Shigeo Yamada, the Japanese ambassador to the U.S., leads a list of special attendees and speakers for the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage from July 23-25.
Almost 400 guests are registered for the pilgrimage events at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, Wynona Thompson Auditorium and Cody Holiday Inn.
Joining Yamada are members of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, including Consul General of Japan in Denver Hiroyuki Okajima. Other special guests and presenters include actor Tamlyn Tomita, songwriter, dance and theater artist Nobuko Miyamoto, artist Kenji Fujita, authors Evelyn Iritani and John Kiyonaga, and beekeeper and honey maker Debra Furukawa DeWitt.
Los Angeles broadcaster and documentarian David Ono brought his “Defining Courage” production to the Wynona Thompson Auditorium on July 23 for a show that was open to the public.
Local hotelier Ted Blair will receive this year’s LaDonna Zall Compassionate Witness Award, while Heart Mountain incarceree and board member Kathleen Saito Yuille will receive the Douglas Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.
“The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is extremely honored to host Ambassador Yamada at our historic site as we celebrate America’s 250th,” said Shirley Ann Higuchi, chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. “We value our relationship and collaboration with the Japanese government by sharing the knowledge of what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II.”
The interpretive center will be closed on July 25 to accommodate the pilgrimage crowd.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, a Smithsonian affiliate, preserves the site where some 14,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated in Wyoming from 1942 through 1945. Their stories are told within the foundation’s museum, Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, and its affiliated Mineta-Simpson Institute located between Cody and Powell. For more information, call the center at (307) 754-8000 or email info@heartmountain.org.