by Armand Gutierrez

Recognize this ski area? Only one person identified it as the top of the Teton Lift at Jackson Hole. With the Thanksgiving storm that came in, it’s a sure bet that all the Tahoe resorts will be open in December for your skiing pleasures.

Last month I mentioned that Northstar will have paid parking at the Village lot (Yellow lots) and free at the Castle Peak lot. Major bummer for Northstar fans. For you Squaw aficionados, there’s a rumor going around that they will also start paid parking. No surprise there. 

Whistler Ski Week 2020

The Whistler trip is just around the corner (1-8 February) and now is the time to get your ski gear ready. Ski tune-ups are always useful to get sharp edges for carving and any base work performed for smooth gliding down the slopes.  Tahoe resorts will be open in December and, hopefully, you can get a few days of skiing before the Whistler trip. The Whistler Orientation meeting will be held on Saturday, January 11^th, so mark your calendars. This will be an opportunity to meet other members on the trip, socialize a bit, and pick-up the souvenir gift. The Whistler pamphlet will be distributed by email since the Orientation meeting and our trip departure are very close. An Evite will be sent out in December that provides all the details. If you don’t receive an Evite, then let me know at president@niseiskiclub.org. Also, Karen Soo is coordinating the potluck dinner and will be sending out an email listing your condo mates so you can get a head start on putting together your potluck menu.

Christmas Greetings

This has been a good year for NSC with the popular Big Sky Trip, the annual picnic Membership Meeting, and the FWSA Historic Ski Club designation bestowed on NSC. On behalf of the NSC board I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!

by Jackie Maruhashi

Thank you to the Nisei Ski Club (NSC) Board and members for your wholehearted support of the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific FilmFest.  The FilmFest took place on November 1-3, 2019, at the CineArts Theater in Santana Row.  Nine out of the ten of our featured films screened to sold out crowds, making this one of the most successful film festivals ever, thanks to groups like the Nisei Ski Club.

The NSC sponsored “Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066,” and did its utmost to inform members by emailing, Facebook postings, and ticket raffling.  The massive outreach resulted in 30+ NSC members attending Alternative Facts, and other films such as “Chinatown Rising” and “Mayor Ed Lee,” while some members purchased the “all access” weekend pass.

“Alternative Facts” depicts a true World War II government plot to force the removal and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast, 2/3 of whom were U.S citizens.  Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1942, authorized the War Department to establish military areas in which “any and all persons may be excluded…”  Although the U.S. was at war with Germany, Italy and Japan, only people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast were designated for wholesale exclusion and removal.  Even orphans with as little as one-sixteenth Japanese blood were removed.  With only a few weeks notice, families could take only what they could carry.  It is estimated that the evacuation cost the Japanese American community $6.2 billion in today’s dollars.

Decades later, two researchers studying the Japanese American evacuation found the “smoking gun,” evidence that government attorneys lied to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The attorneys removed a footnote in the brief to the Court that indicated that the U.S. Navy found no acts of sabotage by the Japanese American community.  The forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans should have never happened…