Rising to Our Potential this APIDA History Month
May 3, 2024
Dear Campus Community,
Before Edwin Sasaki turned two, he was imprisoned, along with his family, in the Tule Lake Segregation Center in Newell, California. His earliest childhood memories were formed behind barbed-wire fences where guards shouted and mothers taught their children to read inside rudimentary wooden shacks under the looming shadow of Castle Rock, an 800-foot-high basalt bluff jutting out from the earth.
Tule Lake Segregation Center, one of ten Japanese Internment Camps in the U.S. during World War II, held nearly 19,000 men, women and children who were forcibly moved after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
Despite the injustice of his family’s 15-month imprisonment, the camp failed to defeat Edwin. After the war and the closing of the camps, Edwin began elementary school, where he excelled through high school. His hard work earned him acceptance to Willamette University, where he pursued his dreams rooted in engineering and sociology.
His dreams and drive led him to become a U.S. Air Force officer and researcher studying the effects of weightlessness on perception and motor performance. His steadfastness helped usher in the US-USSR Apollo–Soyuz test project — our planet’s first international space partnership — and contributed to America’s first spacewalk. And the pursuit of his dreams led him into my life, as a founding professor at the California State University, Bakersfield Psychology Department.
He was a tremendous individual. An incredible innovator, an exceptional educator, a marvelous mentor and my dear friend. As we celebrate Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month this May, I remember my late friend and former colleague Edwin Sasaki. A man who served our nation as an officer in the Air Force and shaped countless lives as a professor, Boy Scout Scoutmaster and loving husband, father, grandfather and friend. A man who never allowed challenges to limit his potential.
His bravery and strength epitomize the resilience of millions of other East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi Americans we honor this month. As I celebrate the memory of Edwin and his extraordinary contributions, I ask you to honor one another’s experiences and work to advance the spirit of inclusion on our campus.
You can support the community by learning more about APIDA cultures and histories and joining local cultural events throughout the month.
I also encourage you to visit the Asian & Pacific Islander Student Center to meet the students and staff and learn more about its resources and programming taking place this May — and all year round.
It is not just right, but imperative we share stories like Edwin’s, to reveal the multicultural fabric that holds together our nation. Our university thrives through the celebration and sharing of the diverse histories, experiences and perspectives that built our communities, nation and world. Only when we bring to light stories like Edwin’s can we continue shaping our world for the better. I look forward to hearing about and celebrating the diverse and multicultural stories of our CPP community!
Sincerely,
Soraya M. Coley, Ph.D.
President