Paintings of camp life by the late Eddy Kurushima, who was incarcerated in Jerome, Ark. as a teenager, were displayed.
By LORI MATSUNO
Our Day of Remembrance on Feb. 15 started with an inspiring worship service led by Rev. Ki Choi.
The liturgist shared her DOR reflection about the internment of her parents, her uncle and aunt at Gila River, Heart Mountain and Amache.
Another church member read an excerpt from the autobiography of her aunt, Terue Miyake Yamanaka, which described her recollection of gathering at the old church at 35th and Normandie to board buses for destinations unknown carrying only what they could fit in one suitcase.
The pastoral message was a reading of “The Sunday Before,” a sermon by Rev. Lester Suzuki, who was the first Nisei pastor at Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church and served Centenary from 1937 to 1942.
His message was the last sermon before the congregation would be forced to leave their beloved church behind and have faith in the power of God to sustain them as they would be leaving for relocation camps. Rev. Suzuki reminded everybody that they may encounter ugliness and unkind people, but it was each person’s task to find goodness and faith with God’s love.
Next there was a slide show of each relocation camp and lists of congregation members that had been interned at each camp. People were asked to stand and be recognized if they or their ancestors had been interned at that camp. Seeing the audience members stand was a very moving experience. It is remarkable to see how many of us have had our lives affected by the camps.
The DOR event opened with a rousing performance of “The Calling” by Chikara Daiko.
This was followed by a screening of a short video, “Misadventures of a Nisei Week Queen.” It was a funny and informative documentary about the Nisei Week contest of 1954 featuring June Aochi Berk and a tour of the Santa Anita Racetrack stables where June and thousands of others from the Southern California area were forced to live in horse stalls for several months. June also described her life at Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas.
After the movie, June and the director of the film, Evan Kodani, participated in a panel discussion moderated by our own Nisei Week Queen, France Yanai Wong. The discussion was about the camps with an emphasis on Proclamation 2525 and the Tuna Canyon Detention Center, where many Japanese and Japanese American community members were whisked away without explanation or notification of their families.
Closing remarks by Rev. Mark Nakagawa gave a little history lesson of the close relationship between Centenary and Holman UMC, a black church in South Central Los Angeles, and also the University Methodist Church previously on the USC campus.
There was an informal reception of snacks and Spam musubi in the Social Hall, where a display of Eddy Kurushima’s paintings of camp life were displayed. It was a very enjoyable affair and many, many people contributed their time and skills to make it happen.