Seattle Japanese American Community Gathers for Day of Remembrance 83 Years After WWII Incarceration Camps

On Feb. 19, with rain coming down and a chill in the air, a group of Japanese Americans — some of whom were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II and others descendants of families sent to those camps — marched in procession to the thunder of taiko from Seattle's Hing Hay Park to Chiyo's Garden, a small sanctuary in the heart of the city's historic Japantown (Nihonmachi). The procession reenacted what their ancestors were forced to do in 1942 when the United States government forcibly removed and incarcerated Japanese Americans (many of whom were U.S. citizens) into concentration camps located in harsh U.S. interior lands. Some of the participants in yesterday's event wore 1940s-style coats and hats, carried suitcases, and wore evacuation tags around their necks that displayed a family's government-issued number, their family name, and the assembly center or camp they would be sent to.

Feb. 19 marked 83 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, blasting a shockwave into the Japanese American community. Families scrambled to close their businesses and sell their belongings and property within a few weeks as they were informed of when and how they would be escorted away by the U.S. military. About 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated at that time, including 13,000 from Washington. Many were sent to temporary detention facilities such as Camp Harmony at Puyallup fairgrounds, before being transferred to camps of poorly constructed barracks guarded by armed soldiers in the deserts of California, Idaho, Wyoming, and other locations.

This Day of Remembrance event was organized by Tsuru for Solidarity, whose national organization was founded by Japanese American elders who had been incarcerated in camps and their descendants. Tsuru for Solidarity advocates for immigrant rights and the closure of detention centers; locally, the organization is calling for the closure of the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.

"This year, we're particularly horrified because when we say we want to remember what happened, it is because we want our community and the whole of this country to never repeat," said Becca Asaki, director of organizing at Tsuru for Solidarity. "This year, more than any other year, we are seeing that repetition of history. The Trump administration is using Japanese American incarceration as a blueprint for the mass detention and mass deportation plans that they have."

In addition to their advocacy work, Tsuru for Solidarity centers its events around healing and restoration, as most organization members have been impacted directly or generationally by the trauma of incarceration due to their non-white, immigrant identity. After the press conference, organizers led a restorative walking tour to significant historic areas.

The tour began in Nihonmachi Alley, where just weeks before, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, murals by the late artist Amy Nikaitani, featuring local Japanese American businesses who resumed operations here after incarceration, and artist Erin Shigaki's work, honoring Japanese Americans who were incarcerated and incarcerees who volunteered to fight with the U.S. Army during World War II, were dramatically defaced.

Shigaki attended the event with her parents. Her father was born at the Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho, delivered by a horse veterinarian in the absence of proper medical care.

"This is the time for us as a community to stand up and be the allies that we wish had shown up for us in 1941, in 1942," Shigaki said. "We can be focused on protecting migrant rights and shutting down detention centers."

The next stop on the walking tour was the former U.S. Immigration Station and Assay Office, now the INSCAPE Arts building. Its early detainees were Chinese Americans, but after Pearl Harbor, many local Japanese American leaders such as faith leaders and businesspeople were "labeled potentially dangerous" and held there until they were sent to camps. The building was used for immigration and detention until 2004.

The group then visited King Street Station, where Japanese Americans had been herded onto trains and sent to camps and assembly centers in 1942. The conditions at these camps were harsh. Asaki's grandmother was incarcerated in Oregon when she was 14 years old, and Asaki eventually visited the camp when she participated in a Tule Lake Pilgrimage.

"When I went to Tule Lake for the first time, my grandma said, 'Make sure you bring water because the water there is really bad.'… She remembered that the water was undrinkable. The food wasn't edible," Asaki said.

Near the end of the tour, the procession stopped at Pike Place Market. This year's Day of Remembrance event was originally scheduled to take place at Pike Place Market, with the participation of the Pike Place Market Foundation. Prior to Japanese American incarceration, over 75% of the market's farmers were Japanese American, and the market has voiced its support in the past for the local Japanese American community. A mural entitled "Song of the Earth" at the entrance of the market recognizes the impact of Japanese Americans on its history, and how incarceration changed that forever.

Two weeks before the event, however, Pike Place Market Foundation backed out of hosting due to the event's "resistance" messaging. Tsuru for Solidarity, whose premise is to be the advocates the Japanese American community needed leading up to incarceration in 1942, and whose annual Day of Remembrance events have always included slogans like "Never Again is Now" and "Stop Repeating History" with a rally at the immigrant detention facility in Tacoma, needed to pivot event plans to hold the event in Chinatown-International District. On Feb. 13, Pike Place Market Foundation published an apology on its website.

In the face of recent vandalism of art honoring the Japanese American experience during WWII and the rescinded partnership leading up to this year's historic anniversary of Executive Order 9066, the local chapter of the organization continued its practice of action for immigrant communities today and in healing and restoration, as has been their work since its inception.

The tour ended at the original Starbucks building where Tsuru for Solidarity leader Mike Ishii shared some family history. The building was originally owned by an Irish immigrant couple, John and Addie Dunn, who adopted Ishii's paternal grandfather after he arrived in Washington from Japan. After Executive Order 9066 was invoked, the Dunns stood out as an example of allyship: They looked after Japanese American farms, paid mortgages and bills, and gave loans that they never collected. Ishii emphasized the importance of standing with the oppressed and being allies, reiterating a message that was woven throughout the day: Remembrance and resistance go hand in hand.