This event is free and open to the public. Coffee and cookies will be available at 10:00 a.m.
This talk tells the story of Japanese internment during World War II as seen through the eyes of a Japanese American family. It follows their passage from immigration in the 1890's through imprisonment during the war years, and documents how they rebuilt their lives thereafter. The presentation is richly illustrated with family and historic WWII photographs, many of the latter obtained from U.S. government archives.
Beyond describing the internment experiences of a single family, the talk focuses on the plight of the 120,000 Japanese-two thirds of them American citizens-- who were imprisoned, sometimes for years, by a Presidential order deemed by many then and now to be in violation of the United States Constitution.
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Our speaker, Margaret Yamamoto is a member of the family featured in the presentation and was incarcerated at the age of 2 months. Today she is co-president of the New England Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, a national human rights and educational organization. She also was chair of the national organization's Editorial Board and was an ex officio member of its national Board of Directors.
You might enjoy reading the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford which is about this issue.
