DELEGATION TO DELIVER AWRIC REPORT
& VIDEO TO U.S. CONGRESS
Assembly on Wartime Relocation & Internment of Civilians
A newly published report, HERE IN AMERICA?
Immigrants as "The Enemy" During WWII and Today, will
be presented to the U.S. Congress next week by representatives of
the Assembly on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
(AWRIC). The report documents a public event held last year and
provides background information about the WWII Enemy Alien
Program and its relevance for all Americans today. The Assembly
featured testimonies of Japanese, German, Italian and Latin
American families affected by World War II policies and of Arab,
Muslim and South Asian Americans caught up in the "war on
terror" since 9/11. It was an emotional, powerful two days
of stories, some told publicly for the first time. Though
separated by sixty years, the stories shared many similar
elements: immigrants arrested and detained without charges,
trials or access to attorneys, interned for years or deported
into war zones.
A delegation of nine AWRIC participants and supporters will
deliver the report to Congress in Washington, DC, during the week
of May 15, 2006. The delegates will meet with Congress members of
both parties to urge them to use this important historical
information when considering current and future legislation that
would fund fact-finding investigations and public education about
the WWII period.
Delegates are Grace Shimizu, Director of the Japanese Peruvian
Oral History Project (JPOHP); Karen Ebel, daughter of a German
internee; film-maker Judith Ehrlich-Bertoni; former Japanese
Peruvian internees Art Shibayama, Libia Yamamoto and Blanca
Katsura; graphic designer Noriko Rei Fukumori, former Japanese
American internee Ruth Ichinaga; and Samina Faheem Sundas,
Executive Director of American Muslim Voice.
The delegates will also meet with and give the report to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a body of the
Organization of American States, as it weighs a petition from
Japanese Peruvians who were forcibly taken from Peru and interned
at Crystal City, Texas.
The Assembly was held April 8-9, 2005, at Hastings College of the
Law in San Francisco. For the first time, all of the ethnic
groups labeled enemy aliens when their countries of
origin entered into war with the United States came together to
share their experiences and hopes that such human rights abuses
not be repeated.
Over a two-day period, eight panels of witnesses presented
extraordinary testimony of families kidnapped from their homes in
Latin America and used in hostage exchanges for Americans trapped
in Germany or Japan; of U.S.-born children interned with their
immigrant parents, their assets frozen or seized and never
recovered.
"Most Americans still dont know these things happened,"
said Grace Shimizu. "Soon there will be no one left alive
who remembers the events first-hand. We wanted to provide a forum
to tell and document these stories so they can become part of the
mainstream historical narrative."
The report combines transcribed testimony of AWRIC participants
and narrative text taken from "The Enemy Alien Files: Hidden
Stories of WWII," a traveling exhibit developed in 2001. The
handsomely designed 84-page book includes photos from the Exhibit
and of many Assembly witnesses. A 15-minute video of Assembly
highlights is also available.
To order the report or video, contact the National Japanese
American Historical Society at (415) 921-5007 or njahs@njahs.org
. For information and updates on the topics discussed at the
Assembly, visit www.campaignforjusticejla.org .
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