In April 2016, we had a series of events in NJ and NY featuring Tamaki Matsuoka, known as the “Conscience of Japan.” Tamaki Matsuoka, a Japanese elementary school history teacher who during the last 28 years has tried to find out just exactly what happened in Nanking during the Nanking Massacre (December 1937 – January 1938). During this process, she has become a journalist, researcher, and activist. She interviewed more than 250 former Japanese soldiers who fought in Nanking during that period, and over 300 Nanking Massacre Chinese survivors. She has traveled between Japan and China more than 90 times during this period.

She has written numerous articles, produced several documentary films, and published several books, including the just published (March 2016) English book Torn Memories of Nanking. The awards she has won include:

• Japan Congress of Journalist Prize (2003)
• The Nanking Massacre Contribution Award (2004)
• Her documentary film Torn Memories of Nanjing was nominated for the Documentary Film Section at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2010.

Click on “Tamaki’s Bio” to access the file “Tamaki Matsuoka Bio-English.pdf.” For more information about Tamaki and her new English book Torn Memories of Nanking, see the article “Torn Memories of Nanking: A Must Read”: http://www.dontow.com/2016/06/torn-memories-of-nanking-a-must-read/.

An almost full room of people had a very meaningful, educational, and enjoyable evening on an event that featured three different types of programs:

• Recollection by Mr. Chu-Yeh Chang of his experience as a 14-year-old boy who was a victim and survivor of the Nanking Massacre causes one to ask how can humans do such inhumane actions to other humans

• Very educational talk by Dr. Don Tow on “The Doolittle Raid: Mission Impossible and Its Impact on the U.S. and China”

• Most enjoyable rendition of several popular and WWII songs sung by internationally acclaimed and Global Music Awards winner Mr. Chai-lun Yueh

The 2015 Peace and Reconciliation Asia Study Tour took place successfully July 9-23, 2015.  The NJ-ALPHA organized tour visited Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Harbin, and Beijing in China.  Originally the tour was supposed to visit also Seoul.  Because of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the visit to Seoul was cancelled and a couple extra days were added to Beijing.   There were 17 participants from the U.S., Canada, and Hong Kong, with most being teachers/educators at the middle school, high school, and college levels.   We visited and had discussions with many leading researchers, historians, activists, and legal experts on comfort women, slave laborers, Nanking Massacre,  biological/chemical warfare, as well as visiting a residence of several Chinese WWII veterans (four male soldiers and one female nurse).   The sessions that had the greatest impacts and were most remembered deeply by the participants were the testimonies from a former comfort woman, a former slave laborer, two victims/survivors of the Nanking Massacre, two victims/survivors of explosions from WWII-left over chemical weapons, and a daughter of a man who was murdered by the Japanese military via vivisection.

All the participants described the study tour as a life-changing, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and committed themselves to incorporate this part of history into the courses they teach and facilitate other teachers to do likewise, and help make this part of history more widely-known.  The participants’ testimonies are posted in the Study Tour page.

The next Peace and Reconciliation Asia Study Tour will take place in the summer of 2017.  There will not be a study tour in the summer of 2016.

We are beginning to establish a NY-ALPHA. Our first event on 12/11/14 was jointly sponsored with the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives of the Queensboro Community College in Queens. For that event we showed the documentary “Torn Memories of Nanjing” produced and directed by the Japanese school teacher and journalist Tamaki Matsuoka, who dedicated more than 25 years of her life to find out what really happened at the Nanking Massacre.  She interviewed more than 250 former Japanese soldiers who were in Nanking during that period and over 300 Chinese survivors and eyewitnesses of the Nanking Massacre.

Talks and Films about the “Forgotten Atrocity” of WWII at the Madison Public Library:

• “Brief Overview of the “Forgotten Atrocity” of WWII
  Don M. Tow:  Ph.D. and President of NJ-ALPHA (15 minutes)
•  “John Magee’s Testament”
  Private film by American missionary John Magee during the Nanking Massacre in 1937 (25 minutes)
•  “Unit 731 Japanese Human Medical Experiments”
  Part 2 of 5-part program from History Channel – 1998 (10 minutes)
• “Torn Memories of Nanjing”
  Abridged version of documentary film by Tamaki Matsuoka (13 minutes)
•  “Good People Facing Atrocities”
  Sharon Dolled:  Special Education Teacher, Memorial Middle School, Howell, and participant of the 2012 Peace & Reconciliation Asia Study Tour (30 minutes)

Click here for the flyer of the event

The 2014 Peace and Reconciliation Asia Study Tour took place July 12-24, 2014.  The tour visited Shanghai, Nanjing, and Harbin in China, and Seoul in South Korea.  The 2014 tour was organized by Toronto ALPHA.  There was a total of 19 participants from Canada and the U.S., including teachers, educators, film producers, lawyers, and other professionals.  NJ-ALPHA sent six people to the tour (including two NJ-ALPHA staff members).  Based on the feedback from the participants, the tour was very educational and successful.   From the Study Tour page, you can read the testimonies from the NJ-ALPHA participants from 2014 and earlier years.

We have an ongoing fundraising campaign soliciting contributions from individuals, foundations, and companies. Our largest expense each year is the fellowships we provide to help sponsor a group of participants to the Peace and Reconciliation Asia Study Tour. The target participants are:

• High school/middle school/college teachers/educators
• Reporters/journalists, film makers, lawyers, other professionals
• Community leaders, activists

The Asia Study Tour is an intensive two-week immersion program to enhance the participants’ understanding of the historical, cultural, and political background of the Asian countries during the Asia-Pacific War 1931-1945. More information about the Asia Study Tour can be found in the “Study Tour” page.

The donations are also used to support a variety of programs that NJ-ALPHA sponsors each year for our schools and our communities. The services of all NJ-ALPHA officers are donated.

We especially encourage donors to seek matching contributions from their employers via programs such as United Way.

We have received donations from many people, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. A contribution of $3,000 will sponsor one participant for the Asia Study Tour, and the donor can name a fellowship to honor a person or an organization of the donor’s choice for one year. If one contributes $15,000, then the donor can name a fellowship to honor a person or an organization of the donor’s choice for five years. For the 2017 Asia Study Tour, NJ-ALPHA would like to sponsor 15 participants, and that alone would require $45,000.

We have the following categories of donors:

• Benefactors: $15,000 or more
• Sponsors: $3,000 – $14,999
• Diamond Donors: $1,000 – $2,999
• Platinum Donors: $500 – $999
• Gold Donors: $300 – $499
• Silver Donors: $100 – $299
• Bronze Donors: Any amount up to $99

A receipt will be sent whenever a donation is received.

NJ-ALPHA is an established non-profit educational 501(c)(3) organization duly registered with the U.S. federal government (Federal Tax I.D. # is 73-1734843). We welcome your tax-deductible donations of any amount. Checks should be made payable to NJ-ALPHA, and mailed to:

NJ-ALPHA
P. O. Box 1121
Piscataway, NJ 08855

A special exhibition and presentation on “Japan’s Biological and Chemical Warfare in China” was held on September 11, 2013 at Brookdale Community College (BCC) in Lincroft, NJ. Click here (link to Attachment 3) for a flyer of that event. Continue reading →