Members of the Olympia, Puyallup Valley and Seattle Chapters of the JACL, as well as members of the Seattle Nisei Veterans Committee, gathered for a photo at the state capitol building along with Washington State Sen. Bob Hasegawa (standing, at right) and Washington State Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos (standing, at right) on Feb. 20. (Photo: Courtesy of Olympia JACL)
Members of the JACL Olympia chapter of the Pacific Northwest District and the Seattle Nisei Veterans Committee participate in a Day of Remembrance ceremony at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia on Feb. 20.
The ceremony commemorated the Japanese and Japanese Americans that were taken from their farms and homes on the West Coast due to fearful unfounded reprisals based on ancestry and forcibly incarcerated in American Concentration Camps during World War II.
In addition, Japanese American men enlisted in the U.S. Army and were assigned to the famed 442nd RCT, 100th Infantry Battalion that fought in Europe; liberation of the Dachau prison Camp; and the Military Intelligence Service that served as translators and interrogators in Okinawa.
“On this Day of Remembrance, we honor our friends and family that endured and survived in our past; to educate and show solidarity to our community in our current climate of uncertainty and not let harm come to our community members or the past to recur; and to protect and love our future generations,” said Olympia Chapter President Bob Nakamura.
