Day of Remembrance for the incarceration of Japanese Americans
Today is a Day of Remembrance: the 75th anniversary of FDR's executive order to incarcerate Japanese Americans.
A bunch of articles are pointing out that that horrifying and shameful action is a reminder to us to resist today's Islamophobia, and that's very true.
But we should also remember it for its own sake, not only as a Never Again reminder. A hundred thousand people were imprisoned, torn from their lives and their homes and their work.
Here are some links, focusing on various different things.
- Recollections from Joyce Nakamura Okazaki, who was 7 years old at the time. “We were constantly under threat if we went near the barbed wire fences.”
- Karen Korematsu on her father Fred Korematsu, who refused to go to the camps and was arrested and convicted for defying the executive order. “In the hysteria of war and racialized propaganda, my father’s citizenship did not protect him.”
- The ACLU reminds us to fight back. “resistance and protest along with litigation can, over time, change the course of history.”
- The George Takei/Lea Salonga musical Allegiance is back in movie theatres today. Showtime is already past in some US time zones, but it starts a couple hours from now on the West Coast. May not be too late to get tickets if you haven't.
#neveragain
#resist
#neverforget
#DayofRemembrance