GARDENA — The Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute will present a week-long Day of Remembrance virtual event on its website, www.jci-gardena.org.
The schedule is as follows:
Monday, Feb. 22: CSU Dominguez Hills Japanese American Digitization Project and Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga Collection
Tuesday, Feb. 23: Densho “Campu” podcast
Wednesday, Feb. 24: Tribute to Lane Ryo Hirabayashi
Thursday, Feb. 25: South Bay JACL Oral History Collection
Friday, Feb. 26: Tanka poetry
Saturday, Feb. 27: Live Zoom program from 2 to 4 p.m. Interview with Densho “Campu” podcast producers Noah and Hana Maruyama and CSUDH Japanese American Digitization Project archivists
To register for the live program, visit the GVJCI website. Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated. Live program will also be streamed on the GVJCI Facebook page (http://facebook.com/gvjci).
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, allowing the U.S. military to forcibly remove and imprison 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, solely on the basis of their race. People lost their homes, their jobs, their businesses and possessions, and suffered great emotional trauma. As difficult as it is to relive these events, Day of Remembrance is held as a reminder to be vigilant and defend the civil right of anyone targeted by prejudice.
This year, the program will focus on collections from various institutions, organizations and groups. These collections preserve the experiences of Japanese Americans. From Feb. 22 to 26, the GVJCI will be publishing stories and collections in various forms of media on its website. It will include documents from Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga, the South Bay JACL Oral History Collection, and more.
This program is co-sponsored by the George and Sakaye Aratani CARE Award and UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
For more information, email info@jci-gardena.org.