2012 Day of Remembrance In Los Angeles: 70 Years After E.O. 9066: Defending Our Civil Liberties – February 18, 2012
February 15, 2012 Leave a comment
LOS ANGELES — The 2012 Day of Remembrance (DOR), 70 Years After E.O. 9066: Defending Our Civil Liberties, will include a special salute to the late Gordon Hirabayashi, who resisted the U.S. Government’s unfair curfew and forced exclusion of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, as part of the community program set for Saturday, February 18, at 2:00 PM. at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). The program, which is organized by Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress (NCRR), the Pacific Southwest District of the Japanese American Citizens League (PSW-JACL), the Manzanar Committee and JANM, is free, but the Museum is asking attendees to “pay what you can” to help defray logistics costs. Read more of this post









National Defense Authorization Act: Nikkei Community Must Redouble Efforts To Defend Constitutional Rights
January 25, 2012 1 Comment
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Manzanar Committee Co-Chair Bruce Embrey, shown here during the
42nd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage
on April 30, 2011.
Photo: Gann Matsuda
LOS ANGELES — President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on December 31, 2011, allowing indefinite detention without charge or trial to be codified into law. As a result, Americans citizens and others could be subjected to imprisonment without ever being charged or convicted of a crime. This provision of the NDAA denigrates the very foundations of this country, and undermines the Bill of Rights. Without question, it threatens the very foundation of our democracy.
Seventy years ago, 110,000 members of the Japanese American (Nikkei) community, our families and friends, were subjected to imprisonment without ever being charged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed Executive Order 9066. The Nikkei community was denied habeas corpus, rounded up by the United States military and incarcerated behind barbed wire in desolate places.
Indeed, indefinite detention is an indelible part of our experience. In this sense, the Nikkei community is part of the democratic conscience of the United States. Read more of this post
Filed under Commentary, Manzanar, Manzanar At Dusk, Manzanar Pilgrimage, News Tagged with Barack Obama, Bruce Embrey, civil rights, discrimination, Executive Order 9066, Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, Japanese American, Japanese American Incarceration, Japanese American Internment, Manzanar At Dusk, Manzanar Committee, Manzanar Pilgrimage, Min Yasui, Minoru Yasui, National Defense Authorization Act, President Barack Obama, President Obama, racism