Historian, aritst, poet and author Donald Teruo Hata will speak on Saturday, May 9, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Redondo Beach Main Library (Conference Room, second floor), 303 N. Pacific Coast Hwy., Redondo Beach.
In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, resulting in the imprisonment of Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals. Hata, a native of Los Angeles, was incarcerated along with his family at the Gila River, Ariz. camp when he was three years old.
Hata is a retired emeritus professor of history at CSU Dominguez Hills, where he taught classes on U.S. hisotry, Asian history and Asian American history.
May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It provides an opportunity to learn about the history and contributions of Asian American communities, including the World War II concentration camps. Hata will talk about the issues that led to the incarceration and his own personal experiences in camp. His poems, watercolor paintings and memories reflect the harsh realities of camp life.
He co-authored “Japanese Americans and World War II: Mass Removal, Imprisonment, and Redress” with Nadine Ishitani Hata.
Free and open to the public. Copies of Hata’s book will be for sale.
For more information, call (310) 318-0675 or visit www.redondo.org/library.