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The
symposium will feature scholars and community people examining
the history and experiences of
Chinese immigrants at Angel Island and Japanese Americans who
were interned in concentration camps
during World War II, as well as highlight efforts to research
and to reclaim these oft-neglected stories.
Admission
to the symposium is free.
For
more information please telephone 408-294-3138 or visit
www.jamsj.org.
The symposium
runs in conjunction with the Japanese American Museum
of San Jose's exhibition 1942: Luggage From Home To Camp
by visual artist Flo Oy Wong. Wong's installation explores what
six Japanese Americans of the San Jose area - Lola Tanaka Abe,
Elsie Mayeda Honda, David M. Sakai, Eiichi Edward Sakauye, Esau
Shimizu, and Misao Yamano Shiotsuka - carried to internment
camp during World War II. These six people were among the 120,000
Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed and incarcerated
during World War II. They were placed in temporary "assembly"centers
then desolate camps in the interior of the United States. The
exhibition is housed in a replica of a Tule Lake (in Northern
California) barrack, designed and created by Jimi Yamaichi,
JAMsj museum director and curator.
Between
1910 and 1940, an estimated 175,000 Chinese immigrants were
detained in the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco
Bay. Although hundreds of thousands of immigrants crossing the
Pacific Ocean from around the world came through Angel Island,
its greatest significance is tied to the story of Chinese immigrants
who were detained the longest and in greater numbers. Because
of the harsh enforcement of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
The average stay at Angel Island for most Chinese immigrants
was two to three weeks, but some were forced to remain on the
island for as long as two years while appealing adverse decisions
to higher courts in Washington, D. C.
The symposium
will consist of the following speakers who will discuss the
similarities between Chinese exclusion and Japanese internment
and its political implications today.
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- Dr.
Wendy Ng, Professor, Sociology, San Jose State University
- Dr.
Judy Yung, Professor, American Studies, University of
California, Santa Cruz
- Dale
Ching, a former Angel Island detainee
- Jimi
Yamaichi, a former Tule Lake incarceree
- Eiichi
Edward Sakauye, a former Heart Mountain incarceree
-
Dr. Steve Fugita, Professor, Social Psychology, Santa
Clara University, panel moderator.
- Connie
Young Yu, historian, symposium discussant
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The symposium
will also feature remarks by Congressman Mike Honda, Jerry Hiura,
a member of the California Arts Council, Diane Matsuda,
Director of the California Civil Liberties Public Education
Program, and Joe Yasutake, president of JAMsj. Flo Oy Wong
will also present a slide show of art about the Angel Island
detainee experience and the Japanese American internment experience.
1942: Luggage From Home To Camp catalogs and
Heart Mountain: A Photo Essay by Eiichi Edward Sakauye will
be available for purchase. At the conclusion of the symposium,
1942 project participants will sign catalogs.
An added
post attraction is a tour by Val DeLang, Director of Education
of the San Jose Museum of Art (SJMA), of Beyond
Manzanar, an interactive virtual reality installation
by Tamiko Thiel and Zara Houshmand that explores the way cultural
groups are demonized during times of crisis.
SJMA has
exhibited two previous shows dealing with the Japanese American
internment. The View from Within: Japanese American Art
from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945, on view from January
15 to April 10, 1994, offered an intimate picture of the internment
experience, directly communicated through the artistic responses
of the interned artists. An American Diary: Paintings
by Roger Shimomura, on display from October 15, 2000
to January 7, 2001, showed artworks inspired by translations
of the artist's grandmother's wartime diaries, which she kept
during the three years (1942 - 1945) she spent in Camp Minidoka,
Idaho.
The Japanese
American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) collects, preserves, and
disseminates the arts, culture, and history of Japanese Americans
(JAs) in Santa Clara County. Founded in 1987, JAMsj focuses
on educating the community about the Japanese American experience
before, during, and after World War II.
The Angel
Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) was founded
by a group of Asian Americans in 1983 to raise funds for the
completion of the barracks renovation plans. AIISFÕs goals also
include educational outreach and community activities to ensure
that the history and tragic experiences of Asian immigrants
at the Angel Island Immigration Station will not be forgotten.
AIISF is resolved that the Angel Island Immigration Station
should receive similar national recognition and enjoy the same
national significance as the Ellis Island Immigration Station,
off the coast of New York City. For more information visit:
www.aiisf.org
The Chinese
Historical Society of America (CHSA) is the oldest and largest
organization dedicated to the study, documentation, and dissemination
of Chinese American history. Founded in 1962, CHSA promotes
the contributions that Chinese Americans living in this country
have made to the United States of America. For more information
visit: www.chsa.org.
This symposium
is made possible in part by grants from the California Civil
Liberties Public Education Program, Applied Materials, Excellence
in the Arts, a program of the Arts Council Silicon Valley, and
the CALIFORNIA COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES as part of
its statewide California Stories Initiative. Additional sponsors
include the San Jose Mercury News, Union Bank, Yosh Uchida,
Stephen Nakashima, Duncan Iwagaki, and others.
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