Day of Remembrance 2024
Today we recognize Day of Remembrance, where on this day 82 years ago, February 19th, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 led to the mass incarceration of 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans from the West Coast and Hawai’i and eventually Japanese Canadians and Japanese Latin Americans in an act of “continental solidarity” in waging the war against Imperial Japan.
As we reflect on this dark time in our nation’s history, we must remember that history can repeat itself if we fail to remember and teach it. We remember the bravery of the members of the 442nd, 100th, and MIS who served in the name of freedoms that many of them and their families were being denied at the homefront. The principled stands taken by those who resisted and all who protested the incarceration. But we especially remember the loss, the pain, and the trauma felt by our community.
We take the opportunity to reflect on this dark chapter in our nation’s history. And yet we recognize that this is a story repeated throughout our history, both preceding the war and again and again in the years since. Today we see the resurgence of Alien Land Law legislation and increasing animus towards those of Chinese ancestry due to rising tensions with China. JACL will continue to engage on these issues with the knowledge and background of what happened to our community, to seek to prevent making the same mistakes again.