Japanese Day of Remembrance to Express Solidarity with Muslim Americans
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali



Samina Faheem Sundas

The American Muslim Voice Executive Director, Samina Faheem Sundas, will join the candle lighters at the Japanese Day of Remembering candle vigil in San Francisco on February 20 to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The annual Candle Lighting Ceremony has been the heart and soul of the Day of Remembrance commemoration in the Bay Area. Eleven individuals are selected by the San Francisco Bay Area Day of Remembrance Consortium as honored candle lighters for their inspiring work in education, social justice or advocacy, helping to make the Japanese American internment experience and its lessons a critical part of the American consciousness, particularly in the post 9/11 period. Past years’ candle lighters have included Rev.

Cecil Williams, Fred Korematsu, and Alberta Lee, daughter and advocate of Wen Ho Lee. Since 1979, the Bay Area Japanese American community has commemorated February 19 as the Day of Remembrance, which marks the day in 1942 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which led to the incarceration of over 120,000 persons of Japanese origin in American concentration camps. Over the years, the Day of Remembrance has come to represent a special time for the Japanese American community and others to honor past internees, remember this history and educate the public so that it does not recur for any other community. “In the post 9/11 era, our Day of Remembrance has also become a time to express our solidarity with communities now suffering civil liberties violations similar to what Japanese Americans experienced over 60 years ago,” a Consortium statement said.

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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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