San Jose, CA – On Saturday, March 25, the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) and the South Bay Islamic Association (SBIA) will be co-sponsoring a day of solidarity with the American Muslim community. A march of solidarity will begin in San Jose Japantown and will end with a rally at San Jose City Hall.

75 years earlier, on March 24, 1942, the U.S. government imposed a curfew on Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. The same day, the first roundup of an entire community took place on Bainbridge Island, Washington, across Puget Sound from Seattle. The curfew also led to one of the first acts of resistance, when Japanese American lawyer Min Yasui deliberately broke the curfew to test the legality of Executive Order 9066 on March 28, 1942.

After the November 2016 election, there has been a rise in anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiments. Then on Jan. 27, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13769, which sought to ban travel from seven majority-Muslim countries. In response, states filed lawsuits that led to a court injunction against the ban, while grassroots protests of thousands of people happened at airports across the country.

According to a statement from the day of solidarity organizers, “NOC and the SBIA would like to invite you to a grassroots day of solidarity between Japanese Americans and American Muslims on Saturday, March 25. The event will begin in San Jose Japantown at the corner of 5th Street and Jackson Street at 11:00 a.m. and will proceed down 6th street to a rally at 12:00 p.m. at San Jose City Hall on 5th and Santa Clara Streets. The event is free and open to all who wish to oppose the growing anti-Muslim sentiments and government actions today.”

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