A Day of Remembrance – A Week of Action
Each February, Japanese American communities nationwide observe the Day of Remembrance, the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 which led to the mass incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans across the west coast during World War II.
Some survivors of this incarceration and their descendants fight mass incarceration today, because of their community’s experiences during that time. You’ll hear from Tsuru for Solidarity, an organization of Japanese American activists, and La Resistencia, a group advocating for immigrants detained today. Interviews are with Stan Shikuma, Co-chair of Tsuru for Solidarity’s children and family detention campaign and Maru Mora Villalpando, Founder of La Resistencia.
Producer: Yuko Kodama
Friday, February 16
9am
Press Conference
Federal Building 915 2nd Ave Seattle
Virtual Rally
Zoom bit.ly/3HWgwN4
Instagram Live @tsuruforsolidarity
Sunday, February 18
Program
1pm Washington State Fairgrounds’ Agriplex 5th St SW Puyallap
2:30pm Northwest Detention Center 1623 E J St Tacoma
Tuesday, February 20
10am
Press Conference
King County Airport Main Terminal 7277 Perimeter Rd S Seattle
ICE and Detention
Antonio Guerrero, whose name is changed to protect their identity, describes what it was like to be picked up by ICE and to live and work for roughly a dollar a day at the US ICE detention center in Tacoma.
Producer: Yuko Kodama
Photo: University of Washington
Day of Remembrance Remember and Resist Event 2/19/22
Saturday, February 19, 10:00 am–1:00 pm
At 10 am, meet at the Puyallup Fairgrounds (Blue Lot Parking, 311 10th Ave SE, Puyallup, WA 98372).
At 11 am, we will move to the Northwest Detention Center (1623 E J Street, Tacoma WA 98421) for a continuation of the program starting at 12 pm.
Weather permitting, there will be some outdoor programming. Masks and social distancing required.
February 19, 2022, will mark 80 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and mass incarceration of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast and beyond. Most Japanese Americans in the Seattle area spent their first few months in detention at the Puyallup Fairgrounds (“Camp Harmony”) until their transfer to the concentration camps at Minidoka, ID, and Tule Lake, CA. The trauma of family separation, child imprisonment, poor sanitation, bad food, inadequate health care, and uncertain futures persists—and continues today at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma.
Gathering in the same location where barracks once housed incarcerees, survivors, their families, and community members will share the history of Camp Harmony and personal experiences there, before rallying at NWDC to remember and resist the injustices of the past and present. The program will also include a live taiko drumming performance by Fuji Taiko and a special ceremony to remember Japanese American concentration camps and incarcerates.
For RSVP or information: info@seattlejacl.org
Notes: Dress warmly. There will be one porta-potty facility available on the Puyallup site. Feel free to
bring signs, tsuru and noisemakers for the Tacoma portion of the program!
KBCS Border Stories – Living Undocumented
How does being undocumented impact your life? Does it impact where you go shopping for groceries, where you rent your apartment, whether you drive or buy a car or have access to a cell phone? Dulce Garcia, Executive Director of Border Angels, speaks to how being undocumented shaped who she is today.
LGBTQ Immigration Detention in Washington State
As of January 28th, Washington’s Northwest Detention Center is intentionally housing LGBTQ detainees. Monserrat Padilla Co-Director of the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) describes the efforts to protect this population of immigrants.
Producer: Yuko Kodama
Photo: torbakhopper
The Northwest Detention Center and The City of Tacoma
Demonstrators demanding the shut down of the Northwest Detention Center disrupted a Tacoma City Council hearing on Tuesday. It was organized by La Resistencia and supported by more than a dozen other local organizations. KBCS’s Samuel Britt was there to give us a snapshot of why the protestors were there that afternoon.
Hunger Strike in Effect at Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center
The newest hunger strike at Tacoma’s immigration detention center started February, 2018. KBCS’s Yuko Kodama speaks with Maru Mora Villalpando, community organizer of Northwest Detention Center Resistance, about conditions inside the Northwest Detention Center, for its detainees.
A Family Torn Apart by Immigration Policy
According to Frontline, immigration detention facilities have held an average of 30,000 detainees per day since 2008. KBCS’s Jim Cantu spoke with Ashley Brown, a mother whose husband of ten years is being held in the Northwest Detention facility. She describes how her husband was detained by ICE agents as he stopped to buy breakfast on the way to work, and how his detention impacts her family.
Lawsuit Against the Northwest Detention Center
On September 20th, Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a lawsuit against the GEO Group, the second-largest private prison provider in the country, which operates the Northwest Detention Center. The state’s lawsuit asks the court to order the company to give up the profits netted from paying detainees up to one dollar a day for their work in the detention center.
KBCS’s Yuko Kodama caught Maru Mora Villalpando, community organizer of Northwest Detention Center Resistance, on the phone to talk about the conditions regarding work inside the Northwest Detention Center, for its detainees.
