![]() when it's all said and done, that's what it's all about: You can make someone else's life better."Ībove all, Fujioka credits UC Santa Cruz with giving him a bedrock to launch his career into local government and public service upon his return to Los Angeles. "You’re always going to hear me say that I want to shout the benefits of public service, because you can impact lives. Having his passion for public service sparked at UCSC, Fujioka hopes to encourage and enlighten students working towards his same path to the impact that their work can create. This one professor, the Dean of the School of Sociology, Dennis McElrath I don't think he knows to this day what kind of impression he made on me: I took several classes with him, and he lit a fire." "I loved the environment, I loved academic freedom. "The first year or two was difficult for me, but my last two years, I loved it," says Fujioka. This was a hard choice for Fujioka, but once he immersed himself in UCSC’s academics and campus, he quickly grew to appreciate his future alma mater. When Fujioka set out on his collegiate journey, his decision to make a move far from the busy streets of Southern California to the forests of UC Santa Cruz was entirely intentional.įujioka recounts his youth in LA among street gangs, and how his father urged Fujioka to leave town to pursue his education. A place for the community to have a safe place where they can come together." From Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, and back again "I also see the National Center for Preservation Democracy, a place where people with diverse feelings and on a multitude of issues could come together, and sit down and talk about democracy, because we're losing it now. "I'm hoping that the Japanese American National Museum becomes a place where people convene, because when I see the plaza, I see a town square, where people can come together and just talk," Fujioka says. JANM plans to rename the courtyard as the Norm Mineta Plaza for Democracy. ![]() For Fujioka, the site of this horrible act can serve both as a platform for future change and to honor the great accomplishments of his predecessor. Fujioka’s family were forced onto buses at this site. The courtyard of the museum was the location where Japanese Americans were forced onto buses and taken away to assembly centers and internment camps across the country. It also serves as a monument of the wrongful persecution of Japanese Americans nationwide. The Japanese American National Museum was established in 1992 and is dedicated to preserving the history and culture of Japanese Americans. Mineta’s legacy for the civil liberties of Japanese Americans is incomparable, and Fujioka finds inspiration and motivation for his work as Chair of JANM in his succession of Mineta. I wouldn't have gotten to my last two positions in government by being the shy retiring type."įujioka succeeds Secretary Norman Mineta as chair of the Japanese American National Museum. I'm going to be outspoken, because in some communities, there’s a tendency to pull back a little bit," Fujioka says. ![]() "I strongly feel it’s my generation’s responsibility to not only preserve our history, but to retell that history to ensure what happened to my community in 1942, never happens again to any other vulnerable community. For him, the decision to join the JANM Board was an unsurprising one. ![]() Now, over five decades later, Fujioka’s career includes work as Los Angeles’s City Administrative Officer, the first-ever Chief Executive Officer of the city, and his current role as the Chair of the Los Angeles Japanese American National Museum (JANM).įujioka came out of retirement to join the Board of Trustees for JANM and eventually was selected to be the Board Chair. His public service career can be traced back to the 1970s when he worked as a custodian and gardener while pursuing his degree from UC Santa Cruz. Bill Fujioka’s (Crown ’74, sociology) life in civil service is a storied one.
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