Frank and Joanne Iritani were honored by the JACL Northern California Western Nevada Pacific District Council as “Unsung Heroes” and received a gold medal for their distinction on March 27, 2004 , at the Blackhawk Automobile Museum in Danville , California . Throughout their lives, through their volunteer and professional endeavors, Frank and Joanne have benefited the communities in which they live, as well as benefited the lives of those beyond the boundaries of their immediate community. In addition to being honored by the NCWNP District, the Iritani’s were this year’s recipients of the Florin Japanese American Citizens League Community Service Award in January.  

Frank and Joanne are both Nisei. Frank was born near Denver , Colorado , where his parents farmed after immigration from Okayama , Japan . He has received degrees from the University of Minnesota and Pacific School of Religion. Joanne was born in Bakersfield , California where her parents farmed after immigration from Fukushima , Japan . Joanne is a former Poston internee. She has degrees from the University of California , Berkeley , and California State University , Bakersfield . Frank celebrated his retirement in 1986, and Joanne in 1989, while still living in Bakersfield . Since 1992, they have lived in Sacramento and are active members of the local community. They have three grown children – Susanna, Ken, and Bonita – and five grandchildren.  

As a young man, Frank volunteered to serve his nation in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), and then went on to devote the remainder of his working years to other admirable service related careers, first as a Christian minister and later as a social worker. In his retirement, Frank has continued to devote his spare time to improving the lives of others less fortunate, as a home-visitation volunteer for homebound seniors and as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. He has served on numerous Boards and Commissions, including: the Human Relations Committee in a Kern County Board of Supervisors appointed position; the Kern County Democratic Central Committee; Kern County Commission on Aging; and Sacramento County Public Health Advisory Committee. Frank is a strong advocate for achieving self-determination through education and exercising one’s voting rights. He Co-Chaired the Nisei Student Commemorative Scholarship Fund for the Greater Sacramento Valley and provided numerous educational opportunities to Southeast Asian High School student. He has also dedicated hundreds of hours staffing voter registration booths at local events and at local stores, as part of the League of Women’s Voters Voter Registration Campaign.

 Joanne has had an admirable career in the field of education, as a special education teacher. In addition to her career, she has always maintained active involvement in church-related volunteer activities. She currently holds numerous leadership positions in her church, including Sunday School Teacher, Chair of the Christian Education Committee, Newsletter Editor, and Secretary of both the United Methodist Union and the California-Nevada Conference. A strong advocate for human relations, Joanne formerly served on the Bakersfield Sister City Committee and assisted in the coordination of international visits and cultural exchange with Japan ’s Wakayama City . She is also actively involved in the preservation of Japanese cultural arts through various leadership positions and activities related to the Ikebana International, Sacramento Chapter.

 Few others have put in more time or energy into preserving the legacy of the Japanese American WWII experience and sharing the lessons about the importance of the U.S. Constitution, than Joanne and Frank. Joanne served two terms as President of the Florin JACL, and is the current Chair of the Education Committee. In addition, she and Frank both conducted numerous oral history interviews with Nisei who were residents of the Florin community before and after WWII. Joanne also devoted hundreds of hours to preparing oral history transcripts and photographs for printing and binding, cataloguing archives for the Japanese American Archival Collection (a joint project of the Florin JACL and the California State University, Sacramento), and setting up displays for and making presentations at the Time of Remembrance – an annual program that lasts several weeks and reaches thousands of school children throughout the Sacramento Valley. Frank authored and published numerous articles over the years on Asian American issues and perspectives in such reputable media as the Rafu Shimpo, Pacific Citizen, Hokubei Mainichi, and Asian Week. They both serve on the Japanese American Archival Collection Advisory Committee (a joint project of the Florin JACL and the California State University , Sacramento ). Together, they traveled to all ten Japanese American WWII Internment Camps and published “Ten Visits,” a book about their journey. They actively participated in the effort that resulted in the kiosk and memorial construction at the Poston Camp. They also helped get valuable signatures in support of Redress from what otherwise would have been a lost Congressional District covering Kern, Santa Barbara , and rural parts of Los Angeles County . Together, Joanne and Frank founded and published Kern Asian Pacific American News – a monthly newsletter.

 Overall, their contributions have made a significant impact on a number of extremely important issues related to civil rights and human relations. They facilitated justice being achieved in Redress, helped to preserve the legacy of Japanese Americans, teach new generations of Japanese Americans and non-Japanese Americans about the lessons of WWII and the continued importance of upholding civil rights of all people today, increased voter participation in the community at large but also especially among the Asian Pacific Islander American communities, and are outstanding role models for civic engagement.

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