FEBRUARY 19: Day of Remembrance has added significance today

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

It’s February 19, and if you’re feeling a heavy sense of déjà vu, you’re not alone. This Day of Remembrance isn’t just a somber look back at the 84 years since Executive Order 9066 uprooted our community; it’s a flashing red siren about the here and now.

While we usually spend this day honoring those who survived the barbed wire, the 2026 commemorations have a sharper, more urgent edge. From the streets of Little Tokyo to the halls of D.C., the message is clear: the "never again" we’ve been reciting for decades is being put to its ultimate test under the Trump administration.

Here’s why this year’s DOR hits differently:

• The Ghost of 1798: The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and other advocacy groups are sounding the alarm over the White House’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Yes, the exact same law used to justify the WWII incarceration is now being dusted off for mass deportations.

• "Silence Today, Injustice Tomorrow": That’s the official theme of the Los Angeles DOR organized by the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). It’s a direct response to the "erasure and censorship" of our history and a warning that the machinery used against Japanese Americans in 1942 is being rebuilt for immigrant communities today.

• A Slap in the Face: Many in the community haven't forgotten Trump's campaign rhetoric, where he compared the treatment of Jan. 6 defendants to the WWII incarceration—a comparison survivors called "egregiously inaccurate" and a gross insult to those who lost everything.

As survivors like those at Densho point out, the "dangerous logic" that national security justifies stripping away constitutional rights is back in vogue. Whether it’s raids on long-term residents or the targeting of specific ethnic groups, the parallels are no longer just academic—they’re our daily headlines.

On this Day of Remembrance, the community isn't just looking at the past; we’re looking at the neighbor next door, wondering if we’re the only ones who remember how this story ends.

The 2026 Day of Remembrance (DOR) weekend is packed with events across the country, many focusing on the theme of "Neighbors Not Enemies" and resisting modern-day detention and deportation. 

San Francisco Bay Area

• Solidarity Across Borders: Remembering Japanese Incarceration
  • Date & Time: Friday, February 20, 2026 | 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
  • Location: UC Berkeley Campus, Tilden Room, MLK Student Union
  • Type: Commemoration and activist gathering.
• Day of Remembrance Interfaith Vigil 2026: Sacred Protection
  • Date & Time: Wednesday, February 25, 2026 | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
  • Location: ICE Field Office, 630 Sansome Street, San Francisco
  • Type: Interfaith vigil and protest.
• Films of Remembrance 2026
  • Date & Time: Saturday–Sunday, February 21–22, 2026
  • Location: AMC Kabuki 8, San Francisco Japantown
  • Type: Film showcase and panel discussions. 

Los Angeles

• 2026 Los Angeles Day of Remembrance: The Power of Action
  • Date & Time: Saturday, February 21, 2026 | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
  • Location: LA Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple (Nishi Betsuin), 815 E. 1st Street
  • Type: Community program with live streaming available at JANM.org.
• Short Films Honoring the Day of Remembrance
  • Date & Time: Thursday, February 19, 2026 | 7:00 PM
  • Location: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
  • Type: Film screening commemorating the 50th anniversary of the rescindment of EO 9066. 

Seattle & Pacific Northwest

• Day of Remembrance and Resistance (Tacoma Vigil)
  • Date & Time: Saturday, February 21, 2026 | 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
  • Location: Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), 1623 E. J St, Tacoma
  • Type: Vigil in solidarity with current detainees, hosted by Tsuru for Solidarity.
• Japanese American Remembrance Trail Tour
  • Date & Time: Saturday, February 21, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
  • Location: Wing Luke Museum, 719 S King St, Seattle
  • Type: Educational historic walking tour. 

Chicago

• Day of Remembrance: "Enough" Screening & Panel
  • Date & Time: Sunday, February 22, 2026 | 2:00 PM
  • Location: Chicago History Museum, 1601 N Clark St
  • Type: Docudrama screening followed by a discussion on Redress and present-day state violence.
• Day of Remembrance Vigil at Broadview ICE Facility
• Date & Time: Thursday, February 19, 2026 | 12:00 PM (Noon)
• Location: Broadview ICE Abduction Center, 1930 Beach Street, Broadview, IL
• Type: Direct action protest and vigil; carpools available from Chicago. 
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge.

It was definitely a Nazi salute!

Elon Musk claims he was thanking Donald Trump supporters. Wht do you think?

