The Japanese American Veterans Association was among the special invitees that witnessed the historic signing of the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments of 2006 by President George Bush on July 27, 2006, at the White House. 

The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments renews and strengthens our Nation’s commitment to enforce the right to vote for all Americans.  It represents a bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives and Senate and strong leadership by the President. 

President Bush started his remarks with the declaration that all men are created equal.  He noted that, “The right of ordinary men and women to determine their own political future lies at the hear of the American experiment, and it is a right that has been won by the sacrifice of patriots.”   President Bush retold the story of African Americans who were attacked and bloodied by policemen in March 1965 as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.  The Nation’s swift response was to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  In closing, the President noted that “we’ve made progress toward equality, yet the work for a more perfect union is never ending.  We’ll continue to build on the legal equality won by the civil rights movement to help ensure that every person enjoys the opportunity that this great land of liberty offers.” 

JAVA General Counsel Gerald Yamada, who attended the ceremony as JAVA’s representative,  said that, “President Bush’s remarks reminds me that we must also remember the sacrifices and contributions made the Japanese American soldiers who fought to keep America safe while their family and friends were imprisoned in interments camps.  Like those who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, Japanese Americans were patriots whose sacrifices during World War II helped to make progress for the equality for Japanese Americans and other minority groups.” 

As the President signed the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act, he noted  that the legislation is named in honor of three heroes of American history who devoted their lives to civil rights: Fannie Lou Harner, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King.