j a p a n e s e a m e r i c a n v e t e r a n s a s s o c i a t i o n（j一个p n e s e m e r i c n v e t e r n s s s o c t i o n）.doc

JAPANESE AMERICAN VETERANS ASSOCIATION PRESS RELEASE: August 25, 2004 CONTACTS: Terry Shima (301-987-6746; ttshima@) Thomas Mukai (703-751-1550; tvictor@) Sandra Tanamachi (979-285-0816; stanamachi@ FOR PHOTO: see JAVA website (), under “site map” scroll down and press “downloads” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SANDRA TANAMACHI’S STRUGGLE TO REMOVE “JAP” FROM TEXAS STREET SIGN. Lake Jackson, Texas. One sunny day in 1992, Sandra Tanamachi, departed her home in Beaumont, Texas, with her husband and 18 year old son to have lunch at a popular seafood restaurant in a nearby town of Fannett, located some 80 miles east of Houston. When they arrived at the Boondocks Restaurant, they found it was on a street named Jap Road. Her son, Tim, refused to eat in a restaurant located on a street with that name and Tanamachi and her husband and son drove home with a “cloud of darkness over us.” Then and there, Tanamachi decided she would undertake the effort to get the derisive street sign removed. Her struggle began at that point and would culminate 12 years later on July 19, 2004, when the Jefferson County commissioners voted to remove the Jap Road sign. Tanamachi, a third generation Japanese American, was born and raised in Texas, like many of her relatives. Her grandparents immigrated from Japan in the early 1900’s, initially settled in California, and then moved to the Beaumont area in 1921. She attended college in Colorado, became a teacher, married a fellow named Bruce T. Nakata, who joined the Dupont Company. In 1971, she accompanied her husband on his assignment to Nashville, TN, then to Wilmington, DE, and Louisville, KY, and, finally, returned in 1988 to Beaumont, where she continued her teaching career. In 1999, her family moved to Lake Jackson in Texas, where