OPINION

Elon Musk denies the gesture he made at Donald Trump's inauguration was a Nazi salute, but -- to me -- it was a definite aggressive Heil, Hitler!

Just look at the way the "gesture" was delivered.: with a hard pat on his heart and the aggressive move into into the outstretched arm, palm down and fingers together striaght out. Then look at his face that looks like a grimace. It was far from the warm, inviting "thank you" that Musk claims it was.

And if that wasn't enough. He did it again!

Today, Holocaust Day of Remembrance, remembering the thousands killed by the Nazis during World War II, it might not matter what a simple blogger thinks, more importantly, as much as the world's richest man claims it was a simple thank you gesture, a large segment of MAGA land understood what it was. White supremacists and Nazi followers interpreted with cheersvas Musk's signal to them.

Nick Fuentes, the far right Hitler lover who dined with Trump at Mar a Lago in 2022, described Musk’s gesture as “a straight-up sieg heil, like loving Hitler energy.”

FYI: Watch Elon Musk's salute and judge for yourself.

It was not the first time Musk has expressed his admiration for Hitler's racist regime. Born and raised in apartheid South Africa, he could not help but be embued with the values that of the racist culture. He came to the United States in 1992 on a student visa. White-ruled South Africa dropped apartheid as a cultural and political  institutionalized policy around the same time and began transforming itself into a modern democratic nation in 1994. Perhaps, not coincidentally, with the writing on the wall for South Africa's integrated future, Musk became a US citizen in 1994.

"After purchasing Twitter in 2022, Musk personally intervened to restore Fuentes and others like him, who had been banned by the platform’s previous owners," reports Vox. :Two 2023 data analyses found that the amount of antisemitic content on Twitter, now X, doubled after Musk’s purchase. A 2024 NBC investigation reported that Musk’s choices allowed antisemitism and neo-Nazism to 'flourish' on the influential social media  platform, identifying hundreds of neo-Nazi accounts gaining in influence under Musk’s new policies."

As owner of Twitter, which he renamed "X",  perhaps referencing one of the movie, American History X, a film about American Nazis. Musk expressed his support for some of the anti-Jewish views expressed by the far-right extremists

who he welcomed back to his social media platform. In support of one anti-Semetic poster, Musk posted “you have said the actual truth.” He then went on to attack the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish anti-hate group, for “unjustly attack[ing] the majority of the West” and its priorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.” 

As a gesture of apology for his remarks, Musk visited Auswitz, one of Hitler's infamous death camps where millions of Jews were killed. Even in the face of the Holodaust, the visit apparently hasn't tempered his views.

More recently, Vox reports that Musk, who some have dubbed the "real" president for his closeness to Trump, has used his platform to repeatedly advance Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.

The AfD is extreme even by the standards of the European far-right. Some of the policies and activities of the Nazi-like party supports is disturbingly familiar under the Trump regime:

According to Vox, some AfD members tried to storm the German parliament in 2020, inspired by the US insurrectionists tried to do earlier on January 6; a former AfD member of parliament was arrested in 2022 for plotting an actual coup, The AfD party targeting newcomers of color; another leading party figure, Björn Höcke, has called for an end to German guilt over Nazism and used a Nazi slogan in one of his speeches.

This weekend, Musk appeared on screen at a rally for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. "I think you really are the best hope for Germany," Musk told them.

"It's good to be proud of German culture and German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything," Musk said.

Then, in an apparent reference to the Nazi era, Musk added that there is "frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that."

"Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their parents, their great-grandparents," he said as the crowd applauded.

His weekend remarks, hours before the 80th anniversary of the "Day of Remembrance," when Auswitz was liberated drew criticism in the US.

Abraham Foxman, director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), wrote in a tweet that Musk's speech "helps place the hand gesture in perspective." While the ADL downplayed Musk's motion as an "awkward gesture" last week, Foxman disagreed, referring to it as a Nazi salute and "very disconcerting image."

"The words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about 'Great Germany' and 'the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes' sounded all too familiar and ominous," tweeted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. "Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz."

It speaks volumns that Musk's inauguration "gesture" has not elicited an apology for any possible  "misinterpretation" of his alleged thank you gesture. Instead we get jokes or over-sensitivity and accused of not having a sense of humor.

It is not funny to make the "Heil, Hitler" salute, intentional or not, a mere punchline or a sign of what has become accepted as normal in this new scary America.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Day of Remembrance statement from the JACL calls for reperations for African Americans

History matters

By the Japanese American Citizens League.

