Feb. 19: Day of Remembrance gains new relevance in 2021

OPINION

On Feb. 19 in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the infamous Executive Order 9066, which gave the US Army the authority to remove Americans and immigrants of Japanese descent from the military zones established in Washington, Oregon, and California during WWII. 

Feb. 19 is now known as the Day of Remembrance and a reminder of how tenuous  our freedoms are and how the civility that reins in our dark side can easily be unleashed on our fellow men and women.

This led to the forced removal and incarceration of some 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, who had to abandon their jobs, their homes, and their lives to be sent to one of 10 concentration camps scattered in desolate, remote regions of the country.

"No Japanese Americans were ever charged, much less convicted, of espionage or sabotage against the United States. Yet they were targeted, rounded up, and imprisoned for years, simply for having the 'face of the enemy,'" the Japanese American Citizens League said in a statement.

The imprisonment of the Japanese Americans is one of the darkest chapters in US history. While several hundred Germans and Italians were also removed from their homes, those communities were not incarcerated at the scale of Japanese Americans.

Entire communities -- infants to grandparents -- were sent to the so-called "Relocation centers" were often located in remote and desolate locales. Sites included Tule Lake, California; Minidoka, Idaho; Manzanar, California; Topaz, Utah; Jerome, Arkansas; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Poston, Arizona; Granada, Colorado; and Rohwer, Arkansas.

After the war, the incarcerations camps closed down and the Japanese Americans were released to try and rebuild their lives.

In 1988, Congress passed, and President Reagan signed, Public Law 100-383 that acknowledged the injustice of internment, apologized for it, and provided a $20,000 reparation payment to each person who was incarcerated.

Japanese Americans were active in protesting the separation of refugee children from their
parents and the immigration detention centers.

"Every February, the Japanese American community commemorates Executive Order 9066 as a reminder of the impact the incarceration experience has had on our families, our community, and our country," continued the JACL statement. 

The day has become an opportunity to educate others on the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis, and the importance of remaining vigilant in protecting the rights and freedoms of all especially when xenophobia and racism can run out of control; exactly what is happening today with the rise in anti-Asian attacks. All Asians and Asian Americans are being blamed for job losses, trade imbalances, theft of intellectual property and, of course, the coronavirus.

The JACL, one of the oldest Asian American civil rights organizations in the US, has organized a number of observances throughout the country. For information on 2021 Day of Remembrance events, click on the regions below.

Bay Area | Northern California | Central California | Southern California | Pacific Northwest | Pacific Southwest | Intermountain | Midwest | East Coast