2014 Bay Area Day of Remembrance
– Bay Area Day of Remembrance 2014 –
Commemorating the World War II imprisonment of the Japanese American community
“NEVER AGAIN! INDEFINITE DETENTION – RENDITION – TORTURE”
Date: Saturday, February 22, 2014
TIME: 2 -4 PM
Location: Sundance Kabuki Cinemas (1881 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94115)
The program this year will include co-emcees by community activist Judi Nihei and Rev. Michael Yoshii of Buena Vista United Methodist Church, Alameda. Our keynote speaker, I am especially proud to announce, will be Wayne Merrill Collins. Mr. Collins is the son Wayne Mortimer Collins, who represented Fred Korematsu all the way to the Supreme Court, fought a 22-year battle with the Department of Justice to return U.S. citizenship to Japanese Americans who renounced their citizenship during World War II, and defended Iva Toguri D’Aquino against what was later revealed as the Department of Justice’s false charges of treason.
Our signature presentation, the Candle Lighting Ceremony, will be co-emceed by Aya Ino of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California and Haruka Roudebush of Nakayoshi Young Professionals and the San Francisco JACL, and will feature candle lighters from a diverse cross section of our community. We will also feature performances by a group of fifth graders from the Japanese Bilingual Bi cultural Program at Rosa Parks Elementary School, koto by Shirley Muramoto, traditional music from Okinawa and George Yoshida. As you can see, we are presenting a program that is both informative and entertaining.
The Day of Remembrance committee feel very strongly that we, as a community, must not let the memory of our World War II experience disappear into oblivion. It is imperative to keep that history alive in our community so that we can tell it in an honest and truthful way. The violations to the Constitution during that time were the most egregious in our country’s history. We must not forget and move forward with the message “Never Again!” to the mass incarceration of any group of people, based on race, religion or any other distinguishing characteristic, without charges and trials. We have become the keepers of this flame of justice.
To keep this flame alive and burning we need your help. In order to make this annual event more accessible to all ages and a diverse community (admission is free!) we are looking for donors who could help us raise $5,000, our operating budget, by Feb. 22, 2014.
This program is free and open to the public.