On Aug. 30, the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition Scholarship Committee launched its fourth annual Marc Stirdivant Scholarship for Justice.
The Tuna Canyon Detention Station was a Department of Justice site in Los Angeles County where Japanese, Germans, Italians and others were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. Marc Stirdivant, for whom the scholarship is named, believed that our youth can be change agents so long as they understand the history of a place and the power of diversity.
A $600 scholarship is provided for each first-place entry in art, essay, or 2-3-minute video and $200 for second place to high school students for a total of $2,400.
The essay asks who can best describe, within 500 words, their personal role in ensuring that the injustices that occurred at Tuna Canyon do not happen to others. Entries will be judged on originality, writing skill, depth, historical accuracy and clear action recommendations. Entries utilizing artificial intelligence will be disqualified.
Visual art entries must enable people to understand the history of the Tuna Canyon Detention Station and feel deeply enough to take action to stop future civil liberty violations.
For the newly created Video Scholarship, entries must provide compelling reasons to support the Tuna Canyon Detention Station preservation efforts. Videos will be judged based on originality, factual accuracy, informative value, audio/visual quality (no powerpoints) as well as the video’s ability to evoke emotions or actions.
Only one entry per category is permitted. Entries with applications are due on or before Oct. 19.
Scholarship Chair H. Ernie Nishii noted, “Our coalition believes that through art, literature, and visual media our youth can effectively prevent future injustices from occurring again. Our youth will light a torch in our hearts so bright that racial, spiritual, economic injustice will melt away. High school students can build that better future and this scholarship will motivate them to do so.
“Although the buildings and fences that held the prisoners are gone, the place, the essays, and the art will live on and motivate us not to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
All essay, art, and video entries must be accompanied by a submission form that can be found at www.tunacanyon.org. For more information, email TCDSscholarship@gmail.com.
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The Rafu Shimpo is a bilingual Japanese-English language newspaper based in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California. Established in 1903, the Rafu Shimpo has survived two world wars, a depression, and the forced evacuation of our entire community. It is now the longest running Japanese American daily newspaper in the United States.
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