A panel of experts on the history of Japanese internment camps during World War II, including three former prisoners, will speak at Light Hall auditorium on Monday, November 16 at 7:00 p.m.
Free to the public, the presentation will feature photographic slides and video clips, live readings from a diary kept by Lordsburg prisoners, and a Q and A discussion.
Presenters include Sam Mihara, former child prisoner of a Wyoming prison camp; Dr. Nikki Nojima Louis, former child prisoner of Minidoka camp and daughter of a prisoner in two New Mexico camps; Herbert Tsuchiya, prisoner of the Minidoka camp; and Victor Yamada, New Mexico Japanese American Citizens League board member.
The event will cover the internment of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, and the American government’s removal of these people from their homes into prison camps in remote parts of the United States.
The majority of the prisoners were first generation immigrant men aged over 50 who had lived in the United States for several years and had fathered American-born children.
Three of the camps were located in New Mexico including Santa Fe, Fort Stanton and Lordsburg.
The event is hosted by WNMU professor John Lavalle and the Department of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies. It is sponsored by the New Mexico Japanese American Citizens League and funded by the New Mexico Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.