Some 4,555 men of Japanese ancestry
were incarcerated near Santa Fe during World War II.
A group of JACLers traveled by coach bus from the Hotel Albuquerque to the Santa Fe Internment Camp Remembrance Site in Santa Fe, N.M., as part of the national convention’s final-day agenda offerings on July 20.
A close-up of the memorial stone (Photo: Nancy Ukai)
Following a Santa Fe Camp presentation by Nancy Bartlit in the early morning, the group departed for the remembrance site that marks the location where some 4,555 men of Japanese ancestry — among them, resident religious leaders, businessmen, teachers, fishermen and farmers — were forcibly incarcerated in the Department of Justice internment camp from March 1942-April 1946.
A stone monument now stands at the top of the hill at the Frank S. Ortiz dog park in the Casa Solana neighborhood to memorialize the site; it was dedicated on April 20, 2002, and features a plaque that describes the historical significance of the site and the injustice Japanese Americans endured there during WWII.
The trip was organized by the New Mexico chapter’s Victor Yamada and Nikki Nojima Louis and featured 10 descendants of Santa Fe incarcerees who spoke to the group about their family’s experience there. Pilgrims were then invited to lay flowers on the stone.
JACLers at the Santa Fe Internment Camp Remembrance Site (Photo: Nancy Ukai)
As part of the convention’s programming, New Mexico chapter members presented several workshops detailing the history of Japanese Americans in the “Land of Enchantment,” including a screening of the documentary short “Community in Conflict” by director Claudia Katayanagi, which documents the challenges community leaders, historians and Japanese Americans faced when trying to erect the memorial stone; Louis served as the film’s co-producer.
— P.C. Staff
