A day of observance for the wrongful incarceration of more than 120k Japanese Americans
February 19th is known as Day of Remembrance — a day of observance for the wrongful imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
On this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which placed more than 120,000 people — most of whom were American citizens — in concentration camps simply because of their Japanese ancestry. About half were children under the age of 18 — some are still alive today, carrying memories of what was taken from them. Families had only days to sell their belongings and homes and shutter their businesses before being imprisoned.
Their new home was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed American soldiers. Some families even had to live in repurposed horse stalls.
All of this happened by the order of an American president, on American soil, to American citizens.
At a time when there are renewed efforts to distort, suppress, or erase dark and difficult chapters of American history, we must speak the truth — clearly, loudly, and defiantly. We honor those who suffered not only by remembering, but by refusing to stay silent when we see targeted discrimination against immigrant families repeated.
Remembrance is not passive. It is a responsibility and a form of resistance.
A note on terminology from the Japanese American National Museum. The following information is taken from an article authored by Kristen Hayashi, Ph.D., and explains the use of “concentration camps” vs. “internment camps” in further detail:
The Japanese American National Museum as well as scholars of the World War II incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the United States refer to the ten camps where civilians were incarcerated as America’s concentration camps, rather than internment camps. Government officials all the way up to President Franklin D. Roosevelt initially referred to them as “concentration camps.” The federal government soon began to refer to them euphemistically as “internment camps.” Internment, however, refers to the detention of “civilian enemy nationals.” The majority of Japanese and Japanese American incarcerees who were detained amongst the ten “War Relocation Centers” were US citizens by birth.
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