Executive Order 9066 Weekend of Remembrance:
Never Again is Now
Image credit: Erin Shigaki installed this wheat paste mural in Seattle’s historic Nihonmachi in honor of the 2019 Day of Remembrance.
Photo courtesy of Eugene Tagawa & Densho.
Every year, St. Peter’s commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and mass incarceration of Japanese Americans on the West Coast in February 1942. St. Peter’s closed for the duration of the internment as its members were incarcerated in desolate camps miles from home, along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans.
You can listen to some of St. Peter’s stories of internment here.
This year, St. Peter’s invites the diocese and larger community into a weekend of listening, reflection, and conversation dedicated to the throughline of this particular history, the realities of our sociopolitical present, and invitations of resistance and solidarity in our shared future.
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Day of Remembrance & Remembrance Gallery
Saturday, February 8th at the Washington State Fairgrounds. Time TBD.
St. Peter’s and the Circles of Color will pilgrimage down to Puyallup to participate in the annual Day of Remembrance event put on by local chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Tsuru for Solidarity, Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee and other local groups. Most Japanese Americans in the Seattle area spent their first few months in detention at the Puyallup Assembly Center, where the Washington State Fairgrounds stand today. The Remembrance Gallery will also be open. Carpools will be available, plus lunch and conversation after the event. More details to come!
image: Behind Barbed Wire. Courtesy of the Tokuda Family Collection, Densho
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St. Peter’s Commemoration Service, Lunch, & History Tour
Sunday, February 9th at 10:30 a.m.
Join St. Peter’s for its annual commemoration service to sit in the tension of past, present, and future as Christ’s body and resisters of Empire. This service will weave history, music, dance, art, and shared storytelling from members and friends of St. Peter’s. Japanese lunch and conversation will follow at 12:30 pm, along with a parish history tour facilitated by members of St. Peter’s historic families.
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Other Community Events
February 19, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Bellevue Library
KCLS Bellevue Library and City of Bellevue will hold an opening reception for “Emerging Radiance,” the farmhouse and AR installation that brings to life Nikkei farmer stories.
The event will include an artists’ talk, and recognition of elders and descendants of Bellevue Nikkei farmers.
Check back later in January for additional event listings.
image: View of Manzanar, a Japanese Internment Camp located in Independence, California. Dorothea Lange