This Sunday, February 19, 2023, marks the 81st anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, resulting in the mass incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans.

Similarly, thousands of Japanese Latin Americans and Japanese Canadians were incarcerated en masse in their own countries or, in some cases, were kidnapped to the United States against their will to serve as “prisoners of war.” As we look back and mourn one of the darkest moments of our community’s and nation’s history, we also celebrate the many triumphs as well.

This past year for example, we saw the passage of legislation to study the creation of a National Museum of Asian-Pacific American History and Culture, where the stories of all AANHPI communities will be celebrated and remembered. Towards the end of 2022, we saw the passage of two major bills, namely, the Norman Y. Mineta Japanese American Confinement Education (JACE) Act, and the World War II Japanese American History Network Act. Both bills will support organizations that work to educate the public about the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II.

This year also marks the 35th anniversary of one of the greatest triumphs of our community in the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 as a response to our history of incarceration. It was the culmination of nearly two decades of multigenerational work by former incarcerees, their children and grandchildren, members of Congress, community leaders, supporters, and thousands of allies across multiple communities.

While no amount of money could heal the traumas of everything our community lost, it was our government’s acknowledgment of its wrongdoing that allowed our community to begin the healing process. The Civil Liberties Act showed the power of community organizing in how it forced our government to acknowledge and apologize for the suffering it caused to its people. In the 35 years since the passing of this bill, our journey toward achieving true reparatory justice continues. 

HR 40, or the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, has been introduced in some form in every Congressional session since 1989, the year after the passage of Japanese American redress. It was first introduced by Representative John Conyers, and more recently by Representative Sheila Jackson Lee.

Much of the framework of HR 40 is based on the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) which helped pave the way for the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The African American community was one of the first to support the Japanese American community in its path toward redress, and now it is time that Japanese Americans do the same.

Late last year, the JACL, the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition, and over 70 other Asian American organizations joined together to send a letter to President Biden calling for the creation of a commission to begin the process for the African American community toward reparations and healing. 

As we continue into 2023 and beyond, we look back on our triumphs and hardships, as well as our solidarity in the hopes that we can make a change for a better future for all people in this nation. When our country seems more divided than ever, let us stand together and show that the unimaginable tragedies our ancestors suffered are not forgotten and are worthy of our government’s recognition and repair. 

President Biden proclaims Day of Remembrance; "Nidoto Nai Yoni"

The seeds of ignorance, hate and fear that ushered in a dark chapter of American history, the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII, is reemerging as attacks against all AAPI communities continue.

In this time of rising anti-Asian hate, President Biden issued a statement commemorating the Day of Remembrance, Feb. 19, 1942 when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that allowed the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent.

"Today, we recognize that euphemistic terms that we have collectively used in the past — such as 'assembly centers,' 'relocation,' or 'internment' — do not adequately describe the injustice experienced by some 120,000 people; we recognize the forced removal and mass incarceration of Japanese Americans and others during World War II ..." 

RELATED: JACL statement on the 8oth anniversary of EO 9066.

This is a shameful chapter of American history some would like to forget because it is uncomfortable to acknowledge that the path to a "more perfect Union," espoused in the Constitution is littered with mistakes. We need to learn from our mistakes.

As Biden states, "We reaffirm our commitment to Nidoto Nai Yoni, which translates to 'Let It Not Happen Again.' ”

Following is Biden's complete statement released yesterday, Feb. 18, 2022:

Eighty years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, stripping people of Japanese descent of their civil rights.  That order and the subsequent actions carried out by the Federal Government represent one of the most shameful chapters in our Nation’s history.  On this Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II, we acknowledge the unjust incarceration of some 120,000 Japanese Americans, approximately two-thirds of whom were born in the United States.

Despite never being charged with a crime, and without due process, Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and communities and incarcerated, simply because of their heritage.  For years, many Japanese Americans lived in harsh, overcrowded conditions, surrounded by barbed wire fences and armed guards.  Not only did they lose their homes, businesses, property, and savings — they also lost their liberty, security, and the fundamental freedoms that belong to all Americans in equal measure.

I have always believed that great nations do not ignore their most painful moments — they confront them with honesty and, in doing so, learn from them and grow stronger as a result.  The incarceration of Japanese Americans 80 years ago is a reminder to us today of the tragic consequences we invite when we allow racism, fear, and xenophobia to fester.

