Founded in 1947 after WWII, The Japanese American Medical Association (JAMA) is a Southern California non-profit, tax-exempt organization, comprised of physicians and their spouses. JAMA's physicians are involved in multiple medical specialties and subspecialties, and practice in private practice, health care maintenance organizations, and university-based settings.
JAMA's purposes are to maintain and advance the professionalism of its physicians in the communities of Southern California and to promote the social relationships of its members and spouses.
JAMA's members are active in:
- Providing excellent medical care to their communities
- Providing a social network for its members
- Supporting physicians of the future, by providing yearly scholarships for medical students
- Supporting community events in health-related endeavors
- JAMA's history during and after the imprisonment; the final product, Silent Scars of Healing Hands, is now re-published!!! And available for purchase at JANM's website at www.janm.org.
History of JAMA
The Japanese American Medical Association was established in 1947 and is the oldest Japanese American professional group in Southern California. JAMA was founded to create a social and professional network for members to share information, to establish referrals for patients, and to socialize with spouses and other physicians. At the time of JAMA's establishment, Japanese physicians were not permitted to practice in most Los Angeles hospitals, making cooperative communication imperative.
JAMA has obtained a tax-exempt status that permitted it to become a charitable organization for sponsorship of a Scholarship Fund. The first Scholarship Awards were presented on April 29, 2007. JAMA has also completed its book, Silent Scars of Healing Hands, to record the oral histories of some of its pioneering members of the World War II internment period. The publication, funded by the California Civil Liberties Education Program, represents a medical legacy for future generations.
On June 10, 1997, the Japanese American Cultural Community Center presented the President's Award to JAMA for 50 years of distinguished service to the community. JAMA has enjoyed a significant history, reflective of its members and their achievements, and looks forward to continued growth in our organization.
Our Mission
The Past: The mission of JAMA is to preserve and transmit the legacy of our founding members who embodied the importance of providing excellent health care & service to our communities. In 2004, under the leadership of past JAMA president Gordon Sasaki, the "Silent Scars of Healing Hands" book was published, which documents the oral histories of the Nikkei physicians & nurses in the prison camps. This book went out of print in 2006, but JAMA was able to have the book re-published in December of 2025. We hope the book serves as a reminder of the hardships that our ancestors experienced, so that we might practice medicine in a time of relative peace & harmony.
The Present: We aim to offer professional networking for physicians and physicians in training, while also providing a means of social gathering for our members and their families. We also are involved in community service, partnering with Koreisha Senior Care & Advocacy, through our yearly Nikkei Health Fair, where Japanese speaking patients can come and obtain medical information from Japanese & English speaking health care providers from various medical specialties. Other opportunities for community service will come, with the opening of the Seinan-Koreisha Adult Day Care Center, located in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, which has many memories of Nikkei life after WWII to the mid 1970's.
The Future: JAMA actively supports our medical students through our yearly $5,000 scholarship, to assist them as they complete their training, for our physicians of the future.
Upcoming Events
Our next JAMA Scholarship Banquet is tentatively scheduled for spring of 2027 as a Sunday luncheon, and we will keep you up to date as the event draws near.
Koreisha Senior Care & Advocacy and JAMA are also planning our yearly Nikkei Health Fair on Sunday October 25, 2026 at 12 noon; and our host will be the St Francis Xavier Chapel - Japanese Catholic Center (MaryKnoll) near Little Tokyo. Previously known as MaryKnoll Japanese Catholic Church, the church is now the last remaining Japanese Catholic Church in the country, which has served the Japanese before and after World War II, despite widespread discrimination against the Nikkei community.
Past Events
We were privileged to have author & director Jeffrey Chin present his short film, "Lil Tokyo Reporter," and his book "A Rebel's Outcry," about the life of Sei Fujii at our April 2026 Spring Banquet, with Cindy Abrams and Karen Chu from the Little Tokyo Historical Society (LTHS). Sei Fujii was the Japanese-American community equivalent to Martin Luther King Jr, and even though everybody knows MLK, hardly any of us (even in the Nikkei community) knew of Sei Fujii. Sei Fujii successfully challenged the US Supreme Court to open Japanese Hospital in 1928, and also successfully challenged the California Supreme Court to overturn the California Alien Land Law in 1952. Although he graduated law school at USC, he could not legally practice since he was Japanese, so he partnered with a former classmate, J. Marion Wright to challenge the Supreme Court. The opening of Japanese Hospital in 1929 was crucial for the survival of the Nikkei community, as Japanese physicians were not allowed to practice at most hospitals, and surprisingly, most Japanese were not allowed admission to most US hospitals. We also awarded our annual JAMA Scholarship to Chiaki Takebayashi! See the pictures above, and in the scholarship section of our website! We like to thank our sponsors again, Bulgantamir Enkh-Erdene and Khaliun Otgonbat, for allowing us to use the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.
For many years, the Taisho Club use to provide an annual Nikkei health fair, but due to its aging members, the Taisho club disbanded in 2017. In attempt to resurrect the tradition of the Taisho club, JAMA provided physician support for the Nikkei health fair (picture below), in coordination with Koreisha Senior Care & Advocacy (www.koreishasca.org), and on 10/29/23, 10/26/24, 10/26/25 at the Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center, provided general health information to the Nikkei community! This would not have been possible without the work of Toshiko Sugiyama (KSCA volunteer), John Kanai (president of KSCA), Masano Siu (KSCA volunteer), and Michael Toji (secretary of KSCA). Much thanks to our KSCA colleagues, JAMA physicians, medical staff, Japanese translators, volunteers, and all of our sponsors, which included Keiro, who made all this possible.
The JAMA auxiliary hosted Jeanne Kanemistu, an artist in Japanese handcrafted cardmaking, at the JACCC on 9/21/24. Jeanne now lives in Las Vegas, but came all the way to perform a demonstration, with proceeds from her sales going to JAMA. I've included pictures of her work, with cards so nice, you'd want to frame them. See pictures below.
Manzanar trip
On April 11, 2026, Troy Kaji organized a group tour of Manzanar for a group of friends from northern CA, and JAMA. Starting out from the visitor center, he guided us through the mess hall, barracks, Merritt park gardens, and the cemetery, displaying the kanji writings "I(ee) Rei To," meaning "Soul Consoling Tower." In our world of hustle and bustle, Troy read excerpt of his father's book, "Jive Bomber," and led us in a time of reflection, remembering the past experiences of hardship that our ancestors experienced, so that we might live in a time of relative peace & harmony.
Interesting Links
If you're interested in viewing our Zoom conference that was held on 3/19/24, which was a powerpoint presentation (English w/ Japanese translation), titled "Cancer in the Nikkei Community," please copy the URL below to KSCA's website that has the video on youtube:
https://www.koreishasca.org/post/ksca-2024-medical-seminar-1-cancer-in-the-nikkei-community-was-held-via-zoom-on-march-19th-2024
If you'd like to read our memorial edition of our newsletter from 2025 where we give a tribute to our past JAMA members and supporters, please copy the link below.
https://mailchi.mp/f408c0eb9a6a/jama-newsletter-january-2019-please-forward-to-interested-colleagues-16530473
If you'd like to read our newsletter from 2026 where we share the story of the last Nikkei church in Manhattan NY, how it was established by an Issei man walking from Oregon to NY, and the story of one of its members, a 90 year-old "hibakusha," please copy the link below.
https://mailchi.mp/5e3e6bebd815/jama-newsletter-january-2019-please-forward-to-interested-colleagues-16538396
