Three Japanese-Americans — a long-time advocate of the two countries' friendship, an aspiring basketball coach and a psychology professor — were among 15 women of Asian or Pacific Island heritage honored at the White House as this year's Champions of Change.
"We remember Asian-American and Pacific Islanders who have made our country bigger and brighter again and again, from Native Hawaiians to the generations of striving immigrants who shape our history, reaching and sweating and scraping to give their children something more," Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama and chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, said after Monday's ceremony, quoting a presidential proclamation.
"Their story is the American story, and this month we honor them all," Jarrett said.