On July 25, The Fighting 442: Live With Honor, Die With Dignity, a new film by Ann Haneda that documents the heroic exploits of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Japanese American unit that fought gallantly in Europe during World War II, makes its Southern California debut at the Japan America Theatre in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. Read the rest of this entry »
In recent weeks, more California colleges and universities bestowed honorary degrees on former Japanese American students who were forced to leave their respective campuses due to their forced relocation from the West Coast and imprisonment in American concentration camps during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
LONE PINE, CA AND LOS ANGELES — Thirteen years ago, a group of about forty people, primarily college students, gathered for an evening program at a campground just west of Independence, California, about six miles north of the Manzanar National Historic Site.
That evening, they talked about Manzanar and the Japanese American Internment experience, along with its surrounding issues, during an intergenerational group discussion, connecting the past with present-day concerns. They also shared their own experiences through creative means such as poetry and other cultural performances.
Eryn Tokuhara (center) listens intently to a former Japanese American concentration camp prisoner tell his story during a small group
discussion at the 2010 Manzanar At Dusk program, held at
Lone Pine High School on April 24, 2010.
Photo: Gann Matsuda
As the program grew in popularity, it eventually moved to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall in Independence, attracting up to 135 people. In 2007, MAD moved to the Manzanar National Historic Site Interpretive Center, which was filled wall-to-wall with 240 participants.
The last three years, MAD has been held at Lone Pine High School in Lone Pine, California, about eight miles south of the Manzanar National Historic Site, drawing record crowds up to 360 people in 2009.
Although the format has had to change a bit over the years as the popularity of the program has increased dramatically, the MAD program remains true to its 1997 origins in that participants can share their experiences in small group discussions, connect the past with present-day issues, and talk about “what we can do now.” Read the rest of this entry »
Several campuses in the California State University system along with a number of California Community Colleges held commencement ceremonies recently in which former Japanese American students who were forced to leave their respective campuses due to their forced relocation from the West Coast and imprisonment in American concentration camps during World War II received honorary degrees. Read the rest of this entry »
by LiAnn Ishizuka
When I looked out the car window as we approached the barren landscape of dust and tumbleweeds, I couldn’t help but notice the majesty of the Sierra Nevada backdrop. Snow was sprinkled atop the rocky foundation as if perfectly layering the mountains in a picturesque way—something that could have been taken straight from a promotional Mammoth tourism leaflet.
LiAnn Ishizuka (left) with Jaymie Takeshita (right) at the Manzanar cemetery during the 41st Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 24, 2010.
Photo: LiAnn Ishizuka
We continued to drive until I saw it. In the distance, a hanging placard was at the entrance of the Manzanar site. At a closer glance, the words, “Manzanar War Relocation Center” were carved into the wood. It was the entrance to a place that was once Native American land but became an internment camp, and now a place of living history.
Just seeing that placard flooded my mind with a sense of what once was. The barracks were not there, but I could visualize them and I could feel the dust and constant heat that must have haunted the memories of many former internees.
My own grandmother, who rarely spoke about her concentration camp experience in Poston, Arizona, would remind me how the heat was unbearable. Even though Manzanar was not a place that had displaced my own family, it represented and still represents something that remains to be fully understood by those who have not visited.
For me, it represents a part of living history, a glimpse into a tumultuous period of Japanese American history, a renewed sense of understanding and a place where people of all creeds, religions and backgrounds can reflect on shared histories. Read the rest of this entry »
To download a printable flyer, click on the image above.
Last summer, volunteers helped excavate Merritt Park at the Manzanar National Historic Site, perhaps the most well-known of the elaborate gardens built by the former prisoners of the World War II American concentration camp.
This summer, volunteers will once again have an opportunity to help uncover history at Merritt Park, where further archaeological digs will take place starting June 14, 2010 and ending on June 23. Read the rest of this entry »
To download a printable flyer, click on the image above.
During World War II, the Religious Society of Friends (also known as the Quakers), the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and its affiliates were among the few groups to publicly support and aid the 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were forced to leave their homes on the West Coast and were incarcerated in ten camps across the United States.
Quakers: Friends of the Japanese American Community, an event sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, the Japanese American National Museum, the Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center is scheduled for June 5 at 2:00 PM at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, 369 East First Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012. Read the rest of this entry »
The following is a story from UCLA Today, UCLA’s faculty and staff newsletter. It is reprinted here with permission. Original story: Bruins Return 70 Years Later To Receive Honorary Degrees.
by Wendy Soderburg
48 of the 200 former Japanese American students (or their representatives) who were forced to leave UCLA due to their forced relocation and imprisonment in American concentration camps during World War II
received honorary degrees in a May 15, 2010
ceremony at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall.
Photo: Todd Cheney/UCLA Photo
The curtain rose, revealing a group of degree candidates seated on the stage, clad in cap and gown. Joyful cheers burst forth from the packed house, followed by a long and enthusiastic standing ovation. The degree candidates smiled, and a few wiped away tears, as the familiar strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” filled the hall.
Although all the traditional elements were there, this May 15 event was not your usual commencement ceremony, nor was this your usual group of soon-to-be graduates. These were 48 of the nearly 200 Japanese American former students—or, in some cases, their representatives—who had been forced to leave UCLA and enter internment camps when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in the winter of 1942. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo: Darrell Kunitomi
Approximately 200 students were forced to leave the campus not long after the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. Read the rest of this entry »
On May 17, 2010, San Diego State University honored its former Japanese American students who were forced to leave the campus due to their imprisonment in American concentration camps during World War II by awarding them honorary degrees (see California State University System To Grant Honorary Degrees To Japanese American Internees).
43 former students were identified as being eligible to receive an honorary degree from SDSU. More than twenty received the degree at the ceremony, some by family members representing relatives who had already passed away. Read the rest of this entry »
Donate to the
Manzanar Committee via
GiveATweet
Facebook Causes Page
All content published in this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any work published on this blog under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this blog are required.
