BERKELEY — The Nikkei Student Union of UC Berkeley presents Day of Remembrance on Wednesday, Feb. 19, from 6 to 10 p.m. at Stephens Hall on the UCB campus.
Featured speakers are Chizu Omori and Satsuki Ina, graduates of UCB and co-founders of Tsuru for Solidarity.
Omori was 12 year old when her family was removed from their home in Southern California and incarcreated in the Poston, Ariz. concentration camp. She is the co-producer of the award-winning documentary “Rabbit in the Moon,” a powerful commentary on the upheaval caused by the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
She is a journalist, currently writing a column called “Rabbit Ramblings” for the Nichi Bei Weekly in San Francisco.
Ina was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center, a maximum-security prison for dissdents held in American concentration camps for people of Japanese ancestry. She is professor emeritus at CSU Sacramento and a licensed psychotherapist specializing in collective and historical trauma.
She produced two documentary films broadcast on PBS, “Children of the Camps” and “From a Silk Cocoon,” which are currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Ina said of appearing at the event with Omori, “An honor for me to share the moment with my inspirational 89-year-old fellow activist, friend, and co-troublemaker.”
“Share a meal with us as we learn about Japanese American stories, history, and activism,” Nikkei Student Union said in a statement. “We will be featuring speakers from Tsuru for Solidarity and Muslim Student Association, as well as representatives from several Japanese American internment camps. Join in a night of solidarity as we acknowledge our country’s troubled past, and how it must drive our present action.”
For more information, visit UCB NSU’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ucbnsu/
For a campus map, go to: https://www.berkeley.edu/map