As a result of Executive Order 9066, which was both unconstitutional and executed without due process, entire families of Japanese Americans on the West Coast and in Hawaii were rounded up like criminals because of race prejudice, wartime hysteria and failure of political leadership. Their bank accounts and assets were frozen, and many farms, homes and businesses were stolen. These families were forcibly sent to prison camps where they endured nearly four years of living hell solely because of their Japanese heritage. Many had lived in the United States for decades, but were all, by law, denied citizenship. At the closing of these American concentration camps in 1945, most people rebuilt their lives with little to no resources, relying on the resilience of the individuals, family and the community.

Now, the few living survivors are once again being threatened with forced eviction from their homes at the Sakura Gardens in Boyle Heights. This intermediate care and assisted living/memory care facilities were created to provide culturally sensitive services for Japanese American elders and sits on the site of where the Jewish Home for the Aged once stood.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the international Pacifica Companies plans to turn Sakura Gardens into a 45-unit luxury apartment building, putting at risk the lives of 200 of its most vulnerable residents by forced eviction. Many of the residents are women in their eighties and nineties, and who, as children, grew up in the concentration camps in some of the harshest terrains in America — all behind barbed wire and armed soldiers watching them from military towers with weapons ready and pointed at those inside the camps.

In 2018, when the Trump administration started to cage Central American refugees, families and children at the border, Japanese American concentration camp survivors and their descendants came out to protest this inhumane treatment and remind all Americans that we cannot “let it ever happen again” or repeat these acts that add to the long and shameful history of discrimination against people of color.

By ignoring these and other tragic American stories, we would be complicit in being silent and allowing racist behavior to continue and escalate in policies that treat people of color without any regard to human rights, without kindness, without compassion.

Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans and Latinos have a great deal in common. In America, beside our Native American communities, we are absolutely and undeniably, a nation of immigrants, no matter how many generations have been here. In fact, the first “DREAMer” was a Korean American student. Our respective languages, foods, traditions and cultures are vital to our self-preservation, enrichment and the bonds to where our ancestors came from. We can, and some do, serve as bridges to countries around the world, and are, at the same time, all-American.

Let’s all help protect our seniors at Sakura Gardens and stop this cultural interruption. Sakura Gardens is one of the last traces of the once-large Japanese American community that helped build and that thrived in Boyle Heights. Before 1942, over 35,000 Japanese Americans made the East LA area home due to segregation that prohibited Asian Americans from living in other communities because those communities were deemed white-only.

Displacing our seniors who have long contributed to the rich culture and history of Los Angeles during this time of the COVID -19 pandemic is unconscionable and cruel and would cause harm to residents and families for years. We need to hold Pacifica Companies accountable for its failure to adhere to its agreed-to sales conditions by retaining the bilingual and bicultural character promised to its facilities. We cannot allow profit and gentrification to dictate what goes into our neighborhoods without investigating the impact on our communities. We demand that the Pacifica Companies provide transparency of its plans to the residents of Sakura Gardens/Kei-Ai facilities and their families so they can determine what is best for these seniors who raised us all.

Join us for a Save Our Seniors (SOS) car caravan and media event at the Kei-Ai Los Angeles Healthcare Center on February 25 at 11 a.m. Let us extend the care given at Sakura Gardens so that these resilient residents may enjoy their golden years in comfort, safety and security, with familiar food, and with people who understand them. Let’s all ask ourselves, “How would you feel and what would you do if they were your parents?” Together, can move forward to SOS.

Strength in Unity! Pa’lante

Carlos Montes is co-founder of the Brown Berets, a Chicano self-help organization similar to the Black Panthers from the late 60s and 70s. Montes was one of the leaders of the Chicano Blowouts, a series of high school walkouts at East Los Angeles High School to protest racism and inequality in East LA schools. Montes also helped organize the largest anti-war protest, known as the Chicano Moratorium. Montes lives in Boyle Heights. Tamlyn Tomita is a Japanese-Okinawan-Filipina-American actress. A native of Los Angeles, she can be seen reprising Kumiko in “Cobra Kai” (2021), the Netflix series based on the original “The Karate Kid” films. She is also well known for her role as Waverly in “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) and numerous other movies and TV shows. Her Japanese American father was incarcerated as a child with his family at Manzanar Internment Camp.

#LosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #DayOfRemembrance #BoyleHeights #ExecutiveOrder9066

On Sunday, Feb. 19, a standing-room only crowd of more than 700 packed the San Jose Day of Remembrance event. Every year the San Jose Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) organizes this event to commemorate Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 paved the way for the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.

