Wakasa Memorial Committee Holds 
Night Ceremony at Manzanar Pilgrimage

The tribute was held to remember two Nisei
incarcerees killed during the 1942 Manzanar Uprising.

A pilgrim pays their respects in a ceremony led by Rev. Duncan Ryūken Williams during the Manzanar Pilgrimage. The lantern is made of rattan and washi. It will travel to the Minidoka Pilgrimage in Idaho in July. (Photo: Watase Media Arts Center)

The Wakasa Memorial Committee held a night ceremony during the 56th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 26 to remember two Nisei incarcerees who were shot and killed during the Manzanar Uprising of Dec. 6, 1942. James Hiroshi Ito, 17, and Katsuji James Kanagawa, 21, died from gunshot wounds and at least nine others were wounded by U.S. military gunfire and tear gas during the uprising.

Detail of a diagram of the Manzanar police station area that shows the names and places where victims of the 1942 Manzanar uprising fell.
(Photo: Courtesy County of Inyo, Eastern California Museum and National Park Service)

The ceremony was held at the site where the deaths and injuries occurred. Small lanterns were placed where men fell, according to a hand-drawn map found in the Eastern California Museum five years ago. A tribute video to Ito and Kanagawa by artist Glenn Mitsui was projected on the Wakasa Spirit Stone lantern, a washi sculpture made by camp survivors and descendants.

Small lanterns were placed at dusk at the places where victims fell from tear gas and gunfire.   (Photo: Nancy Ukai)

Rev. Duncan Ryūken Williams led more than 70 pilgrims, including camp survivors, in the ceremonial offering of flowers, incense and prayers. Manzanar descendant Bruce Embrey, co-chair of the Manzanar Committee, spoke about Ito, who was a family friend.

For more on the Manzanar Pilgrimage, see related story here.

— Nancy Ukai

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