DAY OF REMEMBRANCE: Internment-camp survivor to speak at South Seattle College

Next Wednesday, February 15th, South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) plans an event in honor of the Day of Remembrance, with speakers including an internment-camp survivor. Here are the details from SSC:

This year’s Day of Remembrance marks the 75th anniversary of President Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, which led to the evacuation and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans to internment camps throughout the west coast.

South Seattle College will have two speakers on February 15 and an exhibit running until March 3 to commemorate the injustices and hardships during this time, and discuss how it relates to our society today.

Speakers Wednesday, Feb. 15 in the Olympic Hall Theater (OLY)

10 am – 11 am: Atsushi Kiuchi
Atsushi Kiuchi is an internment camp survivor. He will discuss events before, during and after Feb. 19, 1942, when Executive Order 9066 was signed. Kiuchi will also discuss the military exploits of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, comprised of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who fought in World War II, and connect current events with his past experiences.

11 am – 12 pm: Professors Gail Nomura and Steve Sumida
Professor Gail Nomura and her husband Professor Steve Sumida are Japanese American. They recently retired as professors from the University of Washington in the American Ethnic Studies department with a focus on the Asian American experience. They will discuss the Japanese American experience during the time period surrounding Executive Order 9066.

Exhibition

Through March 3: Fred T. Korematsu and the Pursuit of Justice Exhibit in the Campus Library (LIB):

President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Fred Korematsu in 1998, saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls.”

Through photographs, archival documents and quotes, the Fred T. Korematsu and the Pursuit of Justice Exhibit tells Mr. Korematsu’s story of challenging the WW II exclusion and confinement order.

Korematsu worked as a shipyard welder after graduating from high school until he lost his job after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was 22 when the U.S. plunged into war. On May 9, 1942, his parents and three brothers reported to the Tanforan Assembly Center, but Korematsu stayed behind with his Italian-American girlfriend. His refusal to comply with the evacuation order led to his arrest on May 30, 1942. His fight against the mass removal of Japanese Americans resulted in a landmark Supreme Court case concerning wartime civil liberties.

In 2011, California held its first Fred Korematsu Day, the first day in the U.S. to be named after an Asian American, commemorating his lifetime of service defending the constitutional rights of Americans.

The exhibit was created by the Seattle University Law Library for the launch of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law.

SSC is at 6000 16th SW on Puget Ridge; here’s the campus map, if you need help finding the buildings mentioned above.

1 Reply to "DAY OF REMEMBRANCE: Internment-camp survivor to speak at South Seattle College"

  • Howard Fields February 12, 2017 (3:56 pm)

    Your readers may be interested in another, usually overlooked, part of the internment story.  It began two months before the signing of 9066, before the smoke cleared over Pearl Harbor. Japanese businessmen, Buddhist ministers, others considered community leaders or men with influence were rounded up within hours of the attack and spent the entire war and two months beyond the end moved constantly to six men-only internment camps. Their last steps on mainland U.S. soil in December, 1945 were in Seattle’s harbor, boarding a ship finally to take them home. All of it is chronicled in First Taken, Last Released: Overlooked WWII Internment. I would be happy to send you a review copy if you are interested.

    Thank you for bringing internment to your readers’ attention,

    Howard Fields

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