Before the event, organizers labored to reconfigure their venue at the San Jose Buddhist Church hall to cope with the expected record turnout. Outside, a number of Japanese Americans held signs and marched through Japantown, comparing Executive Order 9066 with President Trump’s Executive Order 13769 that banned the entry of people from seven majority-Muslim countries.

The theme of the program was “Stand Up to Hate.” Many of the speakers – including Athar Siddiqee, president of the South Bay Islamic Association, and Samina Masood, a Pakistani American and executive director of Silicon Valley Faces – addressed how immigrants from majority-Muslim countries faced inequality and persecution in this country. Other Japanese American speakers such as Jimi Yamaichi, a long-time community leader, and former Congressman Mike Honda linked their experience in the World War II concentration camps with the targeting of American Muslims and immigrants today.

Masao Suzuki of the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee also addressed Trump’s immigration policy. Suzuki criticized the proposal circulated in the Trump administration to mobilize up to 100,000 National Guard troops to carry out the what could be deportations in the millions, saying, “The use of military force to carry out the mass removal of immigrants would be a step not seen since the dark days of the World War II concentration camps.”

The program also including a performance by Aswat, an Arab American ensemble, and ended with the San Jose Taiko. After the lighting of candles for each of the concentration camps, a lighted procession went through Japantown.

The audience was almost triple the size of a typical year. There was a much larger number of families with children than in previous events. One mother explained that her ten-year-old daughter was struggling to cope with recent events since President Trump took office. Another member of the audience said that the record turnout was a referendum on President Trump.

#SanJoséCA #InJusticeSystem #PeoplesStruggles #DayOfRemembrance #Antiracism #California #Trump #DonaldTrump

San José, CA – On Feb. 14, nearly 300 people came to San José State University’s Morris Dailey Auditorium for the 36th Annual Day of Remembrance. This event commemorates the anniversary of Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942 that led to the incarceration of about 120,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.

The theme of this year’s event was “Wartime Hysteria” which connected the hysteria aimed at Japanese Americans with anti-Muslim sentiments today. Guest speaker Zahra Billoo, Executive Director of the Bay Area chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and student Sharina Champa of the South Bay Islamic Association both spoke to current Islamophobia and the importance of solidarity with the Japanese American community.

Masao Suzuki of the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee or NOC, which organized the event, spoke of the history of national oppression that Japanese and other Asian Americans faced that led to the concentration camps. His voice slightly cracked with emotion as he said, “War hysteria is on the rise again. This is not acceptable. It was not right then. It is not right today.”

Student Mei Suzuki spoke to the young people at the event, “There is a phrase that goes ‘no history, no self’ and conversely that to ‘know history is to know self’. Learning how my community was affected by the camps helped me explore my identity in terms of my cultural heritage and as an American.” She added, “I will end my speech by entreating all of the young people in the room to use this evening as a chance to reflect on an important event in history that still has the potential to be repeated if left to be forgotten.”

After the program at Morris Dailey Auditorium, the audience held a lighted procession past the statues commemorating Tommy Smith and John Carlos, two African American athletes who did a Black Power solute on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The procession ended at the old gym, now named Yoshihiro Uchida Hall, which was where Japanese Americans in San Jose were processed to be taken away to the concentration camps. There the audience heard from Jimi Yamaichi, 94 years old, who spoke of his experience being processed in the gym.

Video of the 2016 San José Day of Remembrance by J-Town Community TV can be seen on the web at this link or below

#SanJoséCA #AsianNationalities #DayOfRemembrance

San José, CA – On Feb. 16, more than 250 people gathered at the Buddhist Church hall in San José Japantown to commemorate the 34th annual Day of Remembrance. Days of Remembrance events are held in Japanese American communities to commemorate Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942, which led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II. The San José event was organized by the Nihonmachi (Japantown) Outreach Committee (NOC).

The event was emceed by Reiko Nakayama of NOC, and began with an opening aspiration by Reverend Hajime Yamamoto of the Wesley United Methodist Church. The remembrance speech was given by Joe Yasutake of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. Mr. Yasutake began by saying it was good to see so many young people, who made up about 40% of the audience.

He told his family’s story, in which his father, who worked as a translator for the federal government Immigration and Naturalization Service, was arrested right after Pearl Harbor as an ‘enemy alien,’ along with thousands of other Japanese immigrant men. These men, along with thousands of Japanese taken from Latin America and smaller numbers of Italian and German immigrants, were held in Department of Justice camps during the war. Mr. Yasutake ended by asking why we should be talking of events of 70 years ago. He then said that after Sept. 11, 2001 one heard about the treatment of Arab Americans and American Muslims.

