February 19, 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, an order requiring the internment of all Americans of Japanese ancestry. In Oregon, since 1979, this has been known as the Day of Remembrance, a day commemorating the Japanese American internment during World War II. Within the state, there was a detention site: the former site of the Pacific International Livestock Exposition, which, in 1942, had been the site of the Portland Assembly Center.
To ensure that this history is not forgotten, and that we as a nation learn from our past mistakes, the OSU Asian Pacific Cultural Center curated a display to commemorate the Japanese-American experience, specifically the Japanese-American students who were enrolled at OSU at the time.
To see photographs of the display, check out the:
Day of Remembrance 2017 Display Flickr Set
Display Information:
When: mid-February – March 2017
Where: Main Floor, OSU Valley Library, Display Case to the left of the Main Entrance
Who: Display curated by Ty Sokalski: Student Success Peer Facilitator for the APCC; Dr. Patti Sakurai: Ethnic Studies Professor and APCC Advisory Council Member; Dr. Sandy Tsuneyoshi: APCC Advisory Council Member.
More information and links:
- To see a list of resources within the OMA pertaining to the OSU Japanese American student experience, see the blog post: OSU’s Japanese American Students During WWII
- To view a 2013 exhibit on the topic, see the blog post: “The Fall of ’41: Students of Japanese Descent at Oregon State College”
- To listen to the stories of Oregonian Japanese Americans, check out the website Uprooted: Japanese American Farm Labor Camps during World War II
