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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