The next speaker was Sara Jaka, of the South Bay Islamic Association, which is located a few blocks from San Jose Japantown. She said that coming to the Day of Remembrance event made her feel both “fearful and hopeful,” hearing how actions then and now are driven by racial prejudice, but also seeing people coming together in solidarity.

The theme of the program was “Civil Liberties and War: Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Korematsu v. United States.” Fred Korematsu was one of three people who were arrested for not going to camp, who took his case all the way to the Supreme Court of the U.S. In 1944, the court, in a 6-3 decision, upheld the government’s “military necessity” argument for the concentration camps for Japanese Americans.

The next speaker was Dale Minami, who was the lead attorney of the legal team that challenged Korematsu v. United States in court in 1983. Mainly made up of young Asian American attorneys, the legal team was able to show that there were no arrests of Japanese Americans for espionage. Further, they showed how the government prosecutors altered, suppressed and destroyed evidence, including reports from military intelligence that showed that there was no need for the camps.

Minamii said, “We need to remember the losses and humiliation of Japanese Americans. We also need to remember the triumph of redress [the official government apology issued in 1986] as part of the long march to social justice by the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations, the National Council for Japanese American Redress, the Japanese American Citizens League and others. This was made possible by the struggle of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans who fought for civil rights.”

He went on to quote Fred Korematsu’s statement to court, who said in 1983: “I would like the government be shown wrong so it will never happen again.” Minami continued “The only victory is continued activism and education” and “justice is not a gift, it is a challenge.”

Another highlight of the program was an award presented by the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee, to local congressperson Mike Honda, who was an annual speaker at the Day of Remembrance events.

The Day of Remembrance included a performance by the San José Taiko )Japanese folk drums) and candlelight procession through Japantown. The evening ended with a closing meditation by Rinban Ken Fujimoto of the Buddhist Church.

#SanJoséCA #AsianNationalities #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #DayOfRemembrance

San José, CA – On Feb. 17, the San José Day of Remembrance program commemorated the anniversary of Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. 300 people came to the San Jose Buddhist Church hall to remember E.O. 9066, which led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II. At the beginning of the program the emcee, Will Kaku, said that the official apology from the government stated that the concentration camps “were due to racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership. Although those words pertain to events from 71 years ago, they serve as a warning to us today.”

The first of the evening’s guest speakers was Molly Kitajima, a nisei, or second-generation Japanese American, who was born and grew up in Canada. She told the audience how the Canadian government not only put over 20,000 Japanese Canadians into concentration camps following the U.S., but went further by seizing their land under eminent domain and sold it off cheap. Ms. Kitajima also spoke of her trip to Cuba with other Japanese Americans and their meetings with Japanese Cubans. She ended by saying, “I stand, head high, with those who endured this hardship,” and continued, “I will stand up for others who would be discriminated against as I was.”

The theme of the program was “The Changing Face of America,” which was seen in the diversity of speakers. For the first time, the San José Day of Remembrance invited a speaker from the Sikh community, to express solidarity between Japanese Americans and Sikhs who have been harassed and killed in the years following 2001, and in particular the massacre at the Sikh gurdwara (temple) in 2012. Simran Kaur, Advocacy Manager for the Sikh Coalition, which formed in response to anti-Sikh violence after 2001, proclaimed “Let us stand up together!”

Another highlight of the program was the proclamation presented by the mayor of East Palo Alto, Reuban Abrica, to the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC), which has organized Day of Remembrance events for 32 years in San José. The proclamation was accepted by NOC’s chairperson, Reiko Nakayama.

The Day of Remembrance included a performance by the San José Taiko (Japanese folk drums), including a piece entitled “Day of Remembrance” to commemorate the event. Also speaking were the local Japanese American Congressman Mike Honda, and representatives of the Buddhist Church, the Wesley United Methodist Church and the South Bay Islamic Association, which is just a few blocks from Japantown.

For more photos of the event: San José commemorates 33rd annual Day of Remembrance (Photos)

#SanJoséCA #JapaneseAmericanInternment #DayOfRemembrance #WorldWarII

Berkeley, CA – Long time antiwar activist Iwao Lewis Suzuki was awarded the Clifford I. Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian award at the Day of Remembrance program in San Francisco, California on February 19, 2012. Dr. Clifford Uyeda was a long-time Japanese American community activist who championed redress and reparations for Japanese Americans incarcerated in U.S. concentration camps during World War II. He also publicized the almost 300 Japanese Americans who refused the military draft during World War II because their families were in concentration camps and spent on average two years in prison each for their courageous stand. Dr. Uyeda also worked to educate people about the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during their occupation of China, including the Rape of Nanking. Fight Back! interviewed Mr. Suzuki at his home in Berkeley after the Day of Remembrance program.

