Councilmember Bill Rosendahl and his council colleagues joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to honor the contributions of Los Angeles-area Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in a ceremony to kick off Heritage month on Friday.
Three Angelenos were presented with awards in council chambers for their contributions to the community:
Hope of Los Angeles Award
K.W. Lee
Journalist
Dream of Los Angeles Award
Jyoti Nanda
Faculty, UCLA’s School of Law
Spirit of Los Angeles Award
Michelle Kwan, Olympic Figure Skater
Bill Rosendahl with K.W. Lee, Jyoti Nanda, and Michelle Kwan.
In a fitting separate presentation, Rosendahl joined Councilmember Richard Alarcon in honoring Police Commissioner Rose Ochi.
Ochi is a former internee and plans to take part this weekend in a ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the relocation of hundreds of Japanese Americans to Manzanar during World War II.
Councilmembers Bill Rosendahl and Richard Alarcon with Police Commissioner Rose Ochi.
During the presentations, Rosendahl pointed out the sizable Asian – Pacific Islander communities in his district.
Besides the Japanese Institute of Sawtelle and other community centers, a memorial marker is being erected in honor of the survivors of the WWII Japanese American internment camps in Manzanar.
More than a thousand people of Japanese ancestry from Venice, Santa Monica and Malibu were sent to the northwest corner of Lincoln and Venice boulevards to board buses which were headed to an internment camp at Manzanar in Inyo County (source).
Rosendahl recently made the pilgrimage to Manzanar with a local church and talks about his trip in this video.
