The House honored an inspirational leader on Tuesday with the passage of House Bill 2776, a bill that will rededicate an education program he was instrumental in creating as the Kip Tokuda Memorial Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program.
Kip Tokuda represented the 37th Legislative District in Seattle from 1994-2002 and was a civic and political leader among the Asian American community until his unexpected death on July 13, 2013. Tokuda was born in 1946, shortly after his American-born parents were released from the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho.
House Bill 2776 passed unanimously shortly after a moving tribute from Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, the bill’s primary sponsor and Tokuda’s former seatmate.
“To many of us here and in the other chamber, Kip was a friend and a colleague,” said Santos. “At home he was a father and a community leader. He was the distinguished gentleman from the 37th district and for a short time—too short—he was my senior seatmate.”
The Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program was established in 2000 to educate the public on the history and lessons of the forcible removal and incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
“Kip Tokuda was the driving force behind the creation of the Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program,” Santos said. “Tokuda was a man who understood the power of education to strengthen society and our democratic institutions.”
He cared about all ideas and was passionate about education and civil liberties—one of the reasons why establishing a legacy of remembrance through the Kip Tokuda Memorial Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program is so appropriate.
“This reflects the kind of impressions that motivated the man who spent a lifetime as a compassionate champion for the vulnerable in our society and as a conscientious defender of our precious birthrights,” Santos said.
Rep. Santos speaks in support of HB 2776 on the House Floor