The Nichi Bei Day of Giving is an opportunity for you to continue to support our community’s pandemic recovery.
Your generous support help us:
• Expand staff capacity
• Create reserve funding
• Continue our innovative programs
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Craig Foundation will make a $65,000 matching donation to the first $65,000 raised!
Help us make the match!
Celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Nichi Bei Foundation and the recognizing 125 years of the Nichi Bei legacy
Dear Friends,
2024 marks 125 years since our grandfather, Kyutaro Abiko, started the Nichi Bei Shimbun in 1899. When he passed away in 1936, our grandmother, Yona Abiko, took over as publisher. Said to be the most influential prewar Japanese American community newspaper, it served a growing immigrant community trying to set roots in a foreign land.
As the community started to rebuild after their devastating incarceration during World War II, our father Yasuo was an integral leader of the postwar Nichi Bei Times, which helped to reconnect our dispersed, traumatized community. Our mother Lily (Tani) Abiko joined the staff, and in her later years, the board.
Our family is proud of the legacy of leadership of our grandparents, who not only influenced the settling of Japanese America, but also established a labor contracting company for Japanese laborers, trips to Japan to educate young Nisei about their heritage, three farming colonies in California’s Central Valley and even a bank. Moreover, our grandmother Yona was a visionary Issei woman who raised money to build the Japanese YWCA, the current home of the Nihonmachi Little Friends, a multicultural childcare agency in San Francisco’s Japantown.
The legacy of our grandparents and parents continue to live through the Nichi Bei Foundation and its community news publication, the Nichi Bei News. We commend the Nichi Bei Foundation for its groundbreaking efforts to form a nonprofit 15 years ago, in spite of dire economic times, to keep the community connected and document its history for generations to come. Like our parents and grandparents before us, they also embodied the spirit of gaman, to endure, for the greater good of the community.
In the 15th anniversary of the Nichi Bei Foundation, and by extension, the 125th anniversary of the Nichi Bei Shimbun, we hope you will consider donating to this year’s Nichi Bei Day of Giving campaign. We need your support to keep this work going.
We read the Nichi Bei News to find out what is happening in the Japanese American community because we wouldn’t be able to find this information anywhere else. We attend the Nichi Bei Foundation events because we want to stay connected to the Japanese American community and continue learning more about our Japanese American heritage. Innovative events such as Films of Remembrance and Nikkei Angel Island Pilgrimage have been instrumental in remembering those who came before us, and honoring their legacy.
As we look to the next 125 years, please dig deep to support the Nichi Bei Foundation and its mission to keep the Japanese American community connected, informed and empowered. By doing so, you help ensure that the legacy started by our grandparents 125 years ago continues to serve our community for generations to come. For more info, visit nichibeifoundation.org/give
Sincerely,
Special thank-you gifts for those who contribute at certain levels:
| Donate: | Receive: |
| $100+ | 1-year Digital Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei News |
| $250 to $499 | 1-year Premium Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei News |
| $500 to $999 | 1-year Premium Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei News + tote + bucket hat |
| $1,000 or more | 2-year Premium Edition subscription to the Nichi Bei News + tote + bucket hat + “A Nikkei Harvest” by Art Hansen with Wayne Maeda |