This year’s Los Angeles Day of Remembrance will be live-streamed via the Japanese American National Museum’s YouTube channel at 2 p.m. PST on Saturday, Feb. 19.
Focusing on the theme of “Power of Communities: Building Strength Through Collective Action,” the virtual event will honor the resilience and fight of the community over the 80 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066, and explore the next steps for ensuring a just and equitable future for all.
The annual event commemorates President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, which resulted in the unjust incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans in American concentration camps and other confinement sites during World War II. The event aims to educate attendees on the history of E.O. 9066 and its impact on the Japanese American community, while also creating dialogue around supporting Black and brown communities.
This year’s programming will include a taiko performance by Maceo Hernandez and a historical story from Emiko Kranz.
Hernandez, a member of East L.A. Taiko and an instructor at J-Town Taiko Club, spent four years touring the world with Japan’s world renowned taiko group Ondekoza.
Kranz serves as a director on the board for Go for Broke National Education Center and is currently in her final year of the UCLA Asian American Studies MA and Community Health Sciences MPH concurrent degree program. She will be reciting her story about her grandparents’ experience of being incarcerated in concentration camps during World War II.
The programming will be headlined by a conversation between Japanese American activists, traci kato-kiriyama and Kathy Masaoka, and Dreisen Heath, an expert on reparations and reparatory justice, about the need for solidarity around reparations work.
Organizers of the 2022 Los Angeles Day of Remembrance are: Go For Broke National Education Center, Japanese American Citizens League-Pacific Southwest District, Japanese American National Museum, Little Tokyo Service Center, Manzanar Committee, Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, Nikkei Progressives, OCA-Greater Los Angeles, Progressive Asian Network for Action, Visual Communications
For more information, call (408) 510-1460 or email rchutachikawa@ltsc.org.
About Maceo Hernandez
Hernandez has been performing taiko for over 20 years. He began as a teenager with Montebello Sozenji Taiko. He was soon invited to join Japan’s world-renowned Ondekoza. He lived and trained in Japan, performing in Asia, Europe, North America, and at New York’s Carnegie Hall. In 1991 Hernandez created East L.A. Taiko, a Latino taiko group with a twist, that marries Afro-Cuban rhythms with driving taiko beats. ELAT is a fiery, eclectic blend of world rhythm that travels the globe and takes you right into the heart of Los Angeles.
Hernandez has been the subject of John Esaki’s award winning documentary, “Maceo: Demon Drummer from East L.A.,” A look into his journey as a young Latino in Japan.
About Emiko Kranz
Kranz is a mixed-race Yonsei in her third and final year of the UCLA Asian American Studies MA and Community Health Sciences MPH concurrent degree program whose research focuses on racial health equity and community-centered health practices, especially as delivered by cultural community-based organizations.
Born and raised in Torrance, her Japanese American identity was first nurtured by time spent enjoying family traditions and later bloomed into involvement with various student and nonprofit organizations during her undergrad career at UCLA. Today, she serves as a director on the Board of Go For Broke National Education Center, continues volunteering with various initiatives within and outside of the SoCal Japanese American community, is mostly focused on her thesis project, and enjoys spending time doing anything (usually eating) with her parents, grandpa, and the rest of her family.