Twin Cities JACL Day of Remembrance

Eighty-one years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans. Women, men, and children were imprisoned without trial as “enemy aliens,” even though most were U.S. citizens.

Forty years later, congress would condemn these events as a “grave injustice” caused by “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” Since those causes are still present in 2023 America, we observe a day of remembrance so that what happened then is never allowed to happen again.

This year, we will hear from New York Times best-selling author Bruce Henderson about his new book, Bridge to the Sun, on the thousands of Nisei who were trained in the Military Intelligence Service Language School in Minnesota as interpreters and interrogators whose actions shortened the war by two years. Afterward, we will have a multigenerational and multiethnic discussion on the significance of the Japanese American incarceration experience today.

3:00 – 3:10 Welcome and Introductions
3:10 – 3:40 Presentation by Bruce Henderson
3:40 – 3:50 Q & A with Bruce Henderson
3:50 – 5:00 Panel Discussion with Audience Q & A