2020 Day of Remembrance for Alameda’s JapantownNEW

Rhythmix Cultural Works honors the memory of Alameda’s lost Japantown with a commemorative celebration of the Day of Remembrance. The annual Day of Remembrance, February 19, 1942, commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which led to the forced removal and incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, who had to abandon their jobs, their homes, and lives, to be sent to one of ten internment camps scattered in desolate, remote regions of the country. No Japanese Americans were ever charged, much less convicted, of espionage or sabotage against the United States. Yet they were targeted, rounded up, and imprisoned for years, simply for having the “face of the enemy.” Executive Order 9066 is responsible for the disappearance of a once thriving Alameda Japantown. The words and stories of the Japanese in Alameda remind us of an extreme act of racial targeting that took place only 78 years ago.

6-9:00 - K Gallery opening of “the writing is on the wall”
‘The writing is on the wall’ is an indication of imminent danger. K Gallery’s exhibit includes: Japanese calligraphy and carbon copies of typewritten letters from WWII internment camps, artist Najib Joe Hakim’s photographs of Palestinian and Lebanese walls and Salma Arastu’s paintings that are inspired by the scripture of the Quran.

7:00-7:30 - In the Rhythmix Theater
Maze Daiko and Kallan Nishimoto perform: Heart of the Mountain with Poems

Excerpts from the documentary Honoring Alameda’s Japanese Americans introduced by Reverend Michael Yoshii of Buena Vista United Methodist Church, Alameda.

Image Translation:
Heart Mountain loftily rising eight thousand feet,
With ten thousand fellow countrymen under its spreading wings.
Poetic imaginings blotted out by a sudden yellow sandstorm
But sitting quietly with eyes closed, memories of Mt Fuji. - Kakukaisei

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Day of Remembrance for Alameda’s Japantown