[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 57 (Thursday, April 14, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E475-E476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PROFESSOR DON T. NAKANISHI

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. JUDY CHU

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 2016

  Ms. JUDY CHU of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Dr. 
Don T. Nakanishi, a renowned professor and pioneer of Asian American 
Studies, who passed away on Monday, March 21, 2016.
   Dr. Nakanishi's vision and contributions to the UCLA Asian American 
Studies Center, the most renowned research and teaching institute of 
its kind in our nation, forever changed the national dialogue 
surrounding Asian Americans in politics and academia. His legacy will

[[Page E476]]

live on long past his 35 year tenure at UCLA through this Center and 
the community of students and mentees he guided.
   Dr. Nakanishi was no stranger to injustice. His mother, father, and 
elder brother were interned during World War II as a part of the policy 
against Japanese Americans. While he was born after the war, Dr. 
Nakanishi was raised in the multi-ethnic neighborhood of East Los 
Angeles, California and attended Theodore Roosevelt High School. It was 
in this diverse community that he found his roots and sense of 
belonging. He eventually became student body president and was selected 
as boy mayor of the City of Los Angeles during his senior year.
   While studying political science at Yale University, Dr. Nakanishi 
cofounded the Amerasia Journal, the top academic journal in the field 
of Asian American studies. He would continue his work on Asian American 
issues as a professor at UCLA, eventually becoming the Director for the 
Asian American Studies Center. It was at the Center that Dr. Nakanishi 
transformed the understanding of Asian American engagement in politics. 
When Dr. Nakanishi retired in 2009, the Center's faculty, students, and 
alumni worked together to establish an endowment in his honor. Every 
year, the ``Don T Nakanishi Engaged Research Prize'' is awarded to UCLA 
faculty and graduate students in Asian American Studies who are 
pursuing ``outstanding, community-based research.''
   Throughout his distinguished career, he published over 100 books, 
reports, essays and articles about the political participation of Asian 
Americans and other minority ethnic and racial groups in the United 
States. His work influenced and contributed to the rise of Asian 
American participation in all levels of government and politics in the 
later part of the 20th century. In 1976, he began what is now known as 
the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac, which lists 
every Asian American elected official across the nation, and has been 
called ``an indispensable guide to Asian American politics.''
   Due to his accomplishments, President Bill Clinton eventually 
appointed Dr. Nakanishi to the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund 
Board of Directors, which administered a nationwide public education 
and research program designed to inform people of the history 
surrounding Japanese internment.
   I was honored to teach the Asian American Contemporary Issues and 
the Asian American Women courses while Dr. Nakanishi was Director of 
the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. He was dedicated, insightful 
and compassionate, and I will always remember his incredible sense of 
humor, despite the seriousness of the many issues that we had to face.
   Dr. Nakanishi was a devoted mentor to his students, a stalwart 
champion for Asian American scholars and activists, and a loving 
husband and father. The field of Asian American studies has lost one of 
its great leaders, and we will continue to honor his legacy and 
commitment to representation for many years to come.

                          ____________________