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Day of Remembrance 2022: Executive Order 9066 and Its Legacies
February 19, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized removal of people of Japanese ancestry from the west coast of the United States. Over 110,000 Japanese, two-thirds American citizens, were forced from their schools, businesses, and homes, and were incarcerated behind barbed wire fences and guarded by armed U.S. soldiers in ten camps located in desolate parts of the country, all in the name of “military necessity.”
February 19 is recognized every year by the Japanese community throughout the U.S. as the Day of Remembrance and on this, its 80th anniversary, Ken Nomiyama and Jim McIlwain will speak about EO 9066 and its consequences during World War II and today.
This program is part of “Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II,” a Smithsonian poster exhibition on display from January 13-March 31, 2022. Programs for “Righting a Wrong” are sponsored by the New England Japanese American Citizens League.
Ken Nomiyama is Japanese American, born during World War II at Tule Lake, the incarceration camp located in Northern California. He is a retired businessman, living in Newport R.I., with a strong interest in the history and plight of the Japanese American. He is on the board of the Tule Lake Committee.
Jim McIlwain, Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience, Brown University, is a student of Japanese American History with a special interest in the service of Japanese Americans in the U.S. Army during WWII. He is a life member of the Japanese American Veterans Association and an honorary member of Fox-Company Chapter of the 442nd Veterans Club of Honolulu.