Day of Remembrance 2009
The 2009 “Bay Area Day of Remembrance” takes place in San Francisco on Sunday, February 22, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sundance Kabuki Theater, 1881 Post St. (between Fillmore and Webster), with a reception at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, 1840 Sutter St. The program will include speakers, performances, candle lighting ceremony and an interfaith procession. The event is sponsored by the Bay Area DOR Consortium and funded in part by the San Francisco Japantown Foundation. Tickets prices are $15 (door); $12 (advance); and group rates ($10 each for 10 or more in advance). Call NJAHS for tickets: (415) 921-5007. Visit: www.dayofremembrance.org.
Day of Remembrance is an annual observance that takes place in many communities throughout the United States to commemorate the signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 by President Franklin Roosevelt – ultimately leading to the incarceration of Japanese Americans on the West Coast in World War II. The DOR 2009 theme, “30th Anniversary of DOR in the Bay Area” - honors the early Day of Remembrance gatherings, which played a pivotal role in launching a broad, intergenerational, multi-ethnic community coalition to do broad public education and advocacy on the internment and related issues of civil liberties and human rights justice. As 2009 begins, we can see how that coalition and movement must continue its work, with greater urgency than ever
This year’s DOR will be MC’d by Carole Hayashino, one of the organizers of the historic 1979 DOR at Tanforan Shopping Center, site of the former Assembly Center in 1942. The keynote speaker will be U.S. Congressman Mike Honda, a sponsor of pending legislation to establish a Japanese Latin American redress commission which now enters its most critical phase in 2009. The new documentary short, “Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn” will recognize the extraordinary work of this author and her landmark work, Years of Infamy – The Story of America’s Concentration Camps (1976). Former SF Poet Laureate and Director of Glide Church, Janice Mirikitani will read her poetry.
The 2009 Clifford Uyeda Peace and Humanitarian Award will be presented to longtime community educator/activists Ernest and Chiz Iiyama. Mariko Nakanishi will give an update on the legislation for Japanese Latin American redress being introduced by Congressman Mike Honda and others. Attorney Banafsheh Akhlaghi will provide an overview of post 9/11 civil liberties and human rights. The traditional candle lighting ceremony will feature a diverse array of community volunteers and advocates, and include the music by Francis Wong (flute). An Interfaith Gathering and Procession will be led by the Japanese American Religious Federation from the theater to the Japanese Cultural and Community Center, where a reception will conclude the day.
The DOR Consortium includes (partial list) Asian Improv aRts, Asian Law Caucus, API Legal Outreach Japanese American Religious Federation, Jtown Arts, Japanese Community Youth Council, Japanese Cultural & Community Ctr of No. Calif., Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, Campaign for Justice – Redress Now for Japanese Latin Americans, Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA) Nakayoshikai Young Professionals, National Coalition for Redress/Reparations (NCRR), National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS), Rosa Parks Elementary School JBBP, Tule Lake Committee, SF JACL.
