love of tasting and testing new recipes, she launched an online community, GG Cooks, and led weekly cooking classes over Zoom. Gena earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from CSU Fresno in 2020, three decades after she earned her B.A. from UCSD and M.A. from Duke University, while being a working wife, mom, stepmom, and dog mom.