'Day of Remembrance' Sunday, With Film Festival Monday, Is A Teachable Moment

By Bay City News Service

On Sunday, Japanese Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area will commemorate the Feb. 19 presidential order that set into motion the incarceration of more than 120,000 during World War II.

Held in San Francisco's Japantown, the "Day of Remembrance," is an annual event. It recalls Executive Order 9066, and the day in 1942 that it was issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt forcing thousands of men, women and children of Japanese descent to en masse give up homes, land, and all they had known to report to hastily set-up detention centers and then to more than 10 remote inland internment camps.

Many Japanese and Japanese-American residents in the Santa Clara Valley were incarcerated in a camp in Heart Mountain, Wyo. 

Day of Remembrance on Sunday features the words and memories of survivors, but organizers said it is as much about the present as the past. On Monday, a free one-day film series features five facets of the internment, including the kidnapping of citizens from Latin America who were brought to the U.S. The film series begins ag 1:30 p.m. at Nihonmachi Little Friends, 1830 Sutter St. (near Buchanan) in San Francisco Japantown.

Organizers of Day of Remembrance say it is important to realize the same thing could happen today.

Rev. Michael Yoshii, pastor of the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, said many in the Japanese community see parallels between the internment camps of World War II and the treatment of those in the South Asian and Arab communities in the years since 9/11.

"Our story is connected to the stories of other communities as well," said Yoshii, who has worked to build alliances with the Muslim community.

"We need to be vigilant about protecting civil liberties."

While Japanese Americans felt deep sympathy for the victims of those terrorist attacks, they also felt the need to speak up for those who were wholly innocent —and vulnerable, said Yoshii, who will receive the 2013 Dr. Clifford I. Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian Award at Sunday's event.

"For us, there was another narrative," Yoshii said. "We had seen something different because of what happened to our families in World War II."

Several of those who will speak at Sunday's event at the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco also testified 25 years ago before the Commission on Wartime Relations in favor of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

The law, signed by President Ronald Reagan, provided redress and reparation payments for survivors of the camps and their families. Some, however, were excluded.

Grace Shimizu, the daughter of Japanese Peruvians who were kidnapped by U.S. forces and brought to the United States during World War II, said that around 2,200 Japanese Latin Americans were brought to the United States in similar circumstances as part of a hostage exchange program. They were not granted redress in 1988, and their survivors are still fighting for recognition.

On Monday, the 2004 documentary, "The Art Shibayama Story," will be shown during the film series tells how Arturo Shibayama's family was taken from Peru and brought to the United States, one of hundreds of who were similarly taken for use as prisoner exchange.

Shimizu drew a parallel between the kidnappings, which also affected Germans and Italians in Latin America, and recent reports of "renditions" of terrorism suspects to military prisons.

She noted that the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act allows the indefinite detention without trial of both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism.

"The government is taking liberties," Shimizu said.

Sunday's event will be dedicated to the memory of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, a key player in the fight for redress and reparations, and an Army veteran. Inouye, a World War II hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor, was also the second-longest-serving member of Congress until his death in December of 2012. Only Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia served longer.

Congressman Mark Takano, D-Riverside, the first openly gay person of color to serve in Congress, will also attend and pay tribute to Inouye on Sunday.

Sunday's event is free, and will take place 2 to 5 p.m. at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco's Japantown. A reception will follow at 1840 Sutter St.

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Additional reporting by Los Altos Patch editor L.A. Chung

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