Today, we reaffirm the Federal Government’s formal apology to Japanese Americans whose lives were irreparably harmed during this dark period of our history, and we solemnly reflect on our collective moral responsibility to ensure that our Nation never again engages in such un-American acts.  We acknowledge the intergenerational trauma and loss that the incarceration of Japanese Americans has caused.  We also uplift the courage and resilience of brave Japanese Americans who, despite being unjustly incarcerated, formed powerful communities and marshalled incredible dignity and strength.

Many of those whose families were incarcerated volunteered or were drafted to serve in combat — courageously serving in the 100th Infantry Battalion, Military Intelligence Service, Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, Army Nurse Corps, and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team with unwavering patriotism.  The all-Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team became two of the most decorated and distinguished military units in our Nation’s history.  Countless Japanese Americans carry forward this legacy of extraordinary service today, and their work to preserve the history of this period strengthens our Nation and our democracy.

We reflect on the bravery of civil rights leaders like Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Mitsuye Endo, and that of every Japanese American who organized and sought redress.  Their efforts helped bring about the first Day of Remembrance, led President Jimmy Carter to sign the law creating the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, and spurred President Ronald Reagan to sign the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided monetary reparations to living survivors and an official apology to the Japanese American community.  At the same time, we also acknowledge the painful reality that Japanese Latin Americans, who were taken from their Central and South American homes and incarcerated by the United States Government during World War II, were excluded from the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Today, the National Park Service helps preserve several Japanese American incarceration camps.  These tangible reminders of our history provide important spaces for reflection and learning about the injustices born of prejudice.  Preserving incarceration sites as national parks and historic landmarks is proof of our Nation’s commitment to facing the wrongs of our past, to healing the pain still felt by survivors and their descendants, and to ensuring that we always remember why it matters that we never stop fighting for equality and justice for all.  My Administration is committed to maintaining these national parks and landmarks for future generations and to combating xenophobia, hate, and intolerance — including through the reestablished White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.  In the words of Dr. Frank Kitamoto, who was incarcerated as a child, “This is not just a Japanese American story but an American story with implications for the world.” 

The words we use to describe the historical and present treatment of communities of color and other underserved communities have profound meaning.  Today, we recognize that euphemistic terms that we have collectively used in the past — such as “assembly centers,” “relocation,” or “internment” — do not adequately describe the injustice experienced by some 120,000 people; we recognize the forced removal and mass incarceration of Japanese Americans and others during World War II; and we reaffirm our commitment to Nidoto Nai Yoni, which translates to “Let It Not Happen Again.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 19, 2022, as a Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II.  I call upon the people of the United States to commemorate this injustice against civil liberties and civil rights during World War II; to honor the sacrifice of those who defended the democratic ideals of this Nation; and to commit together to eradicate systemic racism to heal generational trauma in our communities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.

 

Day of Remembrance: JACL marks the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066

Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942.

On the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, the Japanese Americans mark Feb. 19, 1942 as their own "day of infamy."

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II policy, with lasting consequences to this day for Japanese Americans. The document ordered the forced removal of resident "enemy aliens" from parts of the West vaguely identified as military areas.

Japanese immigrants and their descendants, regardless of American citizenship status or length of residence, were systematically rounded up, forced to sell their homes, farms and businesses and with only the clothes they were able to carry, they were transported to faraway prison camps.

The imprisonment of these Americans of Japanese descent is widely condemned as one of the most shameful episodes of American history.

With the hope that the US never descends to the hysteria and racism that prompted the mass incarceration, the few remaining survivors of the prison camps and their descendants are determined to never let America forget the racism inherent in EO 9066, pushing that the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent is not whitewashed in U.S. history and allying themselves with other groups who are victims of injustice or bigotry.

Executive Order 9066 marked a shameful chapter in American history.

On this Day of Remembrance, Feb. 19, 2022, the Japanese American Citizens League, issued the following statement marking the 80th anniversary of President Roosevelt signing Executive Oder 9066:

Eighty years ago on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 after growing pressure from the Department of War, Navy, and the general public in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entrance into World War II. The order, though never explicitly stating any racial or ethnic group, gave the Army and Navy the power to prescribe military zones within the United States and to exclude any and all persons deemed necessary. Today, we remember EO 9066 as the order that gave way to the forced removal and mass incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry. All without due process, trial, or even evidence. 

