During World War II, the United States forced its own citizens into concentration camps. Japanese Americans were subjected to forced internment in the name of national security.<\/p>\n
More than 60 years later, it remains a chapter of American history that is often overlooked.<\/p>\n
San Joaquin Valley Town Hall <\/p>\n
Who: Tom Ikeda and Daniel James Brown Tom Ikeda and Daniel James Brown hope people do not forget. They will speak Wednesday, Feb. 18, at the San Joaquin Valley Town Hall series on the theme \u201cResilience and Resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n As Ikeda sees it, the past in repeating itself with the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the things we hoped to avoid after World War II are happening again,\u201d Ikeda said. \u201cThat is one reason I want to come to Fresno \u2014 to speak out about what is happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n Preview of Town Hall Talk<\/p>\n Ikeda and Brown spoke with GV Wire about their upcoming talk and the Japanese American experience. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were removed from their homes and incarcerated in camps, including sites in Fresno at Pinedale and the Fresno Fairgrounds, known as \u201cassembly centers.\u201d<\/p>\n Ikeda said about 70% of those incarcerated were U.S. citizens, including infants.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conditions were very spartan,\u201d said Brown, an award-winning author whose books include Facing the Mountain and The Boys in the Boat. \u201cLife in the camps was extremely difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n Ikeda, founder of the history project Densho<\/a>, uses the term \u201cconcentration camps\u201d not to equate the experience with that of Jews and others in Nazi Germany, but as a matter of historical accuracy.<\/p>\n \u201cHistorically, these camps have existed around the world not because of what people did, but because of who they were,\u201d Ikeda said. \u201cWhat happened in the United States fits that definition of a concentration camp.\u201d<\/p>\n After Pearl Harbor<\/p>\n \u201cWe often say in the Japanese American community, \u2018never again is now.\u2019 \u201d \u2014 Thomas Ikeda<\/p>\n After the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Brown said the country experienced an understandable emotional reaction.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of what happened is that it became a kind of hysteria, where people lost their ability to distinguish between an American of Japanese descent and someone living in Japan,\u201d Brown said. \u201cPeople become blinded by their prejudices and preconceptions, and that is what happened here.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Central Valley, particularly within agricultural communities, some white neighbors helped care for Japanese Americans\u2019 land while they were interned.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some cases, people did step forward and do what I think we would all consider the right thing. There were many other people who did not. In fact, some took advantage of the situation, buying up or simply appropriating properties that had been abandoned,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
When: Wednesday, Feb. 18, 10:30 a.m.
Where: Saroyan Theatre, downtown Fresno
Tickets: Available online<\/a><\/p>\n