On this edition of Your Call, we continue our series on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.
This Monday marked 82 years since President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which empowered the Secretary of War and the military to remove people of Japanese ancestry from their homes and relocate them to concentration camps scattered across the country. The order led to the incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans between 1942-1946.
Eight decades later, descendants of those who were incarcerated are invoking their legacy to call for human rights for Palestinians and an end to the US-backed Israeli assault on Gaza.
Guests:
Rev. Michael Yoshii, former pastor of the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, California, and co-chair of Friends of Wadi Foquin
Maggie Tokuda-Hall, author of Also an Octopus, The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea, Squad, and Love in the Library
Resources:
Densho, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall:Justifying the Unjustifiable: Why Japanese Americans Must Stand with Palestine
San Francisco Chronicle: Annual S.F. Day of Remembrance event shifts focus to Palestinians’ displacement
The Seattle Times: On Remembrance Day, call for end to immigrant detention
