Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/28/2018
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
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Location
Light Hall Auditorium
1000 W. College Avenue
- Silver City, NM
The Japanese American Citizens League Players dramatize authentic stories of the Nisei, American-born sons and daughters of Japanese immigrants who grew up during the Great Depression, reached maturity during WW II, and served their country in a variety of ways: as soldiers, protesters and survivors of a mass incarceration by their government.
• WHAT: An engaging “Living History” presentation by the JACL Players on the experiences of Japanese Americans during WWII
• WHEN: 1-3 p.m. ~ Saturday, April 28, 2018
• WHERE: Light Hall Auditorium
• SPONSORED BY: WNMU History Program (Department of Social Sciences & Cultural Sciences)
Funded by the New Mexico Humanities Council
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
“NISEI, The Greatest Generation” presents authentic stories of the American-born sons and daughters of Japanese immigrants who grew up during the Great Depression, reached maturity during WW II, and served their country in a variety of ways – as soldiers, protesters of internment, and survivors of a mass incarceration by their government.
I. SOLDIERS: GO FOR BROKE ~ Japanese-Americans who tried to volunteer for the military at the beginning of WW II were turned away (“We don’t want Japs”), but as the need for troops increased, an all-Japanese-American fighting unit was created, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Infantry Battalion—the most highly decorated unit for its size in military history, with one of the highest casualty rates.
II. PROTESTERS ~ In 1942, three young Japanese-American men, Min Yasui of Oregon, Gordon Hirabayashi of Washington, and Fred Korematsu of California, were jailed for civil disobedience. Their test cases are now landmarks of constitutional law. Other forms of protest by Japanese Americans were enacted by the so-called “No-No Boys.”
III. PRISONERS ~ Approximately 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were unlawfully removed from their homes on the West Coast and incarcerated in 10 War Relocation Authority “family” camps. In New Mexico, Department of Justice and U.S. Army controlled “enemy alien” camps imprisoned Japanese men who had lived in the U.S. for years, and had fathered American children, but were denied citizenship due to Asian
More information: Scott Fritz, Ph.D., Scott.Fritz@wnmu.edu