In 1978, when redress seemed stalled and political leaders dismissed reparations as “guilt mongering,” playwright Frank Chin helped rewrite the script. He helped launch the first Day of Remembrance, urging a community to publicly relive incarceration, reigniting a movement that would eventually lead to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
During WWII, one man became a true friend to 120,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans. Herbert Nicholson safeguarded their belongings, drove tens of thousands of miles between camps, and mobilized 150,000 letters of protest to the government.
Born in 1915, Mary Tsukamoto overcame poverty, arthritis, and unjust incarceration to become a pioneering educator and civil rights leader whose legacy still shapes California classrooms today.
The Heart Mountain Eagles were an all-Japanese American football team that played and defeated outside Wyoming high schools while imprisoned in a World War II incarceration camp.
Michi Nishiura Weglyn spent her teenage years behind barbed wire at Gila River. Decades later, urged by her Holocaust survivor husband, she exposed the government’s lies about Japanese American incarceration in, “Years of Infamy,” a book that helped spark the redress movement.
In “When Can We Go Back to America?,” author Susan H. Kamei gives voice to Japanese Americans whose lives were uprooted by incarceration during World War II, including her own family. Their stories reveal the enduring power of memory and justice.
During World War II, one Jewish woman volunteered to be incarcerated in a concentration camp.
Type below to explore past stories and posts from our archives
This site uses cookies to enhance your experience. By using this site, you accept our use of cookies.