Northside Friends shares its brick-and-mortar address with the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC), but our relationship is far deeper than just “renter”. Friends have enjoyed expanding community interactions with our Japanese-American neighbors. Before lockdown a number of Northsiders attended monthly “Soup and Rice” community suppers at JASC. At a January 2020 Second Hour Bill Yoshino, former Executive Director of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), spoke to Friends about Japanese American incarceration during World War II and the post-war redress campaign in which he played an important national role.
NFM continues its connection to the Japanese-American community with Tsuru for Solidarity, Japanese-American social justice advocates working to end immigrant detention sites and support immigrant and refugee communities. They honor the Japanese-Americans who suffered the atrocities of US concentration camps during WWII, and remind us that Never Again is NOW.
A demonstration in Washington, DC was planned for June 2020 to protest the incarceration of immigrant children, youths, and families seeking safety in our country. Tsuru is Japanese for ‘crane’ and symbolizes peace, hope, and healing. The demonstration event, Tsuru Rising, uses origami cranes to represent the hundreds of thousands of immigrants imprisoned at American detention centers. Due to the pandemic lockdown, the in-person event was re-scheduled for 2021, and organizers hope to carry 525,000 tsuru to hang on the White House fence.
In support of Tsuru Rising, NFM’s Committee for Ministry on Racism partnered with Chicago’s Japanese American Citizens League to sponsor an on-line tsuru fold-in event. More than 20 F/friends attended the September 27 Second Hour. JACL President Lisa Doi and Suzanne’s daughter Elizabeth Benko gave crane-folding instruction in a breakout room while others folded and engaged with the online community.
The number of tsuru that can be created in a single Second Hour is limited. Also, some Friends (including myself!) required additional instruction. The website EZ-Origami was helpful for many of us, and when Suzanne collected the combined efforts of half a dozen dedicated Friends, several hundred tsuru were delivered to Lisa at JACL for the 2021 Tsuru Rising.
I kept practicing, and folding tsuru became easier and easier. Making tsuru is practically mindless for me now, therefore deeply relaxing. I don’t have to think while folding tsuru; I barely even need to watch. I can fold cranes while doing anything that doesn’t require my hands.
In meetings of Hand & Spirit (check the calendar on the Events page for our next meeting!) we talk about how handwork helps us connect to Spirit. Quilting is my favorite hand work, but origami is better for when I need to be paying closer attention: when I’m speaking in Meeting for Business, or clerking a committee meeting … or, yes, sometimes even when I’m seeing patients via telemedicine. Don’t tell on me, please! Whether I’m stitching or folding, when my hands are doing something familiar the noisiest part of my mind shuts down and I’m more available to messages from lecturers, patients, Friends, and from Spirit.
NFM has already contributed hundreds of tsuru for the 2021 Tsuru Rising. You can still make more tsuru, as I have, for the next several months. Contact Sarz (sarzmd@gmail.com) or Suzanne (ruchsue1@gmail.com) and we’ll get them to Lisa Doi at JACL. It’ll be great to see tsuru from NFM hanging on Constitution Avenue!