Two Views On Frank Seishi Emi: A True American Hero
December 4, 2010 8 Comments
LOS ANGELES — Last April, at the Manzanar At Dusk program that follows the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, when participants broke up into small groups to share their stories and insights about Manzanar, the Japanese American Internment experience, and how it remains relevant today, one thing struck me…
For the first time in the history of the program, we did not have enough former Japanese American concentration camp prisoners to go around.
Glen Kitayama (far left) joins NCRR members, including Frank Emi (second from right)
during a Los Angeles press conference hailing the signing of the
Civil Liberties Act of 1988 on August 10, 1988.
Photo: Gann Matsuda
National Defense Authorization Act: Nikkei Community Must Redouble Efforts To Defend Constitutional Rights
January 25, 2012 Leave a 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 Manzanar, News, Commentary, Manzanar At Dusk, Manzanar Pilgrimage Tagged with Manzanar Pilgrimage, Manzanar Committee, Manzanar At Dusk, Bruce Embrey, Japanese American, Japanese American Internment, civil rights, Fred Korematsu, racism, discrimination, Executive Order 9066, Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, Barack Obama, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Japanese American Incarceration, Min Yasui, National Defense Authorization Act