Remember and Resist 2023
February 19, 2023 was the 81st anniversary of Executive order 9066. It ordered the forced removal and incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese descent from throughout the west coast.
In commemoration, an event was held at the Washington State Fair Events Center in Puyallup, Washington. The organizers were Minidoka Pilgrimage, JACL Seattle Chapter, JACL Puyallup Valley Chapter, La Resistencia and Tsuru for Solidarity.
Over 7,000 people were incarcerated in make-shift shelters and animal stalls on the fairgrounds in 1942 for about five months until the incarceration sites were completed.
The event also included a gathering at Tacoma’s Northwest detention center to support the detainees inside and call for an end to immigrant detention and deportations.
Listen in on the voices and sounds from Remember and Resist 2023.
Producer: Yuko Kodama
Photos: Widder Sessions
Expulsion of Tacoma’s Chinese Residents in 1885
On Saturday, Hundreds of people walked from Tacoma’s Tollefson Plaza to the Chinese Reconciliation Park for the annual Walk for Reconciliation Against Racism. The event was to observe the day about 200 Chinese residents in the Tacoma area were forcibly removed in 1885. KBCS’s Yuko Kodama has this story.
Lotus Perry, Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation Board Member and Volunteer
Rinrada Hui and father, Cho Ryong Hui
Rinrada Hui
Mak Fai Kung Fu Lion Dancers
Food prepared for walkers at the end of the walk
Chinese Reconciliation Park
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!
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.
Elections 2017 – Tacoma Mayoral Race
This week, KBCS continues it coverage of the 2017 Washington State General Election. We now turn to the Tacoma Mayoral elections with candidates Victoria Woddards and Jim Merritt. KBCS’s Gol Hoghooghi interviewed each of the candidates individually for KBCS at their respective campaign headquarters.
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.
Gia’s Bike & Bus Commute
Housing affordability is an ongoing issue in Seattle. For bike and bus commuter, Gia Mugford, housing prices are one part of the equation. For Gia congestion, parking availability and constant crowds on Capitol Hill were other factors that led her to make a move. Gia left Seattle and moved to Tacoma where she’s happy with her new home and her bike and bus commute. Reporter Whitney Henry-Lester has Gia’s dispatch.
Homeless but not Hopeless; Riding the Bus to a Better Future
The bus is a means to a better life for Al Brown. Brown is homeless but not hopeless. He has been homeless for years but that has not determined his outlook on life. Brown is a college student who depends on the bus to move him towards a better future. Whitney Henry-Lester brings us Al’s dispatch alongside Seattle PI photographer, Grant Hindsley. Grant spent the day with Al and captured his commute in photos.
Click here for more What’s the Flux?: Commuter Dispatch stories.
Art for Social Change
Some people might think of art as being easy-on-the-eye and created by professional artists to show off at fancy places. Beverly Naidus, a professional in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma, wants to make art accessible to anyone. She doesn’t stop there though – she wants art to spur and encourage social change.
Guests:
Professor Beverly Naidus the author of “Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame”.
Rachel Ervin is a writer and just graduated from UW Tacoma in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, with an emphasis in Arts, Media and Culture.
Jenn Soikowski is a current student at UW Tacoma with a double emphasis. One in Ethnic, Gender and Labor Studies and the other in Arts, Media and Culture, with an emphasis in Visual Art.
Listen to the interview: KBCS_M+I_20130620_Art for Social Change
