Rosalyn Tonai, Executive Director, NJAHS spoke at SONA Press Conference.
Photo by Dr. Ellen Sawamura.
Edited excerpts of her speech at Press Conference on August 24, 2026:
Thank you Congressman Mullin for your leadership today.
Greetings, historical societies, university faculty, researchers, genealogists, and SONA Coalition members. Thank you for coming out today to the San Francisco National Archives to SAVE OUR NATIONAL ARCHIVES!
It was back in 1998, that this National Archives Regional Office in San Bruno was threatened with closure. But our communities ever vigilant rallied to form Save Our National Archives or SONA. Led by the tireless Jennie LEW and Jeanie LOW, SONA moved expeditiously to alert the late, great congressman Tom Lantos, chair of the House Appropriation Committee, and whose OWN files as a WWII refugee from Europe, were housed within these walls. He helped us lead the charge to keep the Archives open. Then his successor, the great Congresswoman Jackie Speier in the 2000’s and 2010’s secured hundreds of thousands of the Alien Files or A-Files — many of these incredibly historic records of our ancestors dating back to the 1890s were physically transferred here to the San Bruno office for so many of us to access and view first hand.
Fast forward to today… We are grateful to Congressman Kevin Mullin who has picked up the mantle to be OUR partner in this historic fight to Save our National archives once again. The National Archives is the treasure that holds the truth to the stories of millions of Americans who have secured their place in America’s history. Whether it’s Native Americans to the first immigrants who set foot on Angel Island to civil rights leader Fred Korematsu who challenged the Supreme Court on WWII incarceration to the over 5,000 Japanese American incarcerees who fought to restore their rightful citizenship, their stories are held in these records. And these records reveal All the stories of who we are as Americans.
Yet simply Digitizing them is not enough. Because the National Archives should remain as a placekeeper of Original, fragile, documents, a safe keeper of testimonials and of America’s public histories that should never, ever be destroyed, buried or erased.
Let’s do our part to keep the National Archives intact. Thank you very much.
NJAHS encourages our supporters to sign the petition, and write to your Congressman and Senators.
