By Chris S. Nishiwaki
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
A crowd of more than 400 marched from Hing Hay Park to Chiyo’s Garden on Nihonmachi Alley to commemorate the Day of Remembrance, and protest the White House’s draconian anti-immigrant policies.
The march and rally, which took place on Wednesday, was hosted by Tsuru for Solidarity, the social justice advocacy group that is “working to end detention sites and support directly impacted immigrant and refugee communities that are being targeted by racist, inhumane immigration policies,” according to their mission. The Day of Remembrance honors the 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans whom the United States forcibly incarcerated during WWII.
Much of the attention turned to the Chinatown-International District (CID) this week, as the rally drew both a large crowd and local media. Pike Place Market’s decision to cancel as location host with less than two weeks to go until the event also drew local attention.
In a statement released this week, Tsuru for Solidarity spoke of the National Day of Remembrance, and likened the forced incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans to what immigrants are facing under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Leaders of the organization, including founder and executive director Mike Ishii and Stanley Shikuma, a member of the organization’s leadership council, spoke out against the White House’s anti-immigrant policies.
Tsuru for Solidarity founder and executive director Mike Ishii addresses a crowd of more than 400 people, during the Day of Remembrance rally on Feb. 19, 2025. Photo by Chris Nishiwaki.
“I grew up in this community. I was born and raised here. My mother grew up in the streets of Nihonmachi. Our family had businesses here. So I come from this place,” Ishii said at Wednesday morning’s rally. “And I’m so heartened to see everyone here today on a really cold and dismal day, to come out and speak your resistance and we have to keep coming out and showing up.”
Ishii insisted that attendees talk with their friends and family, and bring more people to such rallies—”because that is how we will build this resistance because right now people are very afraid and if we let them control the narrative here, they will roll over us.”
“They are cruel,” Ishii continued. “They are very cruel. They have no moral compass. And so we must show up and demonstrate it and come together and be very vocal and present a united front.”
Shikuma talked about the current “climate of fear” in the United States, spurred on and underscored by Trump’s and his followers’ anti-immigrant, anti-transgender, and anti-choice rhetoric. But while it was clear on the campaign trail that Trump would target such communities and people, what was not clear, Shikuma said, was that federal government workers would also be targeted.
“Anybody who works in diversity, equity, and inclusion would be targeted. Anybody who gets a federal grant for healthcare, for cancer research, for saving the environment, would be targeted,” Shikuma said. “And so there is a great climate of fear in this country. And fear can paralyze people. So the important thing is that we need to fight against the fear. We need to overcome the fear. We need to do something for each other. And not just think about ourselves.”
The rally was originally planned for the Pike Place Market, until the market’s foundation suddenly backed out. Following public disapproval over its actions, the Pike Place Market Foundation released a statement acknowledging the harm it had done, in canceling as host for the event, and that it was “in communication with Tsuru for Solidarity and are requesting the opportunity for a repair process.”
The Pike Place Market Foundation did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and no further plans to host such events have been announced.
Local legislators are also aiming to strengthen protections for migrant workers who are undocumented. A bill introduced into the state legislature by Sen. Bob Hasegawa (D-Tukwila) protecting workers from employer retaliation passed out of the State Senate last week and was introduced to the State House this week in Olympia. Hasegawa is a co-sponsor on the bill.
The bill is meant to prevent employers from using an employee’s or the employee’s family’s immigration status to coerce that employee.
“This bill is about fairness and respect for individuals as workers,” Hasegawa said in an early February statement on the bill. “Not only do immigrants contribute significantly to our economy as laborers, but they also pay an estimated $2.3 billion in taxes.”
Hasegawa also pointed to the “huge imbalance of power in a workplace from the get-go.”
“Employers always have the leverage in any employer-employee relationship,” Hasegawa said, “because they control the money, but it’s compounded by the fact that they can threaten to turn employees or their family members over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they complain about illegal or unsafe practices in their workplace.”
Toshiko Hasegawa, Seattle Port Commission president and Hasegawa’s daughter, attended Wednesday’s rally. She said that her tenure as executive director of Washington State’s Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs inspired her father’s bill.
“This presidential administration has a machine gun approach where they’re spraying at everybody. Everybody’s a target, so everybody ducks. But an event like this reminds folks that there is a plan,” Toshiko Hasegawa said. “There are things that we can do. There are things that we can do right here, even on the local level, to make sure that everybody’s safe.”
Hasegawa told attendees of her work as Port Commission president to come up with strategies to oppose the expansion of ICE operations at SeaTac Airport. She spoke of the many local collaborations it takes to do this—underscoring her and the Port Commission’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Her office, Hasegawa said, wants to “make sure that all people are safe and empowered—not just within our workforce, but in our communities as well, and partnering with folks at the city of SeaTac and other places to make sure that folks know what their rights are, to know what their resources are.”
Chris can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.