Fight Back!: Would you like to tell our readers what you told the audience at the Day of Remembrance event in San Francisco when you received the Clifford Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian award?

Iwao Lewis Suzuki: I tried to say three things. First, that our country, the United States, is the only country that has used atomic weapons. We need to raise our voices to say that atomic bombs should never be used again. No More Hiroshimas! No More Nagasakis! (1)

Second, the United States should withdraw our military from Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. troops are not there to liberate people, they are an occupying force.

Third, the Okinawan people’s movement to have U.S. military bases withdrawn from Okinawa is very strong. The United States should withdraw all of its military bases from Okinawa.(2)

Editors notes:

(1) The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and August 9th, 1945. Hundreds of thousand of civilians were massacred, mainly women, children, and the elderly. Under the U.S. military occupation of Japan, it was against the law to give out information about the atomic bombings.

(2) The United States has a number of military bases on the island nation of Okinawa, which is part of Japan. Over two-thirds of all U.S. military forces in Japan are on these islands, which have only 1% of Japan’s population and ½ of 1% of Japan’s land area.

#BerkeleyCA #AntiwarMovement #AsianNationalities #JapaneseAmericanInternment #DayOfRemembrance #NuclearWeapons #Nagasaki #Hiroshima #IwaoLewisSuzuki #ExecutiveOrder9066

The theme of the Day of Remembrance program was “Civil Liberties Under Siege”. The NOC keynote speaker, Will Kaku, said, “We remember the judicial debates on terrorist detentions, the USA Patriot Act, National Security Registration System, last year’s congressional commissions that singled out Islam and terrorism. And just a few months ago, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act that contains a provision that allows the indefinite detention of American citizens and yet we had to remind people once again that our families were also held without the due process of law.”

A special guest speaker was Karen Korematsu, of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education. Karen’s father, Fred Korematsu, along with other Japanese Americans, fought a legal battle against the concentration camps all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the original U.S. Supreme Court decision which upheld the concentration camps in the interests of national security was later vacated (overturned on a technicality) in the 1980s after another long court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court never ruled that the camps were unconstitutional.

Another special guest speaker was Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Ms. Billoo spoke of the government repression of American Muslims following Sept. 11, 2001 that continues to this day. She also thanked the Japanese American community for its solidarity with American Muslims during these difficult times.

Local Japanese American congressperson Mike Honda also spoke and a spontaneous cheer broke out when he said that he voted against the National Defense Authorization Act. Mike Honda and his family, including his 95-year old mother, participated in the candle-lighting ceremony to honor the memory of those incarcerated in the camps.

The program wrapped up with an award to PJ and Roy Hirabayashi, founders of San José Taiko. San Jose Taiko is a Japanese American drum ensemble that has become a regular performer at the Day of Remembrance events, and they played a special number called Day of Remembrance at the event.

#SanJoséCA #AsianNationalities #JapaneseAmericanInternment #DayOfRemembrance #ExecutiveOrder9066 #FranklinRoosevelt

The event was emceed by NOC member Masao Suzuki, who pointed out the forces of “racism, war hysteria, and political misleadership” that led to the World War II concentration camps for Japanese Americans were also at work today in attacks on Arab Americans and American Muslims. Jimi Yamaichi, who was sent to the concentration camp at Tule Lake, California, told the audience about his fight to join the local carpenters union, which excluded Japanese and other Asians before World War II. Jimi Yamaichi was also among 26 young men at Tule Lake who refused to be drafted into the U.S. military along with hundreds of others at other camps.

The special guest speaker for the evening was Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations. Billoo commented on CAIR courage award that had be given to Mr. Yamaichi, and in turn was thanked by the emcee, Masao Suzuki, for her work on his behalf after he had been questioned by the FBI in connection with the Federal Grand Jury targeting Midwest anti-war and international solidarity activists. Yasmine Vanya of the South Bay Islamic Association also spoke and thanked the Japanese American community for their solidarity and support in the days following Sept. 11, 2001.

