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The National Japanese American Memorial Foundation and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program hosted a panel discussion to mark the 67th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066, which led to the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
The Annual Day of Remembrance at the Smithsonian: The Japanese American Experience in Print was held on February 19, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. in the Rasmuson Theater at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
Speakers for the event included three writers who have written about the Japanese American experience during the war: Shirley Castelnuovo, David Mura and Kiyo Sato. NJAMF board chair, Craig D. Uchida opened the discussion, and renowned historian and APA Program Director, Dr. Franklin Odowill acted as moderator.
David Mura, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire - A historian who must delve into his own family's past to understand how his parents' experiences in the WWII internment camps shaped not only their lives, but the lives of generations to come.
Kiyo Sato, Dandelion Through the Crack: The Sato Family Quest for the American Dream - A memoir that captures the experiences of a Japanese American family from California, who survives the Great Depression, only to live through imprisonment during WWII.
Shirley Castelnuovo, Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II - The story of the Japanese American men who refused to serve after being drafted into the U.S. Army as a protest of the imprisonment of their Japanese American families during WWII. Cedrick Shimo, one of the resisters, who also wrote the book's foreword, also joined the panel.
NJAMF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and public awareness about the Japanese American experience during World War II. It raised the private funds to build the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II. The Memorial is not only a monument to the Japanese American experience, but also a reminder that we must not allow anything like this to happen to any minority community again. Click on the following links to read more about our efforts: The Associated Press also photographed Mary Murakami today for a story. NJAMF was also featured in radio interviews with CBS, CNN and AP. Photos below are from The Annual Day of Remembrance at the Smithsonian: The Japanese American Experience in Print.  |  | | Spectators at the event | Cedrick Shimo, Kiyo Sato, Dr. Franklin Odowill, David Mura |  |  | Dr. Franklin Odowill
| Kiyo Sato
|  |  | David Mura
| |  |  | | | Kiyo Sato
|  |  | Cedric Shimo, Kiyo Sato, David Mura
| Cedric Shimo, Kiyo Sato, David Mura
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