Happy summer! This month, make sure to read Armand’s message about the ski passes and NSC trip to the Colorado Rockies in 2021. Don’t miss an interesting article by Carol Henri about her Nisei parents experience in the 1940s, and Hoyt’s recap of the elections for our 2020-21 NSC Board of Directors.

by Armand Gutierrez, President

It’s June and the start of the 2020-2021 NSC season. Our recent election resulted in no changes to the board. Thanks to all of you that took the time to vote, and you can read the full election results in Hoyt’s article.

2021 NSC Ski Week to Breckenridge, CO

Next year’s ski week will be at Breckenridge, CO from 23-30 January, 2021. Breckenridge is part of Vail Resorts so you can pick up an Epic Pass for the next season. Once again, Sports America will be offering the Epic Pass promotion-trip rebate of $30 for an Epic Local Pass and $50 for a Full Epic Pass.

For 2020-21 Breckenridge is on the Epic Pass, which is also good for Northstar, Heavenly Valley, and Kirkwood. Here is what you need to know about the Ikon and Epic Passes for the Breckenridge trip:

• Purchase the Ikon Base Pass (Squaw/Alpine) from Sports America and receive a $30 discount, or purchase the Full Ikon Pass and receive a $50 discount on the Breckenridge trip. However, the Ikon Pass cannot be used at Breckenridge. Go to this link to purchase: www.sportsamerica.com/ikon-nisei
• Purchase the Epic Local Pass (Northstar, Heavenly, Kirkwood) and receive a $30 discount, or purchase the Full Epic Pass and receive a $50 discount on the Breckenridge trip. The Epic Pass can be used at Breckenridge for unlimited access. Go to this link to purchase: www.sportsamerica.com/epic-nisei . Sports America will also honor the refund that Epic Pass is providing due to the early ski resort closures.
• Purchase both the Ikon/Epic passes and you will receive a combination discount based on the type of passes you purchase.

If you have any questions about either of the passes then drop me a line at president@niseiskiclub.org.

Epic Pass Refund Policy
Breckenridge is part of Vail Resorts so you can pick up an Epic Pass for the next season. New for 2020-2021 is the Epic Coverage. This is free for all pass holders and provides refunds associated with certain personal events (i.e. illness, job loss, and injury). It also expands coverage to protect your from resort closures, such as any due to COVID-19. For additional information you can visit this website: https://www.epicpass.com/info/epic-coverage.aspx

by Hoyt Nelson, Elections Chairperson

Elections are now over. Thanks to those who cast the 49 ballots (a respectable 70% for our club). The results are:
President: Armand Gutierrez
Vice President: The board determined that this position is not needed for our smaller size
Treasurer: Frank Chang
Trip Director: Karen Soo
Newsletter Editor: Judy Bracken
Membership Chair: Tina Woo
Directors at Large: Gregory Wong, Rick Dumlao, Sandy Kiyomura, Curtis Otaguro, Hoyt Nelson

There were a few write-ins, but no more than two for any one person, so they did not affect the results.

Congratulations to all and good luck to the Nisei Ski Club during the coming year. We will plan what social events that are possible under the circumstances and try to improve your skiing experience. We will also promote our club and our Asian heritage, as was the original intent of the club by its founders. We encourage everyone in the club to add their efforts in these attempts.

Special thanks to my wife, Nancy, who did most of the interface with Survey Monkey since she had the most experience with that program.

by Carol Henri

Have you ever wondered about the term “Nisei” in our Club’s name? The word for ‘two’ in Japanese is ‘Ni’ (pronounced ‘knee’) and Nisei means 2nd generation Japanese-American, a person who was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Japan. The Club was originally founded by and for Nisei skiers more than 60 years ago.

My parents were both Nisei, children of Issei (‘first generation’) farmers who came to the United States in the early 1900’s. My mother was born in Beverly Hills, when it was still undeveloped land covered with orange groves. My father was born in Watsonville on a strawberry farm.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, my father was an enlisted private soldier in the U.S. Army, on leave from his military base, visiting his romantic interest, my mother. When they heard about the bombing, my father knew he had to get back to his base. They did not know this would be the last time they would see each other until 11 months later, when they wed in a concentration camp for Japanese-Americans in desolate Gila River, Arizona.

You are probably aware of that sordid chapter in American history more than 75 years ago, when all people of Japanese ancestry residing in the Western United States, mostly U.S. citizens like my mother and her siblings and my father’s siblings, were mandated by FDR’s Executive Order 9066 to leave their homes with only what they could carry. They were then detained for up to three years in hastily erected remote prison camps bound by barbed wire and watchtowers manned by soldiers with guns. It is important to note that none of the Issei were American citizens because they were not allowed citizenship due to the Asian Exclusion Act.

When my father returned to his base, they were in blackout and there was confusion and pandemonium. His commanding officer confiscated the firearms of the three Nisei privates and locked them in a room together. My father remembers cowering in the dark, fearing they were going to be lynched in the panic of the moment.

My mother, then age 21, experienced the multiple indignities of the discriminatory Order, including being herded like cattle to buses and trains wearing a tag with a number; living in dirty horse stables at the race track, which was used as a temporary holding area while the camps were being constructed; and living with her father and a sister in a small, bleak barrack room with no privacy, where desert dust was unrelenting and the temperature was either too hot or too cold.

Before they parted, my parents agreed to write to each other every day except Sunday. They did so for nearly a year, until they married on November 19, 1942 in the Gila River camp. They spent their wedding night in a camp barrack room that had been decorated by family and friends. My mother had purchased a simple beige (non-wedding) dress from a catalog and my father wore his army uniform for the ceremony.

I believe as a result of her unjustified incarceration as a young adult, my mother retreated from her Japanese heritage. She eventually embraced it 20 years later, when she learned Japanese brush painting (‘sumie’), Japanese flower arrangement (‘ikebana’), and Japanese cooking. She never learned the Japanese language, because her parents firmly believed that as an American citizen she should speak English.

My parents went to Japan for the first time in 1968. Both my grandfathers became proud United States citizens in the 1950’s, when the Asian Exclusion Act was finally repealed.