This illustrated lecture tells the story of the Japanese incarceration during World War II as seen through the eyes of a Japanese American family. It follows their passage from immigration in the1890s through their imprisonment during the war years and documents how they rebuilt their lives thereafter. The 45-minute PowerPoint presentation is richly illustrated with more than 100 family and historic WWII photographs, many of the latter obtained from U.S. government archives.
Beyond describing the experiences of a single family, the talk focuses on the plight of the 120,000 Japanese — two thirds of them American citizens — who were imprisoned, sometimes for years, by a Presidential order deemed by many then and now to be in violation of the United States Constitution. For audiences not familiar with the details of the WWII Japanese incarceration, this talk will serve as a primer on one of America’s darker historic moments as well as its efforts in later years to compensate those who suffered through it.
The speaker, Margaret Yamamoto, is a member of the family featured in the presentation and was incarcerated at the age of two months. She has addressed many audiences on this subject, providing an historical summary of its events and relating their consequences to the personal experiences of her family as it coped with incarceration and subsequent return to a normal life.
Margie is retired after more than 40 years in the communications and public relations fields, most recently including 18 years at WGBH, Boston’s public broadcasting station. Today she is co-president of the New England Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, a national human rights and educational organization.
Register for the Webinar Here.
Cosponsored by the Schiller Shoreline Institute for Lifelong Learning (SSILL). Registration is required to receive the link to join the webinar.