The middle of the program consisted of a candle lighting ceremony as the names of people of the ten World War II concentration camps were read. Etsuko Kohagura, who was also in the Tule Lake concentration camp, her two daughters, a granddaughter, and two great-grandchildren lit the candles as a shakuhachi (a traditional Japanese wind instrument) played in background. After the ceremony, the audience took candles for a procession around Japantown, the historic center of the Japanese American community in San Jose where the Buddhist Church is located.

After the procession there was a short speech by Karen Korematsu, the daughter of Fred Korematsu. Fred Korematsu was one of three Japanese Americans who fought the concentration camps through the courts, eventually taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the 1944 Supreme Court ruled that the camps were legal because national security outweighed individual rights and allowed racial discrimination, this was overturned in 1983 when it was shown that the U.S. government deliberately lied to win the case. The state of California just celebrated its first “Fred Korematsu Day” on his birthday, Jan. 30.

The last speaker was Congressman Mike Honda, who represents the 15th district in San Jose. He spoke about how fear led to Japan bashing in the 1980s and compared this to the rising tensions with China today.

At the end of the program the Suzuki, reminded the audience about the continuing struggle of Japanese Latin Americans. The U.S. government held more than 2000 Japanese civilians from Latin America in Department of Justice prison camps at Crystal City, Texas and other sites to be used as prisoner of war exchanges. Japanese Latin Americans were excluded from the 1986 and 1988 redress (apology) and reparations (monetary compensation) awarded to almost all Japanese Americans held in concentration camps on the grounds that they “entered the country illegally” (true enough, since they were rounded up at the behest of U.S. government and brought to the United States at gunpoint). He urged the audience to support the Campaign For Justice (CFJ) efforts to establish an official commission to report on Japanese Latin Americans.

In addition to the record turnout, the audience had large number of young people from local colleges and a good turnout from the local peace and international solidarity movements and the American Muslim community. Local state assemblyman Paul Fong also came with a proclamation from the California state assembly commending the Day of Remembrance event.

#SanJoséCA #AsianNationalities #JapaneseAmericanInternment #DayOfRemembrance #NihonmachiOutreachCommittee

San Jose, CA – A standing ovation greeted Maha El Genaidi’s denouncement of “Bush’s secret government of oil barons and multinational corporations,” as she blasted the attacks on Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians at the annual Day of Remembrance program. The theme of the program was “Race Prejudice, War Hysteria, and a Failure of Political Leadership,” and it made the connection between the World War II internment of Japanese Americans into concentration camps and today’s attacks on civil liberties as the U.S. government wages war on Iraq.

This year’s program made a special effort to build solidarity with the Arab and Muslim American communities. In addition to Ms. El Genaidi, who is an educator about Islam, the program included an invocation by Ahmad Al-Helew, president of the South Bay Islamic Society, whose mosque is near Japantown. The Aseel Dance Troupe of the Arab Cultural Center in San Francisco performed Palestinian dances.

The keynote speaker, Lisa Nakamura, who works with the Nosei Network of younger Japanese American activists, told the audience how she went to protest the recent registration and arrests of Middle Eastern men, because it reminded her of what Japanese Americans went through during World War II. “My grandfather went though a military tribunal in Hawai’i,” she said. Local congressperson Mike Honda criticized the PATRIOT act, which erodes civil liberties, and new laws being discussed by the Bush administration which would allow the government to make secret arrests and to strip citizenship from Americans who were associated with ‘disfavored political organizations.’

Grace Shimizu of the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project reminded us that the Latin American Japanese who had been kidnapped by the U.S. government were still denied redress on the grounds that they were ‘illegal aliens.’ The connections between Japanese Americans and Latinos was also highlighted by members of Teatro Vision, whose new play, “Conjunto,” was about the experience of Japanese, Mexican, and Pilipino American farmers and farm workers during World War II.

Other speakers at the program included Reverend Sakamoto of the San Jose Buddhist Church and the president of the San Jose Japanese American Citizens League, Kenzo Kimura. The Marimo Kai Koto group performed traditional Japanese music on the koto, followed by contemporary Japanese American drumming by the San Jose Taiko, who accompanied the audience for a short candlelight procession through Japantown.

The last speaker, Mary Ellen Sawada, minister of the Wesley United Methodist Church in Japantown, repeated the call of Arlene Tatsuno Damron. Ms. Damron, who had been interned during World War II, asked the audience “to remember, to reflect, and to live for justice.”

After the program, a member of the audience, Victoria Takeda, said, “All the Day of Remembrance programs are excellent, but this was the best one ever!”

#SanJoseCA #News #Remembrances #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #DayOfRemembrance