Amache 9L-3B & Community Leader Minoru Tonai was born on February 6, 1929, on Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor. At the onset of World War II, his father was jailed as a community business leader. In May 1942, like all Japanese on the West coast, Mr. Tonai and his family were incarcerated, first at the Santa Anita Racetrack and in September they were shipped to Amache War Relocation Center in Colorado. After the war, he returned to Los Angeles where he graduated from high school. He was drafted by the Army and was a Korean War Combat Medic. Mr. Tonai participated in many Japanese community organizations through fundraising, spreading the beauty of the Japanese arts and the empowerment of Japanese Americans. He has served as President of the Amache Historical Society since 1978 and President of the Terminal Islanders since 2012, and was Chairman of the Terminal Island Memorial Monument Committee when the monument was dedicated in 2002. He also served for over 30 years as Board Member and Chairman of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, and was Board Member of the Japanese American National Museum, Asia America Symphony Association, UCLA Foundation, Nikkei Bruins, and other UCLA organizations.

Nonprofit Grant Manager Ms. Daniels has worked with a diverse range of Amache stakeholders as an expert in historic site preservation, planning, project execution and management. Since 2008, she has been instrumental in organizing meetings, charrettes, and synthesizing information to maximize stakeholder viewpoints in project planning processes. She has successfully directed large- and small-scale projects at Amache from inception to completion including notable projects such as the restoration of the water and guard towers, the website and driving tour, the reconstructed barrack, and the restored recreation building. Ms. Daniels, in her work with Amache, has represented Colorado Preservation, Inc. (CPI), Colorado’s premiere historic preservation organization, helping to secure and manage funding from the National Park Service’s Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant program, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Colorado’s State Historical Fund, and other philanthropic entities. Ms. Daniels is now an independent historic preservation consultant and continues to represent CPI in the management of ongoing physical preservation, education, and interpretation projects at Amache.

Amache Descendant & Executive Director National Japanese American Historical Society Rosalyn Tonai is the executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. (NJAHS) where she has served since 1990. Teamed with the National Park Service/Golden Gate National Recreation Area and The Presidio Trust, NJAHS has developed the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center a $5 million adaptive reuse project at Building 640 in the Presidio of San Francisco. This historic site preserves the unique story of the first US Army Language school which secretly trained mostly Japanese American linguist soldiers one month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. NJAHS offices are currently headquartered in San Francisco’s Japantown, where Ms. Tonai oversees its gallery, education, collections and archives operations. She serves as a board member of the Japantown Task Force, a preservation and planning body for one of the last remaining Japantowns in the US. She is an Advisory Board member of the National Veterans Network, promoting the Congressional Gold Medal of the 100/442/MIS, and is a granddaughter to an Amache incarceree. Ms. Tonai is a graduate of the Getty Museum Management Institute and the Coro Foundation Asian Pacific leadership program. She holds a M.A. in nonprofit management from the University of San Francisco’s College of Professional Studies and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Amache 11G-4C & Teacher She grew up in Los Angeles, forced moved to the Santa Anita Racetrack Assembly before finally arriving in Amache in 1942. Carlene attended U.C.L.A. where she earned her B.A. and M.A. in Sociology as well as her General Secondary Teaching Credential. Carlene married her husband, John Tinker, a Fresno State University Sociology professor. After raising twin children, Carlene returned to teaching, she taught Biology and later became a guidance counselor in Fresno for 14 years. Since 2009, she has been a Denver Univ. Amache Archeology Field School volunteer. In 2022, she will serve her seventh summer a volunteer sharing her experience with students. Carlene shares her experiences as an Amachean in the hopes of keeping the legacy of Amache alive.

Amache Descendant Stacey Okubo-Davis is a Colorado native and lifetime Colorado resident as both her parents’ families settled in Denver following internment – her father's family from Amache and mother's family from Minidoka. Amache preservation was a passion, a priority for her father Henry Okubo, who understood Amache's historic significance and the need for education. In turn as his descendants, continuing Amache preservation and education are important to Stacey and her brothers. Now retired, following a career for over thirty years working in Government contract management, Stacey looks forward to contributing her applicable experience in support of the Amache Alliance mission.

Univ. of Denver Anthropology Professor & DU Amache Project Dr. Bonnie Clark serves as a Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Denver (DU), as well as the Curator for Archaeology of the DU Museum of Anthropology. She is the author or editor of numerous publications including Finding Solace in the Soil: An Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners at Amache (2020, University Press of Colorado). Dr. Clark leads the DU Amache Project, a community collaboration committed to researching, preserving, and interpreting the physical history of Amache, Colorado’s WWII-era Japanese American incarceration camp (https://portfolio.du.edu/amache).

Amache Descendant & Policy Director at Alliance San Diego Erin Tsurumoto Grassi is fourth generation Japanese American Amache descendant and a proud hapa. Her experiences growing up biracial in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with her family’s experiences being interned during World War II, helped shape her passion for social justice and racial equality, and ultimately led her to become involved in immigrant rights work. Erin works as a policy director at Alliance San Diego, where she helps lead and coordinate the organization’s local, state and federal policy work. While at Alliance San Diego, she has helped coordinate and grow the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium (SDIRC). Erin holds a Bachelor's degree from Whittier College in Political Science and Spanish, and a Master's of Art degree from UC San Diego in Latin American Studies with a concentration in International Migration. She is also a 2016 alumna of the San Diego Leadership Alliance Institute, and a member of APALA San Diego

NPCA Colorado Program Manager

Amache Descendant & City of Denver Dir. of Human Rights & Community Relations