Marii Kyogoku Hasegawa in San Francisco in 1966. (Photo courtesy Library of Virginia)
One of this year’s Virginia Women in History honorees was an international human rights and peace advocate who was born near Hiroshima, Japan, and spent time in an internment camp during World War II.
Another is a Portsmouth native who grew up with a mother on welfare and an absent father — and reached high positions in the presidential adminstrations of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as well as the Cabinet of former Virginia Gov. George Allen.
Both called Richmond home.
Marii Kyogoku Hasegawa, who died in 2012, was in her early 20s when the United States declared war on Japan. She had studied home economics at the University of California-Berkeley, and when she and her parents were forced to go to a Japanese internment camp in Utah, she served as a social worker and kitchen manager until her release in 1943. Hasegawa devoted the rest of her life to promoting human rights, world peace and disarmament.
A Richmond resident from 1965 to 2001, she was a founding member of the Richmond Peace Education Center. While U.S.-section president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in the early 1970s, she joined a delegation of women who visited North Vietnam in 1973.
“Marii was a very quiet and humble women who didn’t talk about herself a lot,” says Betsy Brinson, who knew her through the YWCA of Richmond. "She was very dedicated to what she believed in, which was for peace and against war. She had a mission to promote peace and she did that.”
Marii Kyogoku Hasegawa at a YWCA event in 1986. (Family photo)
Compassionate, curious, and determined are words Hasegawa’s daughters, Maya and Kimi Hasegawa, use to describe their mother, who spent the last years of her life in Massachusetts.
“She was just so steadfast in her beliefs and the futility of war and the rights of people to be treated equally,” Kimi says. “You think of dynamic, and I might say adventurous even. She's not someone who would get up and speak in a loud voice.”
“She was assertive but in a very quiet way,” Maya says. “If you were in a meeting with her, you always knew when you left what she thought.”
Kay Coles James (Courtesy Library of Virginia)
Kay Coles James grew up in Richmond, where, as a child, she spent a few years living in public housing. She started her career in public service by working for Housing Opportunities Made Equal after graduating from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). In 1989, James joined the federal government as an assistant secretary for public affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Two years later, James was named associate director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by then-President George H. W. Bush. She continued her work with the Bush family in 2001, becoming director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during former President George W. Bush’s administration.
Between presidencies, James served as Gov. George Allen’s secretary of health and human resources, where she helped to shape and implement Virginia’s welfare reform initiatives.
“I was really blessed to be able to get Kay, who I think was the most perfect person in the universe to lead our welfare-to-work initiative,” Allen says. “She’s knowledgeable. She's smart. She's a captivating speaker. And then, her experiences were relevant and motivating in this whole effort.”
James was able to discuss issues such as welfare and teen pregnancy in a way that Allen could not, the former governor says. “When Kay would talk about those issues, in particular, people would smile, laugh and get it. If I did it, people would say, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Well, Kay says it all the time.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, you're not Kay. Kay can say those things.’ So she was very, very instrumental, helpful in her leadership.”
James served on numerous boards and commissions during her nearly 30-year career, as well as founding The Gloucester Institute to train leaders who seek solutions to social and economic problems within the African-American community. She became president of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy organization, in December after being a trustee for 12 years.
Hasegawa and James are among eight to receive Women in History recognition. Living honorees include musician and civil rights activist Gaye Todd Adegbalola, poet Rita Dove and writer Barbara Kingsolver. Also being honored are the late legislator Mary Aydelotte Rice Marshall, who represented Arlington County in the House of Delegates from 1966 to 1969 and 1972 to 1991; Jamestown colonist Temperance Flowerdew Yeardley, who endured “the Starving Time” during the winter of 1609-1610 and died in 1628; and Isabella Gibbons, who grew up in slavery and, after the Civil War, established a school for freed people in Charlottesville (she died in 1890).
After starting the nomination process in mid 2017, a committee consisting of employees from the Library of Virginia considered 21 women to be honored.
“We take a variety of factors into account, including time period, field of endeavor, and region so that all areas of the state are represented,” says Mari Julienne, the Library of Virginia’s education and outreach department historian. “We always consider nominations that come in from school groups or from interested people in the general public.”
The Virginia Women in History program is displayed at the Library of Virginia and at the Historic Christ Church in Lancaster County till the end of March. The program will travel to various libraries around the state to those interested in hosting the program. The eight honorees will be recognized during evening reception March 22 at the Library of Virginia Lecture Hall and Lobby. The event is free and open to the public.
Information about the reception or the programs traveling schedule can be found here. Brief bios of the 2018 honorees can be found here.