This piece of paper and the subsequent events that followed forever changed the course of the Japanese American community. Those 120,000 people lost their livelihoods, their homes, countless personal belongings, millions of dollars in lost revenue and savings, and most of all their dignity. From living in modified horse stalls, whitewashed with mud, hair, and the lingering scent of manure, to the barren desert camps and tar-papered barracks where dust seeped into everything, the toilets and showers gave no privacy, and the machine guns were pointed inwards. It is hard to fathom the feelings and emotions all those who lived through this experience must have felt. 

We saw our community torn apart when their loyalty was questioned even further by being forced to fill out the infamous “loyalty questionnaire.” It asked all incarcerees, regardless of age, gender, or citizenship if they would serve the United States on combat duty and if they would forswear any and all allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. Families, siblings, friends, loved ones, all were forced to take sides, and in many instances were torn apart by the decision to answer “yes, yes” or “no, no.” Both sides believed that in taking a stance they would be proving their loyalty and would be on the right side in the pages of history, and they were both correct. 

On the one hand, there were the exploits of Japanese American service members who joined the fight against oppression and tyranny while their families were locked away back home. The members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, and Military Intelligence Service were not only the most highly decorated unit for their size and duration in all of US Military history but they were also credited with helping to shorten the war through their missions in Europe and the Pacific. 

On the other, there were those whose resistance was their fight against tyranny from their own government. Whether it was all the way to the Supreme Court in the cases of Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, Fred Korematsu, and Mitsuye Endo. Or in the individual and collective resistance of those who were removed to Tule Lake segregation center, or those who resisted the draft and spent time in federal penitentiary. Or even those who’d faced enough humiliation and asked to be repatriated to Japan, a distant memory that some had never even seen before. 

We also remember the generation after camp who, along with their parents and grandparents, fought to right the wrongs their country committed in the halls of Congress. When the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was passed, it was a commitment from the government, finally acknowledging what our community had known all along, that we had done nothing wrong and that the incarceration had been caused by, “war hysteria, racial prejudice, and a failure of political leadership.” While it would never make up for the monetary losses and the years of trauma, the redress era put our community and our nation on a path of healing and using the story of the incarceration to make change today. 

So here we stand, 80 years later, in remembrance of the event that forever changed our community. But we also celebrate achievements that have come in its aftermath, such as the recent passage of the Amache National Historic Site Act to bring Amache into the National Parks Service. Yet, we also look forward to new challenges, such as supporting the African American community in their campaign for redress that too is long overdue. This year, we should remember all of this history in order to work better as a nation to make a change and to continue righting wrongs for other communities who are victimized by injustice and bigotry.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.

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

College apologizes after professor alters mural depicting incarceration of Japanese Americans

The plaque adjoining the artwork, (top) was taped over.

ASAM NEWS

The vice president of Bellevue College in Washington whited out part of a mural by a Japanese American artist depicting the incarceration camps from World War II, reports the Seattle Times.

The university is apologizing for the actions of Gayle Colston Barge who has been in her position for more than five years, according to her LinkedIn profile. The school placed Barge on administrative leave after her actions.

The mural features two Japanese American children from an incarceration camp along with a description of the horrendous experience.

According to Professor Leslie Lum, someone removed the sentence that read “After decades of anti-Japanese agitation, led by Eastside businessman Miller Freeman and others, the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans included the 60 families (300 individuals) who farmed Bellevue.”

Freeman — whose family became prominent real estate developers — owned several trade newspapers such as Pacific Fisherman, The Washington Farmer, The Town Crier and a handful others. His publications were an influential news source for businesses, but also became a platform for his anti-Japanese sentiments. Through his newspapers, he advocated for alien land laws in Washington. Freeman and others like him believed that there was no hope for Japanese people to ever become “real American.” He wrote in one Seattle Star editorial dated 1919: “Oil and water do not mix.”

The university says Barge first whited out the reference, then a new description was taped over the original.

” It was a mistake to alter the artist’s work,” school president Jerry Weber wrote in the letter sent to students and staff. “Removing the reference gave the impression that the administrator was attempting to remove or rewrite history, a history that directly impacts many today … Editing artistic works changes the message and meaning of the work.”

In a text to the Seattle Times, artist Erin Shigaki wrote “I feel the feelings associated with both sides of my family being forcibly removed from Seattle – erased, unimportant, disregarded, disrespected, shamed.”

Shikagi described herself as “traumatized” by the defacement.

The missing sentence has since been taped back over the whited-out portion.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.