Hello AACP Newsletter Readers.
Happy Lunar New Year! Ramadan Mubarak to you and your family! Happy Holi!
Wow, what a year so far. I wish the joyful greetings made above could truly bring some happiness to you all in the face of all the news around us.
Anyway, I have to keep this editor’s message short. February is a shorter month and I’ve just finish going to the fourth event since we last sent you a newsletter. For you long time readers, you’ll know what I mean when I say that I am working on Hawaii time (not even sure if I can get it out before midnight Hawaii time).
For our article this month, I found a 1973 article written by Edison Uno (who was one of the founders of our organization), for the Japanese American Citizens League's (JACL) newspaper, the Pacific Citizen.
I never got to meeting Edison, but from what I’ve heard about him and what I’ve read of his writings, remembrance was very important to him. In this article he makes the case for remembering the unjust signing of Executive Order 9066. Edison's article came out five years before the first Day of Remembrance event was held. Please read this article.
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For our featured books this month, we’ve included children’s books for Ramadan and Holi, Japanese American books about the Internment, and a few general literature books to round it out.
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Thank you Edison. It’s great to have your help with this newsletter. I wish you were still alive to be helping us write our newsletter. I would’ve loved to hear what you would have thought of all the things happening around us. I may call upon some more of your old articles for future newsletter. Readers, let me know what you think.
Thank you to our editors.
Please everyone, take care.
By Leonard Chan and Edison Uno
Introduction to the Following Article
Recently, we participated in the 46th Annual San Jose Day of Remembrance (DOR) event.
When I describe this commemorative day to people that may be unfamiliar with Japanese American history, it usually includes a quick explanation of February 19th as being the day that President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 (the order that resulted in the incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese descent into American concentration camps during World War II).
In actuality, the first DOR was really created as part of the Redress Movement (a movement to get restitution for the incarcerees). The Densho Encyclopedia has an interesting article on the Day of Remembrance and credits playwright Frank Chin with coming up with the idea in hopes of revitalizing the redress movement.
The first commemoration was held in Seattle on November 25, 1978. Soon after and ever since, other communities such as Portland, San Francisco, and San Jose have also held their own DOR events on or near February 19 to coincide with the anniversary date of the signing of Executive Order 9066.
Edison Uno, the person that wrote the following article is often credited with being one of the first people to push for reparations for those that were so unjustly incarcerated. When I was doing some research on Edison Uno’s articles written for the Japanese American Citizens League’s newspaper, the Pacific Citizen, I found the following column in their November 23, 1973, edition of their paper.
Although I was knowledgeable of Edison’s early role in the redress movement, this article shows that he was also one of the first to point out that February 19th should be a commemorative day of remembrance.
Author Frank Abe, who was one of the organizers for the 1978 event in Seattle, has informed me that he was unaware of Edison’s article and could not say for certain if the article had any connection with the actual creation of the first DOR event.
Even though Edison Uno did not live long enough to have directly participated in any DOR events, there is no doubt that his spirit and views live on in them.
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