Lillian Kimura
Lillian Kimura, the first woman to be elected as the national president of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and a long time JACL leader, received the Ina Kay Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Nov. 17 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Kimura was interned in a concentration camp during World War II. Her family was uprooted from their home and taken to Manzanar when she was 13 years old. Later settling in Chicago and New York, Lillian became active in the JACL and worked on the Redress Movement, which provided reparations and apologies for Japanese Americans interned during World War II. ♦